Nice scalloped turret finish.
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Thanks guys for looking in and your your kind comments.
@Grouser, yes Eduard does make a PE set for this kit that does include parts for the fender turnbuckle braces. Along with other little detail bits.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/eduard-35718-m-47-patton–119675
@vettejack, thanks for those photos! They help a lot for the stage I’m at right now.
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Great pics. Never realized how rough those turrets looked.
Of the hundreds of M47 turret photos out there, the conclusion is no two turrets are the same.
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Yeah that’s definitely true !
Yesterday I added on the early style grab rails on the turret sides using parts from my spares bin.
Now I just need to add the rod frame type guards on the commander’s and gunner’s sights and the backdating of the turret will be completed. Next up, cast armor texture.
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Great job Carlos
Looking very good indeed; keep at it - all useful stuff for those who have yet to build one.
Don’t forget those pesky little trunnion “dimples” up by the main gun, immediately after the mantlet cover retainers. Some are circular, some are oblong. The 2nd and 3rd photos show both. You’re showing great detailing!
Thanks for pointing those out. I would have missed that…
did this version not have the rain channels running down the sides of the turret?
The chicken or the egg: the M47’s, with the rain gutters/channels, were maybe applied by the Germans, then sold to the Italians, who in turn, could have adopted and added the gutters to finish out their fleet, or maybe the Italians having been the originators of the gutters to start with. Even with the photos, the rain gutters were not uniformly applied. When the Italians updated their tanks to more modern vehicles (Leopard), they then sold off their inventory of M47’s over the years to other countries…with some, notably, to Somalia (perhaps a hundred or so), and most (if not all) sold, had the rain gutter. I can’t even be sure if all the Italian M47’s sold had ALL their hull machine guns removed. My Somalia M47 shows the blanking plate where the hull machine gun would have been seen otherwise. Yet another unique feature the Italians modified, was to remove the compensating idler wheel and idler arm, which would normally be seen between the last road wheel and the track drive sprocket, and simply applied a blanking plate to cover the hole. As far as I know, only Italian modified M47’s had the idler wheel removed…but the number is unknown, or if all of them were modified in such a way. All my photos of Somalia M47’s, show the idler removed. Another feature not made obvious, is a data plate (assuming the companies were OTO Melara in La Spezia, Officine Marconi/MEzzi, or Astra) that is applied directly below the lower tow cable latch on the rear glacis plate, which indicates an Italian modified M47. Also understand that not all M47’s have the gutters/channels. Other folks, please chime in with your information, it would be most welcomed.
Note small rectangular data plate below lower tow cable latch.
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French, Portoguese and South Korean tanks did not have the rain channels.
A great build thus far. 
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No. I have yet to find a photo of any US Army M47s with the rain channels. At least none on active duty in Europe. These were replaced in tank battalions fairly quickly by M48s, so most refinements that came along were used elsewhere.
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Dimples added using tube styrene
And sanded down
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Yep…that’s the way I did it. I made both circular and oblong. Sanded them until they were barely noticeable. Nicely done!
Have you thought about replacing the grill door handles and lifting rings?
I did think about that briefly, but decided against that. The open grilles will all be posed in the open position anyways, so the handles those won’t really be visible except from a below angle.
One more update- I finished adding the cast armor texture a bit more rapidly than I thought that I would using Mr Surfacer and a Microbrush.
and a couple close ups
it should look good under a coat of paint…
This will be my last update on this until next week. Have plans for the weekend, so I won’t get any bench time.
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Very nice build taking place Stick, very informative too.