Hello!
I just started yet another project, can you guess what it will be?
Thanks for looking and have a nice day!
Paweł
Takom M247 Sergeant York?
You got this one right, Gino! How did you know?
He knows everything!
Bill
M48 hull but not an M48, gotta be a SGT York.
Heat deflector along the rear of the hull. York had funky looking rear end compared to the M48A5 from which it was derived.
Rob, Gino, Bill - thanks a lot for your comments! I would actually feel bad if I didn’t have you on my thread, especially one like that!
Rob - I didn’t put the back on for the photos, but I’m working on it right now. I found it fascinating
So did any one of you got a chance to have a contact with Sgt. York when it was tested back then? Or maybe as a target at the range?
Thanks again and have a nice day!
Paweł
I have never seen an actual one. They were before my time. I haven’t run across any as range targets either.
The York was cancelled when I was still in college (1985).
One time when I was a part of Readiness Group Redstone, I had to do an evaluation of a Guard unit up north (Michigan or Minnesota). The fort had a military museum and there was a York on display.
That’s the closest I’ve ever been to one. It was before I had a digital camera and I didn’t take a camera with me. So, no pictures.
Redstone did have one of the Bradley Linebackers there when I was an instructor for the Ordnance Muntions and Missile Maintenance Center and School.
Mobile ground based anti-aircraft weaponry have always seemed to be the red headed stepchild of the US Army.
Gino, Rob - thanks a lot for your comments!
I’m movin’ on with the build. I’m tackling the “working” torsion bar suspension. Takom put a lot of work into it, but it’s still pretty hard to get it right. What I did was to file the torsion bar ends slightly round (the ones that should be glued on the hull centerline), and the I glued them with sprue goo. I have also made a special tool/jig:
By the way my tool is 12mm high. All the documents say the ground clearance of an M48 should be 16 inches.
I have put the road wheels on their arms and put my model on my jig. I have left it like this for about 50 hours, to let the solvent evaporate completely:
Now the model sits nicely and evenly and I can move on with the assembly and detailling the hull.
Thanks for looking and have a nice day
Paweł
Its coming along nicely. Good method for setting the height of the hull.
Nice idea Pawel. It’s coming along very well.
Most excellent little jig there! I guess it would be worth subtracting the thickness of the tread from the clearance, but no big deal.
Bill
Very cool Pawel, the jig is really clever idea to keep things straight.
There’s a Sgt York at a local musuem, I’ve got photos but I’m not sure where they got to.
Hello everybody!
Thanks a lot for your comments! I’m glad you like my jig idea.
Bill - the height of the jig is not the actual ground clearance, as the bottoms of the torsion bar bearing tubes - that rest on the jig - are somewhat higher than the lowest point on the hull. And you are right, the tracks are pretty thick when you measure them.
As for the tracks - I managed to assemble them, that was a little lika a meditation. There are six parts for every link, and the instructions list 78 links per side. Luckily the tracks are made very nicely, with parts needing only minimal cleanup. The secret to keeping them movable it to use only minimal amount of glue. I only put glue to the pins joining the link halves, using a small paintbrush, and I managed to keep the track fully articulated. These tracks use similar system to the Bronco tracks, but I have found the Takom tracks to be much easier and enjoyable to build than the Bronco tracks.
And so after dry fitting them - everything is still removable for painting - it looks like this:
On the rear hull there’s some nice detail, I was especially impressed with the casting of those really thin lifting rings. I had to fill and sand some joints here and added some welds in process:
I have also added some more welds on the underside of the rear hull:
Now I’ll probably paint the tracks… Thanks for looking and have a nice day
Paweł
Looking good. Takom did as really nice job capturing the new rear area on the hull. Tamiya totally screwed it up on their old dog of a kit. Tracks looks good too.
I may have to get one of these. I had been on the fence about it, but am leaning toward getting one now.
I agree, the Takom kit looks great! Keep up the good work.
To be fair, times were different in the 1970s when the kit came out; models were motorized, they used an empty tank (probably one from Vietnam) as a guide, and the only other M48 in 1/35 scale was the ancient Monogram model.
And compared to the Dragon kit, their’s isn’t forty years better than the old Tamiya kit.
That Takom kit looks like a winner though.
Yep, 100% understand that–it’s a bit of a “paper Tiger” for having the sort of Service History as an MBT70 in its way.
That Takom kit, though, is swaying my feelings. As are temptations to a “fantasy” MERDEC paint scheme. Or, perhaps a Red Dawn 2.0ß. Or, just maybe the Army’s experimental “digital” camo of the era, as those surfaces would be condusive to the task.
The temptations are endless.
Looks great Pawel, nice work!
Though those track links, six parts per link!?!?! Get me a straitjacket and a rubber room!
Hello everybody!
Thanks a lot for your comments!
Gino - I believe my stance towards this kit comes through - I heartly recommend this kit, it’s engineered very nicely and good value for the money.
Rob - that Tamiya M48A3 was a model of the year in the eighties, but the times have changed…
Cap’n - although it didn’t really enter service, they have built about fifty of them so it’s not all paper, it’s definitely an iron tank! Like I wrote I just can’t pass up the chance to paint this one MERDC.
Gamera - I know it sounds a little crazy, and I was also a little afraid of those tracks after my experience with the Broncos, but it’s not that bad, the jig they give you, minimum cleanup required on the parts and the way they go together all make those tracks very buildable.
And I’m movin’ on with the build. I have completed the rear hull, installed the first kit-supplied PE part and started assemblying the rather busy fenders. Here’s how it all looks like now:
I hope soon to be done with the hull and to move on to the gun mount. Thanks for looking and have a nice day!
Paweł