Old School Renwal/Revell M50 Ontos

Modeling Subjects Armor
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I bought & built the Revell reissue of the old Renwal M50 Ontos back in 1982. I rescued it from my parents’ house last decade. It was relatively intact but missing many pieces with several remaining parts broken. A friend gave me a partially built glue bomb Renwal kit that he picked up at a swap meet. The original Renwal kit is from the 1960s.

I was going to fully accurize it and rebuild it, but the recent release of the Academy negated my desire to accurize the old Revell/Renwal kit. I’ve now decided to just reassemble it using the better parts of each kit. Prior to the Academy kit, these Revell and Renwal Ontos kits could go for $25-50 depending on the boxing on eBay. Even built kits went for $20 or so depending on condition and completeness.

Here’s a photo of what I am starting with, on the left is the Revell lower hull and the engine grill cut from that kit’s upper hull. The Revell parts are OD green colored and the original Renwal issue parts are a dark green color. The Renwal upper hull is on the right with it’s engine grill removed and a few items from the spare parts box added.

A close up of the Renwal upper hull after some minor surgery. This kit had not been completed or painted. I was fortunate that the entire recoilless rifle assemble was untouched and unbuilt. It is interesting to note that the original issue parts had plenty of sink holes while the Revell reissue had a much better quality injection molding.

Close up of the Revell lower hull after disassembly and clean up.

Here is the running gear, mainly from the Revell kit due to the sink holes in the outer halves of the Renwal kit wheels. I modified those outer halves to replace the inner halves of kit that were molded solid. I had to use a pair of the solid inner road wheel halves because I dontated a pair of outer road wheel halves to a fellow modeler who was doing the same type of project. I’ll probably stick them in the #3 road wheel position.

It is a very interesting vehicle. I had always wanted the Renwal kit as a kid and when I saw the reissue in 1982, I grabbed it quickly for around $5 at an old Kay Bee Toy & Hobby Shop.

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Wow, this is an intimidating project, good luck! Looks like you’re making the best out of the situation, I’m interested to see how the finished product looks. Keep up the motivation, looks like good progress so far.

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Rob - Always nice to see your work. For me old is good!!!..Yep, Renwal and sink holes, sounds familiar.

What is interesting is the new Academy kit is a slightly different version than the old Renwal/Revell. The noticeable difference is the engine grille is different on each.

Going back almost 30 years is good for the soul. Enjoy the rebuild. Accuracy does not matter…it is the enjoyment that counts.

Rounds Complete!!

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I imagine that the Renwal kit was based on an initial prototype or, most likely, photos or drawings from a source like Popular Mechanics (accuracy wasn’t a big thing back then). I told myself I would reassemble this ancient kit before I started on the Academy kit.

The Academy kit is still behind the M50 IDF Sherman and an M60A1 as well. It may be months before I get to it.

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ROB: Thanks for the memories I built the renwall kit when I was 9 years old sink holes and renwall went hand in hand. I filled them with Black Majeck auto body filler, Back then thats all we had to use. ACESE5[:D[[]

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Nice to see someone building the old kits, between redleg’s build on the Academy kit and now this renwall one,I am motivated.

I have the renwal kit salvaged from a garage sale a few summers back…no bbls, but was going to use styrene tubing and build it in a dio.

Like Redleg says,its about the enjoyment of building for me,I don’t need nor even relish having every last minute detail correct,probably bad thing to say ,[:P]

Look forward to the rest of your build, great job so far!!

Thanks for sharing!

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I do have extra parts for your rebuild if you need them. My Revell kit’s barrels are relatively intact.

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Thanks Rob,I am going to do an inventory of the parts and see what I think I’ll need.

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YOWSA… now there’s a flashback for ya! I don’t ever recall filling any sink holes in on the one I built… let’s say as a kid… heck, I don’t even recall painting it.

It will be an interesting comparrison to Redleg’s newer version. Lookin’ forward to them both! Thanks for posting this one Rob!

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I have the majority of the rifles/turret pieces, extra hatches (most with some sort of minor glue damage), and an extra drive sprocket, jerry can, tool rack, exhaust, lights.

Kevin, I’ve had the Revell kit since 1982, nearly 30 years! The Renwal glue bomb kit since mid 2001.

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Rob, There are less parts than I thought on my old kit. Please let me know what parts you want to ‘part with’…and a price and I’ll get the funds out to you.

Appreciate it.

Kevin (Tonka)

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Extra Ontos parts:

1, 2, 10, 11, 12 lower hull assembly partially taken apart

5, 6 drive sprocket (one complete one)

4 inner road wheel (ten of them)

7 road wheel bogey (two of them, one glue damaged)

8, 9 right and left suspension sides

13, 14, 15 interior bulkhead and seat

16, 34, 35, 36, 48, 49, 50, 51 commander’s cupola w/.50 cal

17, 18, 19 gunner’s controls

31 headlights

32 gun cradle

28, 30 rear doors

21 tool rack, 22 5 gal can, 23 exhaust, 24/25 rear lights, 26 driver hatch, 38/39 rear light guards

Recoilless Rifle parts:

43, 44, 45 main structure

5x 46 breeches (missing 1)

3x 47 breech door (missing 3)

5x 42 1st section of rifles (missing 1)

5x 41 2nd section of rifles (missing 1)

5x 40 end section of rifles (missing 1)

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Hello all!

Very cool project you have going there. I stumbled on this page while searching for an Ontos model kit, that I had as a kid. My dad built it for me, and it was one of my most favorite toys. Now I want to build one for my son. Im getting him into modeling now.

I looked on ebay for the kit that my dad built. I remember it exactly, but im not sure which one to order. Im hoping if I describe it, maybe one of you guys can tell me which one to get.

I know it had rubber treads, The hatches all opened, and under the rear main doors, there was an ammo door that held 6 or 8 shells. I want to say it had a .50 on top, but im not 100%. I think it had a decal that said “the thing” maybe?

Any help with info on the features of the different kits out there would be much appreciated. I seen the new academy kit, does it have all the cool features as the vintage kit?

1st post, thanks fellow builders!

Dave

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The Revell kit is a 1983 reissue of the kit originally made by Renwal, They have all the features you describe. As you can see, I combined parts of the original Renwal “parts kit” along with my Revell kit to repair it.

There is another, more up-to-date Ontos released by Academy. A decent kit with its own issues.

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I hope that Revell re pops this and the SPAT under their SSP of Renwall kits. They seem to be slowly going thru that catalog.

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Thank you very much! I’m going to go buy me a renwal kit!

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If you look at the plastic parts in my photos, the original Renwal parts are a dark green and the Revell repop parts are a browner olive green.