Know a good M-60 Blazer kit?

MGM, I built the ESCI M60 Blazer a few years back and had no problems with it:



I also have an Academy Blazer but haven't finished it yet. It too, is going together well.

Regards, Dan

DId the ESCI kit come with figs? My old kit didn't. Any ideas on what my kit may have been. It's molded in tan and i found it on clearance at a Big Lots store [called Odd Lots in some cities] around 1990-1993 or so. It wasn't a bad kit or anything [as far as I could tell] it was that I just bit off a little more than I could chew at the time with all the armor packets and indy tracks!

The ESCI kit is molded in tan with silver plastic tracks. The tracks are easy to do...the only individual links are around the front sprocket and rear wheel; the rest are molded linked together for the top , bottom, front and back angles. The armament consists of a .50 cal. on the top of the main barrel and 2 - .30 cals for the crew. The blazer armor was molded in links too, and easy to apply. There was no crew...I added Verlinden tankers. It sounds like you had the same kit.

Regards, Dan

Almost except if I recall my armor packs were all individual units! I'll have to check to be sure but I'm 99% certain of that. Now the tracks are as you describe except that they were molded in tan too. There was a hummer w/t TOW I bought at the same time and I beleive is by the same company but which I can't ID for certain which i sill have. The Hummer maybe Academy because it has a separate tail gate and to my knowlege only the Academy and the new tamiya has that feature.

I looked at both kits..the blazer armor is separate on the turret....but molded together for the main hull.

Dan

Yep, going to have to take a look at mine but now that you mention it I do only remember gluing the individual parts on the turret....hmmmmm.

The old Esci M60A1 Blazer kit is now packaged by Italeri as the M60 Blazer. While the Esci base M60A1 kit is the best there is, the Blazer armor is not. I believe that the Academy Blazer set is superior, but the tank is worse. Verlinden had a resin Blazer set and it is nice. I've got an old set but have not gotten around to using it.

If you are looking to do a USMC M60A1 w/applique armor, both Tamiya and Academy do this kit. Avoid any M60 kit by Trumpeter/Wasan/MiniHobby. Terrible knock off of the Tamiya/Academy kits.

Note that the Israeli Blazer and the USMC applique armor are not alike. Blazer armor is reactive, meaning there is an explosive tile that dissapates shaped warheads on contact. Applique armor is just addtional ceramic armor designed to give the tank some measure of stand off against incoming fire. It is similar in nature to WW2 German schrutzen (sp?).

EDIT: BTW, I have all of the old Esci kits and several duplicates in AMT boxes. Some kits had silver tracks, others had a dark gray/gun metal tracks. I do believe at least one of them has tan tracks molded in the same color as the rest of the kit.

Thanks Rob! Is there ANYTHING you DON"T know?LOL
I hadn't decided whetherI want to do the marine one or not. Probly not. If i do the marine one it will probly be with out any add on armor. Besides I think the Blazer one's cool and the paint sceme is simple.

QUOTE: Originally posted by MartianGundamModeler Thanks Rob! Is there ANYTHING you DON"T know?LOL I hadn't decided whetherI want to do the marine one or not. Probly not. If i do the marine one it will probly be with out any add on armor. Besides I think the Blazer one's cool and the paint sceme is simple.

One of my favorite quotes, "I'm not young enough to know everything."

If you do a USMC M60A1 RISE/Passive as used during Desert Storm, those tanks were painted overall desert sand. A very easy paint scheme to do. It is probably easier than doing the Israeli Sinai gray color.

The Israeli ones are gray and not tan/sand?

QUOTE: Originally posted by MartianGundamModeler The Israeli ones are gray and not tan/sand?

That "Sinai Gray" is another color of debate. To me, it looks closer to a stone/tan color. Not really a traditional sand color, but not really gray.

Hey guys,

What do you use for the "Sinai Grey? Any secret formulas or is the Testors MM IDF sand good enough? I will be painting a Tiran 5 in the next few weeks.

Thanks.

QUOTE: Originally posted by swerdna Hey guys, What do you use for the "Sinai Grey? Any secret formulas or is the Testors MM IDF sand good enough? I will be painting a Tiran 5 in the next few weeks. Thanks.

Here's an ongoing discussion regarding the "right" color in one of the more serious armor forums. Honestly, I do not know the exact color for an IDF tank or if there even is an exact color. I do know that it tends to be a well-debated topic among IDF fanatics.

http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/thread?forumid=47209&messageid=1077831323

Here is a link to a website. Josh is a pretty good source of information when it comes to the various IDF tanks and models available.

http://www.homestead.com/shiryon/index.html

Thanks again. As alway you provide a ton of info. It's gonna take me awhile to sift through it all. Thanks!