I have bought AFV Club sprues through moon03tw before. He is a great guy to deal with and will get you the sprues with no problem.
I personally would stick w/the AFV Club M60A1 and source the smoke launchers and storage boxes somewhere, either in resin or plastic. The rest is in the box.
This set, would give yo all you need to build and M60A1 RISE/Passive and add some details to the kit.
Legend M60A1 Patton Tank Basic Detailing Set (AFV Club AF35060) LF1305
I saw that, but I’ve never dealt with resin before, and I wouldn’t wanna trash such an expensive model on resin experimentation. I’ve heard it’s not as easy as a drop in replacement
I think you should give it a shot. Resin is not hard to work with. You have to start somewhere.
Yeah, I feel ya on that. My reservations are cutting my teeth on resin on a 60 dollar kit.
He’s right that it isn’t that hard to work with resin. Razor saw blade to cut the mold pour stub away and sometimes you need to cut away some plastic of the kit part. You do have to use CA glue (super glue).
I haven’t done a side by side comparison to see what sprues are different between the AFV A1 and A3. I did notice that my A3 came with two different barrels; didn’t take a close enough look to see if one is the plain unshrouded one though.
The two barrel types in the AFV Club M60A3 kit are a late and early M68A1 thermal shrouded barrel. The early M68A1 barrel has separate straps that hold the shroud on. The late M68A1 barrel has a differently designed shroud that has integral clips and does not require the straps. Neither barrel is the correct M68 unshrouded barrel appropriate for an M60A1.
Def Model also offers both the early and late M68A1 barrel in metal. You can see the differences below.
Def Model also does just the M68 barrel for an M60A1.
Then I still stand by my recommendation to get the A3 and just use the plain DEF barrel (or similar brand) to backdate it to a RISE/Passive. Barrel looks like an easy fix.
As an aside, it appears my barrel has the clamps. I do remember taking it off when we had to punch the tubes after gunnery. My thermal shroud looks like it was installed upside down since the slots should be on the underside to allow water to drain.
This photo was taken during an infantry battalion’s ARTEP gunnery we supported the summer before we turned in the A3s for M1A1s in May or June of 1989.
Does that mean clean it? Why did you need to take off the shroud?
Yeah, punching the bore would be cleaning it, I don’t know why the shroud had to be taken off, we only had a .50cal and an Mk19 on the AAV, no big guns
Maybe so you don’t get Hoppe’s all over it?
Punching the tube requires removing the bore evacuator to make sure the little vent holes are cleaned out. These allow the gases from the fired round to enter the bore evacuator from the gun tube. The next round sucks the gases out of the bore evacuator and out the end of the tube. Then the gases from the second round enter the bore evacuator. The gases from the final round eventually dissapate out of the tube.
Any way, in order to remove the bore evacuator, you have to take off the forward portion of the thermal shroud. Then you have to clean the inside of the bore evacuator to get all the soot and gunk out of it. We had like gallon jugs of a bore cleaner called Break Free that helped remove the carbon build up.
In this old photo of my M48A5, you can see in the upper right hand photo that the bore evacuator has been removed and is sitting upright on the right front fender of the tank.
Thank you for the explanation. That is really interesting.
Bill
That is fascinating. I wish I was tanks in the Corps…
I spent some time reading about fume extractors this afternoon. Kind of ingenious devices.
I guess Rob if you don’t keep those little holes open it can kill you.
The turret vent motor was always on when you were firing. Helped keep the gases to a minimum, but all tankers enjoy the smell of cordite from a freshly fired main gun. It smells like victory! It’s a sharp gun powder like smell.