hello all, I've waited a long time for the MBT 70 KPz70 to get a decent kit out, thank you Dragon black label team, been stalking around here a while watching others work so it's time to join up, join in and contribute. First the main parts of the kit trial fitted together.



the top of the turret basket, two lengths of plastic card joined with their ends at opposite sides of the circle.

the struts and mesh installed, set aside to dry. now on with the drivers rotating pod.

the drivers pod with circular foot rest and it's accelerator and break foot pedals, seat height adjustment bar, drivers control column, mounting strut that joins the drivers pod to the cupola

the turret casting is not geared up for internal detail, there are large gaps in the armour that need plating over.



the 20mm auto cannon mounting pod particularly, in Matt's pictures the mount has a gap between the floor of the 20mm and the turret ring shelf, the black hole in the plate that separates the crew area from the ammo in the turret bustle, is for the auto loader

the pictures Matt Flegal took, they also show a hatchway between the auto cannon pod and the fighting compartment, presumably so crew could clear a stoppage or reload the gun without leaving the protection of the turret.

Looks great so far! Are you building it as the German version, or US? as I believe the Dragon kit (If thats what your working with) was based off one in Germany, which I'd assume had a few differences internally. Probably limited to electronic equipment IMO.
I've never seen any pictures of the interior myself, I always assumed any surviving MBT-70s were either too rusted to bother, or welded shut. Got any links to that? I'm rather curious to see it

Matt Flegal has a wealth of images over on the features pages, but it's the last 14 frames that are gold dust, the only images taken of
MBT 70 interior on the web,that I can find. He's not actually got inside, but the commanders gun sight has been removed leaving a hole in the turret roof.

I've mocked up all the parts constructed so far just to see how it looks with a view down the drivers hatch, much more work still to go, I'm starting on the commanders station next.

Hi Dave,

Check your emails! (Just sent a link to some hopefully useful pics...)

Great work so far!

cheers Tom, some of the interior shots will come in handy, they are in happier days for MBT 70 when the interior was white and new, the days before the years and years of neglect set in and the rust appeared.
If the Americans act now they could have an up and running one for "American Tank Fest". Only kidding, there's no such thing. If only.

The Commanders seat ready to be superdetailed and painted.

the turret basket drying as detail is added.


while that lot dries off ready to take detail painting, it's time to turn to the underside of the upper hull casting, here light shines right through the engine deck louvres, so I've blanked them off with wheels halves from the spares box, the hull intake vent for the air con was blanked of with plastic card

deep dark blackness is the objective here.


the intake for the crew environmental control looks far better blanked off, rather than being able to see right through the sponson.


next the engine bulkhead is not supplied in the kit, so plastic card came to the rescue to provide a blank off and add stiffness to the engine deck.

I'm on a roll with the MBT 70, but I had to take time to replace a broken tile on the roof of my house, and glass up my last construction, a Revell Leopard two.

Excellent work Dave, I was just inside the MBT 70 that is located in Danbury Connecticut, during the open turret day at the museum. Sorry I didn't take any photos, that tank is a wreck on the inside though, I'm not sure what help any photos would have been. What a cramped interior on that beast, it made the Abrams I was a gunner on seem like a luxury suite!

That's worrying John, much as I'd love to visit an open turret day, I imagine the damage that's done by the well meaning but inexperienced general public to the trampled interior of rare museum pieces like that MBT 70. I know from reading about Tiger 301 at Bovington how pieces were removed over the years. A internal sign plate was recently returned to the Tank Museum by someone who pinched it as a souvenir in the early 60's, before it was considered a heritage item.
We have to guard what we have today for generations that follow.

or even, Tiger 131 at Bovington Tank Museum. (Sneaks away quietly)

the interior surfaces get a initial light dusting of interior white, later I can start detail painting picking out seats and other components, the gunners computer will need some super detailing on the otherwise plain white boxs.


wasn't expecting fit issues this early in the construction, been working on this a week now and only just starting to assemble actual kit parts.

I'm glad the photos are useful. Somewhere I have a photo of the interior of the Danbury tank buts it's just a gutted shell filled with debris and seats.

It looks really nice so far!

Hi Dave
You might find some useful photos on my FaceBook MBT-70 page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MBT70/photos/?filter=photos

Cheers Matt, those last dozen shots of the interior were the inspiration for this build, if you have some of the other one, love to see how beat up it is inside.
Here's my turret interior, trial fitted together. Far more weathering and detailing still to come.

another shot of the same stage, here the view is taken through the vacant gun mount, the kit does not provide the breech inside, so that's got to be scratch built next, you can see the auto loader behind it's compartment in the bustle wall.

speaking of the gun, look what dropped onto my workbench this morning, the Aber armaments set for the MBT 70, updates for both the Rheinmetal 20mm autocannon and the main gun. Cant wait to get to the stage of opening them up and letting you see them.

Hi, John!

By any chance, would you know what the differences between the US MBT 70 and the German KPz70 might be? If so, please educate me- I know virtually nothing about the US MBT 70, except that it was rejected by the US...

As I understand it, the all-resin COMMANDER MODELS US MBT 70 is a piece of junk...

Hi Dennis, the changes to the US and German MBT 70'S are mainly fire control differences and main gun, the US wanted a missile launcher/gun while the Germans wanted a high velocity 120mm. The other arguements were inches or milimetres, what fire control technology to go with, there were managment problems and spiralling cost issues, so much so that Congress pulled the plug on the project, but they didn't reject MBT 70, the US kept it, calling it an austere MBT 70, without the autocanon, kneeling suspension, the project was re-designated XM803, this project itself spiralled over budget and was stopped by Congress. They wanted to produce not the best tank in the world, but the best tank that they could afford, so they developed XM803 into XM1 that became M1 Abrams. This is why MBT 70 is so important to America, it's an important step in the develpment of America's current tank M1 Abrams.

Great work Dave!

The biggest visual difference was the engine deck - the US used a different power pack for its "standard" set-up, so the metalwork was different. They also tried out gas turbines, again requiring different rear-end architecture.

Bear in mind that the numerous prototypes all had small differences, as new ideas were tried out on one at a time. The two in German museums show small variations that would be interesting to model, and I'm guessing all 14 were kinda like snowflakes in that respect. Pity good reference pics/info on the whole range are hard to find.

Never seen the Commanders kit, so cannot pass comment...