I like the Leo1-style storage box a lot, good idea.

Thanks, Russ! :D

Looks neat! Thanks for sharing with us!!! 

Thank you for following, Gamera!

**

I feel I must apologise to my fellow forum members. A new work schedule at a new job and a serious lack of time have been wreaking havock on my ability to spend any serious time modeling.

Mostly I get to daydream about which kits I'd like to send time on. This build, I hope, will be a main focus for a good long time.

Thanks for supporting my habit with your own beautiful builds lol. At least I can watch something getting done lol.

-Mike

I took a couple of hours today and roughed out the side skirts. The hangers are spaced out just enough to clear the tracks because I didn't want to have them extended too far out. 

I'll be adding bolt heads and other such details to them later. 

Ohhhh I love those skirts. They give a very sleek streamlined look to her.

I agree, Gamera. It does make it look more streamlined. 

I'm considering more modifications that could also make it more modern looking. Just haven't worked out how to pull it off quite yet.

Looking good.  It looks a lot like the Turkish M60T Sabra.

Oh, that's neat! I may borrow a bit of that one too. 

Thanks for dropping that reference, Gino!

Wow that Turkish tank look ALLOT like this Israeli Magach 7 ;-)

Academy 1/35 Magach 7 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

Theuns

Yes it does, Theuns. A lot Iike the the Magach 7. I wonder if Israel exported.

M. Brindos

Yes it does, Theuns. A lot Iike the the Magach 7. I wonder if Israel exported.

 

Yes, the Israelis are the ones who make the Turkish M60 Sabra. That's why it has many "Magach" style looks to it.

The Esci M60 'Blazer' is one of my favorite kits. I found a bunch of them at a closeout store called "Odd Lots" in Huntsville, Alabama when I was stationed there in the mid to late 90s. I built many of them using detail parts from Tamiya kits.

Well that explains why the M-60T looks like a Magach 7. Thanks, Rob.

I've had a fondness for ESCI kits for decades. I remember building a lot of the 1/72 series kits. But this is the first time I've had a 1/35 ESCI armor kit. The details are pretty good from what I see, but there is quite a bit of minor flash on most of the smaller parts.

Nothing I can't handle or add more details to. It's not a bad kit. That being said though, the wheels wobble around horribly on the axles. I know they'll be okay once I glue them on, but alignment will have to be carefully monitored when I do. 

I'm still contemplating what I'll modify next. Keep watching. 

In case some of you didn't know, M60_Tanker is my father. He still hasn't figured out how to upload pictures and I still need to show him how lol. We'll get to that eventually.

He taught me all of my basics and dropped out of the hobby for a lot longer than I did. Now he's close to retirement and building up a platoon of 1/35 armor, while updating his skills.

Here is his latest build that is close to completion, next to my M-48 (The dirty one on the bottom). An M-48A3 from Dragon, I think.

I can't wait for him to show us what he's done with an M-60A2(E1). From what I have seen of it, it should gain a lot of attention.

M. Brindos

Well that explains why the M-60T looks like a Magach 7. Thanks, Rob.

I've had a fondness for ESCI kits for decades. I remember building a lot of the 1/72 series kits. But this is the first time I've had a 1/35 ESCI armor kit. The details are pretty good from what I see, but there is quite a bit of minor flash on most of the smaller parts.

Nothing I can't handle or add more details to. It's not a bad kit. That being said though, the wheels wobble around horribly on the axles. I know they'll be okay once I glue them on, but alignment will have to be carefully monitored when I do. 

I'm still contemplating what I'll modify next. Keep watching. 

The Esci M60A1/M60A3/Blazer represents the high water mark for their 1/35 scale armor kits. Unfortunately for them, Tamiya released a 3 in 1 M60A3/M60A1/M60A1 RISE/passive kit at the same time. Tamiya's armor was top notch in the 1980s and Esci didn't have the same reputation, even though their M60A1/A3 series was better.

Italeri and then Dragon basically put Esci out of business in the late 1980s. Esci did a series of HMMWVs that were not as good as Italeri's. They did a series of LAVs that weren't as good as Italeri's. They did a Leo 2 that wasn't as good as Italeri's.

They did a series of BMPs that were better than Dragon's, but Dragon's T-72 series was better than Esci's T-72/74 and Dragon did a more complete line of modern Soviet armor. The Esci T-55 series remained well regarded for nearly twenty years though.

By the mid 90s rolled around, Esci was all but done in 1/35 scale armor. Italeri got their molds of the kits they didn't have in their line. Their LAVs, HMMWVs, T-72s, Leo 2, BMPs vanished.

I did not know any of that. I didn't even know Esci made a T-55. 

Thank you for all of that info, Rob. I will add some of those kits to my watch list and see if I can get my hands on a few of them later.

M. Brindos

I did not know any of that. I didn't even know Esci made a T-55. 

Thank you for all of that info, Rob. I will add some of those kits to my watch list and see if I can get my hands on a few of them later.

At the time it was released, the only other T-55 available was the Lindberg T-55, which was a Squadron Kit of the Year way back in 1989. I built it and it is not a very good kit. This crappy kit is available at Hobby Lobby today.

https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/italeri/it6427.htm

I love crappy kits lol. I my have to pick that one up just to slap it together and paint it. Or maybe scratch build the heck out of it.

Either way it sounds entertaining and I don't have any 1/35 Soviet armor except for a Dragon Su-85 which I still need to complete the tracks for on one side. 

Rob, thank you again for all of this information. I love to learn.

I think Esci's biggest downfall in these modern 1/35 scale armor kits is that they basically took one kit, made a couple changes to some sub sprues and reboxed them as different kits.

Like the crappy Lindberg T-55, they gave all the options to make three or four different variants in one box. Sell one kit to people wanting whatever variant, and the kit flies off the shelves.

Esci had a better kit, and one kit sold out quickly and the IDF one died in clearance bins. Likewise with the M60A1/A3. The M60A3 sold quickly and the Blazer died on the shelves. Had they incuded all options in one kit, people wanting any version would have bought it and they would have all sold out.

When AMT/Ertl reboxed the Esci M60A1 Blazer, they included parts and decals to make either a US Army M60A1 or an IDF Blazer. It sold well.

You continue to be a fountain of information, Rob. I remember seeing the Blazer on shelves, but I don't remember seeing the ESCI M-60A1/A3.

You have the explanation for that lol.

Thank you, again.

The A3 was the biggest seller. The A1 had the OD green and white star look, but it also may have had the old 7th Army MASSTER camouflage. I know the AMT/Ertl reboxed Blazer included the MASSTER pattern.

I totally see what you mean about having all of those in one box. 

I do remember seeing that box for the A3. My father has built that one I think. That was when I was in high school lol.

Kit history is a bit of a side hobby for me. Multiple boxings for basically the same kit mystify me; back when Accurate Miniatures entered the market with umpteen Mustang kits, some fly off the shelves and others hit the clearance bin after years collecting dust.

But if they had released those kits with all options in one box, they all would have flown off the shelves. Instead, only a half sold and the unwanted versions didn't.

The difference between the M60A1 and M60A3 kits are literally a handful of parts; gun tube, crosswind sensor, search light, air cleaners and the LRF blister.

Well, you have my ear. I love history in general, so this information is being well recieved, I promise.

**

On a side note, I did get the mud holes cut into the drive sprockets.

I also got a little done on the lower hull, gluing on the tow shackles and tail lights.

All three of the original Esci M60 kits have been reissued in the 2000s. Italeri reboxed the M60A1 (#6397) and M60 Blazer (#6391), making the same mistake Esci did by not making a 2 in 1 kit.

Italeri took Esci's mistake one step further by removing certain standard M60 parts so that if you bought the Blazer, you could not make a regular M60A1, only the IDF tank. Previously, if you bought either Esci's M60 Blazer (#5042) or the AMT/Ertl M60 Blazer (#8864), you got all the necessary parts to make the IDF version or the US Army M60A1.

Interestingly to note, while AMT/Ertl gives instructions to make a US tank and provides the camouflage scheme for a 7th Army MASSTER tank, they do not give US decals. Only the IDF markings are provided and you are instructed to put those on the 7th Army camouflage tank.

Another curiosity is the box art. It shows a tank without the Blazer armor, but with the IDF thermal shrouded gun tube, .30 cal and .50 cal machine guns and Urdan cupola. So the box art mixes up versions.

Revell of Germany released the former Esci M60A3TTS, and they did it right. They released it as kit #03057 and included virtually every part necessary to make a US Army M60A3TTS, an OPFOR M60A3 and a USMC M60A1 RISE/Passive tank. They even included the deep water fording snorkel. This kit flew off the shelves and was very hard to find. They included four different marking options and three different camouflage patterns.

An unusual boxing of the Esci M60A1 is one that is very rare. Gunze Sangyo released it as the "High-Tech Model" M60A1 RISE PASSIVE TANK. When this kit came out, it was in the $125-150 range. Since previous Gunze Sangyo "high tech" kits were often Dragon or old Tamiya kits with multimedia parts added, many people who saw this kit assumed it was the Academy copy of the Tamiya M60A1. I've actually read "reviews" written by modelers who say it was the Academy kit. That just tells me they never laid hands and eyes on the kit.

I have one that I bought ten years ago for $35 + $13 s/h. It is Esci kit #5039 with white metal reactive armor, grenade launchers, air cleaners and some sundry detail parts. Even at $48 delivered, I over paid for the kit. A better solution to get this version of the tank would be to find the old Esci M60A1 or Blazer and then buy the ERA sprues from Tamiya USA. That way you don't have to deal with the white metal parts.

That's the long history of what was my favorite tank kit of the 1980s. I bought one when I was a young lieutenant in Germany and M60A3TTS tank platoon leader. It was either released in 1989 or 1990.

It's amazing to me that Gunze had the balls to charge so much for a kit they didn't even engineer. 

***

So I got around to scratching up the hinges and latch for the turret box.

I also got all of the hardware attached to the lower hull. I cut off the tow hooks (solid one piece mold) from the tow mounts and drilled out the holes. I'm going to add some shackles later.

Mike: Looks good!!! 

Rob: Thanks! I too found this an interesting history of the kit. 

Thank you very much, Gamera!

I'm figuring where and how to place the hinges for the skirts next.

Gamera

Mike: Looks good!!! 

Rob: Thanks! I too found this an interesting history of the kit.