1:72 M48A3 Vietnam DONE!

[Pawel]

Hello everybody!

It’s been a long time since I first thought about building this, but now the time has come and here we go. First, let’s see the goodies-show:

And now the dark secret - in the beginning of the nineties I once took like two hours to slap together an M48A2C from Esci. All this time I kept that model, let’s call it “Ole Glue”:

Well I decided to take parts from “Ole Glue” and incorporate them in this model, to give “Ole Glue” new life. Let’s see how this will turn out.

So first I started by cleaning up the historic wreck and selecting parts that are usable. And then I went on to put suspension parts from the Revell model on the old Esci Hull. Now the Italeri model is an Esci rebox and its main weekness is the terrible suspension, or more specifically one-part road wheels that don’t look good any… Now the Revell M60 has nice two-part road wheels that fit, and that’s what I’m going to use here.

I also shaved the molded-on half-wheels and replaced them with correct lift rings made of wire. Now the lower hull looks like this:

I also installed the sockets for the additional return rollers, as most of the M48A3’s had five rollers/side. This is a slight problem, as the Revell kit only has six, although very nice, return rollers. Now I have to get four return rollers from somewhere!

Thanks for reading, hope you like it, I look forward to your comments and have a nice day

Paweł

[TD4438]

That M48 builds up real nice.You will enjoy it.

[Pawel]

Hello!

Yeah, I know I will! And the cool thing, I didn’t even have to wait five minutes for my first comment, cool! Thanks a lot TD4438 and please stay tuned!

Paweł

[Rob_Gronovius]

Are you going to take the old Esci kit, the Italeri reissue and the Revell kit to create one model? Sounds like quite a project. Good luck with it.

[madmike]

Will be following this build!

[Pawel]

madmike - thanks for the comment, please stay tuned!

Rob - as you know the Esci and Italeri kits are actually the same thing, so mating “Old Glue”'s lower hull to the Italeri rest is no big deal. Fitting the Revell suspension is a little more tricky, but it looks like I have at least half of the hard part done by now. I need to adjust the sprockets and find a source for the missing four return rollers yet. Please stay tuned, I need you to tell me what I’m building wrong, when it happens! Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

[Rob_Gronovius]

Yes, I know they are the same kit, just wondering why you were going to mate the new stuff to the old lower hull instead of starting out with the new Italeri hull. Actually, both the old Esci kit and newer Revell M60A1/A3 kits are both pretty good models. The Esci kit holds up especially well, but it is good to see one get decked out.

[Pawel]

I only use the lower hull for sentimental reasons, otherwise it doesn’t make any sense… The Revell M60 model is very cool, with correct road wheels and very crisp detail. One thing I don’t like about it is the tracks. Not only are they octagon style (no problem here if you want to show a later machine, although road wheels are steel), the biggest problem with them is that the track guide teeth are positioned in the middle of each link, instead of between links.

Infact the M60 is so nice, I started thinking about building a CEV in 1:72 - that would be something, wouldn’t it? Have a nice day

Paweł

[Rob_Gronovius]

Steel road wheels on an M60 series tank are not uncommon nor a good indicator of when the tank was in use. All steel, all aluminum or a mixture can be seen throughout its lifespan. It would be nice if Revell gave us a Slick 60 M60A0 although to make an early tank, they would need to retool the upper hull to give us the option for early and late style air cleaners. That’s one area the Esci M60A1/A2/A3 series was better; the choice between early and late style air cleaners.

[Pawel]

Thanks for the info Rob, it’s always good to have an expert onboard for a WIP thread! 'Till next time

Paweł

[Pawel]

OK, movin’ on with the build!

First there are the road wheels, like seen on the photo below. The sand-coloured ones were stripped off “Old Glue”. The funny pink ones are Revell:

See why I broke out the Revell kit?

Then there are the return rollers:

And then I went on to do the sprockets. The double discs for the track’s guide teeth are from the Revell kit, the sprockets are from the old Esci kit, narrowed (so as to allow for the double discs) and with mud-release holes cut in them:

Then there’s track. The basic Esci/Italeri ones:

And the octagon-style Revell tracks. Note how the guide teeht are incorrectly shown in the middle of each link instead between the links, like the connecting links:

Now I’ll have to figure out what to do with the track… As I don’t really like neither of them.

OK, that would be it for now, thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

[Rob_Gronovius]

I am not an expert by any means. I know too many men who know much more about these machines for me to ever consider myself to be an expert. Having said that, I learned to tank on an M48A5 when I was a kid. I am familiar with it and do know a good deal about the M48A5 and the M60A3TTS (another tank I cut my teeth on).

As far as fixing the Revell track, personally, I would not bother to make this correction. To me it would not be worth the time and effort for a detail that would go unnoticed to the common man. But, on the Esci track, I have used slices of channel strip styrene made by Plastistruct (sp?).

When you cut the channel strip, you end up with U shaped pieces that resemble the center guides of the track. I then glue them in the proper place on the track. You could do the same with the Revell track. You would have to remove the existing center guides and replace them with the channel lock Us.

Of course, the Revell track would not be correct for a Vietnam era tank. You could also detail the inside of the track with strips of styrene to represent the inner rubber track surface.

[PANZERWAFFE]

You have quite a project here. I’ll be watching to see how it goes.

[the_doog]

Pawel, it’s quite the ambitious project you have going here, but I agree with Rob; don’t get in over your head trying to correct the tracks. When they’re on, you won’t be able to notice it.

Good luck with where you’re going with this!

[redleg12]

Such a nice project in a small size. I admire anyone working in this scale!!

Rounds Complete!!

[Pawel]

Hello everybody!

Sorry for replying so late, but I was on a business trip…

Rob G - I need to do something about the track, the center guides are the absolute minimum here. Your idea with the U-channels sounds very interesting. I think I’ll have something figured out by the weekend.

Rob (PANZERWAFFE) - Thanks for your comment, welcome aboard!

Karl, Mike - glad to have some of my favourite modellers onboard! Karl, I’m afraid I have to do SOMETHING about the tracks, to keep the model consistent. I’ve also seen another 1:72 Patton with the tracks fixed and I think it was worth it. Mike - 1:72 is a nice scale and this way I can have a tank and my choppers in the same display case

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

[disastermaster]

Off to a good start Pawel.

if you sweat the tracks you might run the risk of burning yourself out, but that’s up to you.

I’ll be waiting…

!http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b232/gluetank/Animated/th_1-Animated-Disastermaster.gif?t=1296616998

[Pawel]

DM - thanks for your comment and welcome to my thread! I agree with you, that the risk is there, but I say I can hack it and I got photos to prove it!

I mean I have an update for you gennulman!

For starters I glued the rear part of the hull on and filled the seam. I replaced the door handles with thin copper wire. When this was done I added the final drive housings. Before that I drilled out the original drive sprocket axles, because they were damaged (all these years!). I replaced them with a 3mm shaft made out of sprue. And finally I put the wheels on:

I narrowed the mounting points for the wheels slightly, so that the tracks fit inside the fenders completely. Without narrowing the tracks have a tendency to stick out slightly.

Currently I’m doing one side only, because I still didn’t figure out what to do about the return rollers. As I wrote before I need ten of them and the Revell kit only has six. I wrote a polite letter to Revell Germany about ten days ago where I asked them for the parts, let’s see what are they going to do.

Meanwhile I went on with the tough job - the tracks. I decided to sandwich the Esci/Italeri and the Revell tracks. That wouldn’t look good if I didn’t adjust their thickness, so I attached the track to a wooden brush handle with painter’s tape and started sanding. My measurement showed that the Esci/Italeri track needs to be sanded on the flat side until it’s about 0.7mm thick. I removed the track shoes of the Revell tracks and sanded until only the deepest marks were visible near the centerline of the tracks:

Then I glued the sanded tracks together. To do that I cut the Esci/Italeri tracks in three-link segments to compensate for the slight differnce in length between the Esci/Italeri and the Revell tracks. For glueing all the styrene together I used liquid glue/lacquer thinner, it works like charm. To impress you more I took a surgical blade and cut off the guide teeth off the track and moved them to their correct position between the track links. Here’s the photo of the completed track section:

For now I have four sections completed this way - the bottom section (26 links), two short diagonal sections (6 links) and the long top section that consists of two subassemblies (idler-roller and roller-sprocket - 33 links). To complete the track run I also need 12 individual links which I’m going to use almost straight out of the Italeri box. Together it makes for 83 links - I wonder if it’s correct number?

And then I went on to assemble it all - I started with the individual links on the sprocket, then I went on toward the road wheelsand up to the idler. I scored the flat side of the individual links with the tip of the knive to give them some structure and to blen them with the straight runs. Finally I installed the long top run. By bending the short and the top sections I tried to give the tracks a little sag, nothing dramatic. After I was done it looks like that:

So I think as soon as I get the remaining rollers I can do the other side without burning out, it’s not so bad. I’d say I put about 4 hours in the tracks so far, so it’s doable. Hope you liked it, looking forward to your comments and thanks for reading

Paweł

[the_doog]

Pawel, you’re a detailing ANIMAL! Wow; I didn’t think you’d go the full mile on those tracks, but you sure showed us! That looks awesome, and it’s great to see you tackling this one with vigor and dedication!

I know we say this a lot here, but I can’t wait to see what you do with this when it’s painted and weathered! [:P]

[disastermaster]

Dude…

You got talent.

Remember folks, this is 1/72 scale.

!http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b232/gluetank/Animated/th_1-Animated-Disastermaster.gif?t=1296616998