I’m planning to convert Tamiya Pershing tank into M45 Howitzer carrier. I thought about doing my own conversion, but my skill isn’t quite there yet. Anyone ever worked on this conversion kit or any comments? Thanks!
Ah yes…the strange and obtuse. One of those many conversions.
The M45 was a 105mm HMC using the M26 Pershing Hull and turret and the M4 105mm barrel and M71 mount (Same as the M101). It was designed for close support. Not many were made. Few were actually used in Korea. After Korea they were all converted back to tanks.
Never worked with the kit. Heavy or Rob may know on the kit side.
Sorry I could not be more help [|(]
Rounds Complete!!
If you google “M45 howitzer”, an article will be linked that was in a Tamiya Modelling Magazine. From what i can tell, it wouldn’t be that hard to modify the turret. Heck, i’m the nutcase who converted the Tamiya T26E3 into a T26E4 Super Pershing (see my avatar to the left). I’d say save your money and go for scratch converting it yourself.
Roy,
That Tamiya Article you’ve mentioned are not down loadable unless you pay. I found another site http://www.guntruck.com/M45PershingPage1.html talking about the conversion, but even this person purchased MB conversion kit and used both Tamiya and DML M26 pershing kits.
Heavyarty sent me a link to the conversion process before, but I can’t find it. EDIT: ABOVE LINK IS THE ONE THAT GINO SENT ME BEFORE
I’ve never done any major scratch building before so I was thinking about just getting the conversion kit to save myself from all the trouble.
Otherwise, I am thinking about trying it on my own and see how it turns out. I just need a good reference for it though.
If you follow Jim “GunTruck” Lewis’ article, it isn’t really that hard of a conversion. I have spoken to him about it and he used the MB turret because he had one. He used both Tamiya and DML parts since he liked the detail on the Tamiya hull, while the MB turret was made off the DML turret and required DML fittings to complete it. All you really need to do is add the short, 105mm barrel to either the Tamiya or DML turret to get an M45 turret. It wasn’t any different in dimensions than a standard Pershing turret.
From Jim’s article…
“To all of this I added a scratchbuilt Howitzer Travel Lock, Commander’s .50cal Machine Gun Mount, and a new Muffler / Exhaust assembly that the M45 Pershing was equipped with.”
Those are really all you need. If you use the Tamiya kit, you also need to change the Tamiya track to either steel chevron T80E4 or rubber chevron T84E4 tracks since it has late WWII style tracks, not Korean era tracks.
Good luck on it.
Gino,
thanks for the info! that sounds like an easy conversion. I do have DML M26 Pershing and I also do have M4A3(?) with 105mm barrel (I’m assuming this would work on M45).
Sounds like it will work to me. Good luck and let us know how it goes.