Revell M48A2 Patton ARRIVED!!

i am working on mine as a VN era m48a2C and am using the tamiya us armored troops for the crew. much better improvement for a classic kit

Yes that'd be swell. I plan to build a couple of M59 APC's then too. Have the Bulldogs on salt.

GMorrison

Well speaking of rock and roll legends, I really wish Dragon would issue their A1. I want to build Elvis's tank!

 

I want the A1 also... but for a Checkpoint Charlie Berlin Crisis build

Well speaking of rock and roll legends, I really wish Dragon would issue their A1. I want to build Elvis's tank!

That lil darling was the first tank I ever built! I think I've got something in my eye!

GMorrison

.....

Zombie thread, gratuitous Rob Gronovious sighting. What a morning.

 

Still an interesting thread, though.........

Yes, the A2 was in Vietnam. the 5th ID had them there. Go get the new tooled Revell Germany M48A2/A2C kit. I just picked one up this weekend at AMPS and it is a beauty!!!

look here for photos

http://www.steeltigers.org/gallery_vietnam01.php

ironside and in country hobbies produced an m67 flame tank conversion conversion.

they sure was. quite a few of the. with the us army though. need more evidence, can send you fotos. 907-441-6284. call anytime

Having recently built the Monogram kit, don't. It's very dated and has so many things that are in need of fixing- one of many are the ridges on the turret in place of the grab bars.

Were A2's even in Vietnam?

Zombie thread, gratuitous Rob Gronovious sighting. What a morning.

There are much better kits out there than the ancient Monogram one.  It isn't really the correct version for Vietnam in '69 either.  By that time, M48A3s were the norm.  For a US Army M48A3 in Vietnam, I would get the Dragon M48A3 or M48A3 MOD B kit.  They are light years more detailed and just all-around a better kit than the crappy 1950s Monogram one.

i plan on building a vn era dio w/ it along w/ tamiya's 'us armored troops'. makes for a great dio from 1969 time frame.

Yes that's the story I've read. It seems plausible. I have so many pictures of m48s and some ride a little high. The ones that don't are running models or ones in combat. Some museum tanks seem to be riding high. I have also seen a few different angles on the track coming from the first roller wheel down to the first  wheel.

I guess a combat loaded M48 is much different then a M48 out for maneuvers in peacetime and one that's empty in a museum or on display. I know the Vietnam loaded up M113s road real LOW compared to the almost empty ones I drove.

Unless I am mistaken,the Tamiya kit is a bit tall because the research vehicle had no engine in it.Threw off the measurements a bit.

To my eye the Tamiya kit is less correct on height and turret. The Tamiya turret looks wrong. I think people that fix it don't do it right. It's not the height it's the angle and the gun height in terms of were it is on mantel. The Revell kit has the rear of the turret angle right and the ride height too.

It's the angle of the bottom of the rear of the turret. It's sharper going upward. The Revell kit has it right and the Tamiya kit wrong from my eye. Also the Tamiya kits gun is too low on the mantel and that might make modelers think the turret height is wrong, but the actual height maybe correct.

So the Revell kit has the ride height and turret more correct but lacks details. I have been comparing the 2 built ones in the pictures with dozens of pictures of real ones I got off the internet.

It looks like the Revell kit is fine, in some ways better. It just needs a little upgrade in terms of detail.

stikpusher

some things you may want to consider:

File off the "steps"on the turret sides and scratch build the rails that belong there from stretched sprue, styrene or brass rod.

remove the molded on pioneer tools and replace them (and the jerry can) with ones from Academy's AFV Accessory sets. Also the packs in that set are more appropriate than the modern era ALICE packs in the Tamiya sets.

 

Well, I have this accessory set on the way. I have also been scouring the net for lots of photos, and I got a vision in mind.........

Thanks for the heads up Rob

"Cool"

Andrew

stikpusher

OK, I have too much time on my hands before work. Don't laugh too hard at the quality of the builds as they are all over 25 years ago and were hand painted... No airbrush in those days... The green Monogram M48 was built OOB, as was the Tamiya. The Sand M48 had some mods done- replaced cupola, added handholds from stretched sprue on turret, up gunned to 105mm main gun.

Tamiya M48 TC along with other Tamiya TC figure and Monogram TC

Tamiya M48 between Monogram M48s. The Tamiya is just a bit shorter lengthwise...

Tamiya and Monogram M48s side to side and back to back.Tamiya has a taller profile

 

Ok... I've read everything, again and again, pulled the Monogram and Tamiya hulls out again,  looked over mine and Stik's, and will concede, based on the following... Both kits are 1/33.5 scale...

  t$t]

We cool?

I also believe that the German tanks used in Audie Murphy's movie to Hell and Back were M47's

Konigwolf13

Rob, your breaking my heart, I believed for years as a kid it really was KT, now I have one comming (Italeri M47) from Santa to make into a "KT" (key manical laugh).

Serious though I was very dissapointed to find out the truth, I think real KT's are rather ugly.

Andrew

One of our older members, J-Hulk (aka Brian Keaney), built this very tank using the Italeri M47 tank (arguably Italeri's best 1/35 scale tank kit and thier high water mark). It takes a few moments for the photos to load, but his build is outstanding and worth the wait. He works for Hobby Link Japan and they use his kit as an ad for the kit.

http://www.hlj.com/product/ITA6447 

Here is a link to good info on the M48 series tanks and modeling it.

http://www.patton-mania.com/M48_Patton/m48_patton.html

This model brings back a lot of memories of my early modelling days. Thanks for sharing it.

This thread has me thinking about picking up another Monogram A2 for conversion into a Bundeswehr M48A2G... The M67A2 sounds tempting as well...

Rob, your breaking my heart, I believed for years as a kid it really was KT, now I have one comming (Italeri M47) from Santa to make into a "KT" (key manical laugh).

Serious though I was very dissapointed to find out the truth, I think real KT's are rather ugly.

Andrew

SuppressionFire

The M48A2 was used in movies a lot.

I recall one 'Battle of the bulge' film where the attacking German Tigers were all M48A2's! Not historically accurate yet something interesting and different.

The Battle of the Bulge used M47 Patton tanks as King Tigers. Here is a shot of the scene where they watch them through binoculars.

And a screen shot of where they discuss a model of their new "King Tiger." Clearly an M47 and not a KT.

BigDaddyBluesman

I am curious to compare not for the scale but for the detail and match them to pictures to see who got what right and wrong.

One is an A2, the other an A3. Major differences that I could see all relate to the engine differences on the back deck, lack of external armored aircleaners, etc. Other differences in the kits mainly pertain to to variations made to the tank throughout its lifespan. For instance, the headlights and guards are different; the Tamiya kit has the older style and the Monogram kit has the later style despite being an earlier model tank. The lower hull is also an earlier version with the 5 support rollers and the trailing roller between the #6 road wheel and the drive sprocket. The Tamiya kit has the later 3 support roller hull with no trailing roller.

This tank served in the US Army for 40 years from the 1950s until the late 1980s (I crewed one up to 1986 and I know it stayed in service after I moved to M1s).

The M48A2 was used in movies a lot.

I recall one 'Battle of the bulge' film where the attacking German Tigers were all M48A2's! Not historically accurate yet something interesting and different.

Nice work....

As someone who is nowhere near in the class of the builders here, at least not yet.....ha ha. I feel that you have to have a concept first. In that concept I also feel you should put the vehicle in it's normal operating state.

What does normal operating state mean. As a person who was in the Army that could mean many things. As with the pictures above, that state could mean needing a new engine pack. it could be even a state of being used as a target or destroyed by a mine. Or in a specific time period.

For instance there are time periods or eras for the army or marines. The M48A2 was mostly used during the 1950s and briefly in Vietnam because of the attrition of the M48A3.

I think if you want to make a cool M48A2 you would do something in the mid 1950s. That means a semi gloss dark olive green color and little to no accessories. Maybe some duffel bags and that's it. That's not too exciting is it...nope. So how do you make it interesting. You could have it throw a track and have the crew repairing it. It had a crew of 4.

Or you could have the crew just hanging around drinking some excellent German beer during one of the many operations during the cold war. I know, I did it in the early 80s, we had M1A1s and I drove the ITV and M113 Dragon track, I drank a coke and smoked a Marlboro though. You could have them smoking and joking or covered in snow, I did that too.

Or you could do a Vietnam thing and make it an A3 without the light, they did take them off. Look online and you can find a bunch of pictures of M48s in various stages of action. use a picture or two to get some ideas.

You could even have the crew cleaning it or painting it. That's something you did all the time once you came out of the field even in combat. For every hour in the field you needed many more doing maintenance on them.

Mikeym_us

I think that is what the Doog did on his M48 build. Now the Tamiya kit is ideal for making a dio of a power pack change out since the power pack is most of the weight of the tank.

Yes on both accounts.

Here is my M48A3 sans engine from the Tamiya kit.