I hate to write with a correction to anything you do because I look forward to your magazine every month like I looked forward to getting model kits from Revell 50 years ago, with a thrilling anticipation. It’s good to know that the thrill of seeing models and anticipating building another never seems to die.
On page 24 of your April 2003 magazine you have a picture by Jim Mesko of a 5th Mech Div tank you say is a M-48 but from what I can see of the rear it has the square grill that usually indicates a M-60. Since I am a grunt you can take that with a bit of salt and maybe ask Jim if I am correct.
On the same page you also have a picture of an Ontos and say it is has “recoilless antiaircraft guns”. While the 106mm recoilless rifle was recoilless it was an antitank gun. I never was involved with an Ontos but trained and used 106s 0n singular mounts on a jeep. I believe they were used in the Ontos configuration for busting bunkers in Vietnam. We used it’s smaller version, a 57mm Recoilless as an anti personnel gun by loading it with grapeshot rounds. I can’t think of anyway they could ever be aimed and traversed quickly enough for use against aircraft plus the backblast (which makes it recoilless) is fearsome.
Charles Bell
Hi Charles~
Not at all! We try to make sure everything is factually correct in each issue, but when we slip up we want to hear about it!
I can see how the Ontos would not not make a great AA weapon…I was looking for info on it and just couldn’t come up with much. Know any good websites that cover it? I’m betting I saw the 106mm and 57mm recoilless rifles when I visited the “Museum of the Big Guns” at Watervliet Arsenal a couple of summers back (it also has quite a few not-so-big guns)…
Thanks for taking the time to get in touch–and let us know how we’re doing any time!
Happy modeling…