just ran across the Academy M-60 with passive armor and dozer blade. Is this kit any good? I have never built an Academy kit. I have built the ESCI m-60 Blazer and I have the Italeri Blazer [same kit]. How does this one measure up?
Decent enough M60 kit, not as accurate as the Esci/Italeri M60A1 but a good build nonetheless. The better of the two readily available USMC M60A1 RISE/Passive w/ERA (Tamiya being the other).
Academy kit is a copy of the old Tamiya kit with some added sprues and updated parts. It is pretty good kit waith nice parts and builds up well. I recommend it.
Here is a side-by-side review of Tamiya, Academy, and Esci M60 kits. It lays them out pretty well.
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/modern/jcm60/jcm60.htm
I should also mention that the dozer kit is missing the piping that leads back along the left underside of the road wheel arms to the left rear fender. It is also missing the hydraulic reservoir and piping into the left rear engine access plate.
I had read about the missing “wiggets” in a review of the dozer blade. i check out that article because i may pick it up on my lunch break in about 15 mins!lol
Have the kit, but haven’t built it yet, I like newer Academy kits, usually good fitting together. Maj.(LTC?)Rob can you provide any details on the missing plumping
Just read the article. i’m going to get it. What extras/figures does it come with?
The M9 dozer is hydraulically powered. The piping for the hydraulic system goes from the front of the tank along the underside of the hull. Bolts are removed from the road wheel housing arms to attach the mounts for the piping (this is all on the underside of the hull). The pipe comes out and goes into the left rear access plate.
That access plate is replaced by one that has two pipe holes in it. The pipe that comes from the front of the tank goes into the right hole and connects to a pump located inside the engine compartment.
The pipe then exits out the left hole and goes up to a reservoir tank that replaces the left rear sponson box (fender stowage box). A hole is cut into the back fender to allow the pipe to pass to the reservoir.
Thanks Rob, any chance on getting a picture of the reservior?
hobby lobby was out! i picked up a modern accessory set though.[:D]
The hobby Lobby on the other side of town still had one yesturday I hopes it’s still there when i get off work! Does it include stowage? It looks like it did from the box. How about figs?
The reactive armour is flat and stick into the hull unlike the tamiya they have few moulded bolt threat on their ERA make it more real that academy …
Not on the Academy USMC M60A1 RISE. It too has rods that the armor is mounted on and there is a space between the hull and armor. On the IDF version with ERA, it is bolted directly to the hull and there is no space under the armor in both the Academy IDF and the real vehicles. Both are accurately portrayed.
I picked ot up. ilike what i see so fare. Figs and stowage are always good! I’m going to compari it to my Italeri Blazer when I get time…