OK, I finally got an old Tamiya M1 kit to mate up with my Sgt. York turret someone sent me for free (thanks!) when I was in Virginia. I've begun by removing the turret ring from the M1's lower turret and will mate it to the bottom of the York turret. Not too difficult a task.

I was wondering whether or not to mount the M1's commander's weapon station (CWS) onto the York turret. Maybe for close in defense, any thoughts on this? Another thought would be to mount the loader's M240 up there.

I'm still debating whether or not to attempt to mount Avenger Stinger pods somewhere.

As far as the name and nomenclature, I've decided that this will be the M247A1 Sgt. Major York.

Go for it ! An experiment in armor Hmmm. Sgt Major York great name. When can we see the pics for this brute of a tank AA Weapon ?

Cool, Rob. I want to build that supe M-60 one of these days... an M60 chassis with mods and an M1 turret. I guess Turkey may be buying it. The conversions are fun! Make sure you post lots of pictures!

It will be fun. I will come up with a pseudo-history with the M247A1 being base on an M1 chassis and M247A2 on an M1A1 chassis and so on.

Hey Sabot, I think that your conversion was also inthe Twilight 2000 game. I know they had several M1 varaints with ADA and such.

I too have thought about making various "fantasy" modern vehicles...one was a M115a1, A M113 with a LAV-25 turret, kinda like the Vietnam "aussie" FAV.

I would also think that something like a Mk. 19 GL would be cool.

I like the idea of the CWS on the York Turret, but wouldn't locating it over the commanders position be difficult? What about a Patton CWS? You know, the little mini turret for the Patton. If your removed the fittings in the top center of the turret, there would be enough room for either one and you would have to add these details back on elsewhere. Just tossing out ideas.

Rob

The main difficulty appears to be the limited traverse available on the top of the York turret. With the radar and other sundry protrusions, a true cupola looks to be near impossible. The loader's skate ring looks like it could work with the turret, but something will have to be done about the hatch (hatch will open and interfere with the machine gun.

Glad to see you're workin' on pulling this one off.... Any thoughts on the pain job you're gonna do?

Nate
Wisc. USA

Thats a cool idea Sabot. Sounds fun and whimsical - you don't have to worry about accuracy.

I would upgun that thing as much as you can.

Yes Nate, I'm doing it in a Desert Storm tan scheme with the underlying woodland camo coming through where the tan paint flakes off. Lower hull had been painted when I bought this kit as well as the outer roadwheel halves (poorly with a paint brush). I had to strip the paint down with Easy-Off.

So far I've grafted the M1's turret race ring to the York turret and have built up the turret top and bottom. I have started accurizing the lower hull based on the old desert tan M1IP tank I have sitting in my motor pool. I've painted the lower hull forest green so I can mask off portions representing where the paint has flaked. The back side of the road wheels and drive sprocket were also painted forest green. I want the forest green showing through where the desert sand paint doesn't reach when spray painting the actual vehicle.

At the show yesterday, I wasn't able to locate the 40mm Bofors so I'll have to order them for someone online. I did run into a local man who had left over M1A1 tracks from a DML and Trumpter kit. He is going to send them to me sometime this week. The Tamiya M1 and M1A1 tracks are the worst renditions of any kit because the center guides are all in the wrong position.

I found the Eduard M1A Abrams fitting PE set which just adds the rubber and metal stripping to the tops of the side skirts. I was busy at the show yesterday so I didn't get a chance to work on my kit at all.

As far as accuracy Scott, you mean you didn't see these things deployed operationally during Desert Storm? They were deployed one 2-vehicle section per tank company.

Greyhunter, Not sure if they ever saw anything more than the a piece of papaer for the LAV-25 turret onthe M113 chassis, but I know they did at least some mockups for the M113 with the Bradley chassis. Not sure if anyone has bought them yet, though.

Now THAT seems to be a awkward design.

I believe you guys are talking about the OSV or OPFOR Surrogate Vehicle. This is an M113 with a Bradley turret (less TOW launcher) and vizmods (visual modifications) done to make the vehicle appear similar to a BMP-2. Here are some links to the vehicle:
http://www.irwin.army.mil/11acr/osv.htm
http://www.irwin.army.mil/11ACR/211/photographs.htm And a photo of one:
The OPFOR at NTC has been using these things for years. I'll move this entire post to a new thread so others can see it.

Great... now you've got me thinking about putting a ZSU23/4 turret onto a T72 or 80 hull...
Designed as a stop-gap until Tunguska arrives sort of thing...

like I don't have enough unfinished projects on my plate right now...-grin-

Mike

Soldiers Online

"The best thing I can say about the vehicles is that they're great for MOS-related training," he said. "Because they used Bradley components to fabricate the turret, we're using our Bradley skills while we're conducting a mission, and when we have down time in the field I can train our gunners by staging mini-ARTEPs with the other vehicles." Garcia also said that he likes the OSV for the safety it provides his crews, especially because of the night-vision capability, which wasn't available in the old Sheridans.




http://call.army.mil/products/ctc_bull/98-24/98-24ch9.htm

The extended rear compartment will accommodate up to five fully equipped infantrymen on two bench seats. The soldiers dismount from a pair of outward opening doors, similar to that of the BMP, and not the hydraulically powered ramp in the case of the M113 or Bradley. These are features that the current BMP VISMOD M551 Sheridan is unable to replicate, and will eliminate the need to follow those vehicles with unarmed troop carriers, as has been the practice.



http://www.stricom.army.mil/PRODUCTS/OSTS/ostsart3a.jsp


SB

I've been looking on some of the various vehicles and searching the web to see if I can come up with a better (or at least decent) weapon station/mount for the York turret.

The M1 CWS looks to be a no go as well as the skate ring for the loader's M240. The M240 could work with the proper mount or pintle. Either that or a simple M60 on a pintle like that found on the M151A2 Mutt kit. I'm leaning away from an M60 since they are getting used less & less in the Army. Anybody have any ideas?

well, looking at the turret, the only real way to get any sort of MG or coupola on there would be to move the sighting glass (?) on the right front side (in front of the current hatch) further forward. I am not sure how feasable it would be with the guts of the Turret. That should give enough room for a M1A1 style commanders coupola.

Also, you may want to think of what may have been upgraded by the time of DS1. It is possible the optics could have been changed.

Otherwise, the optics on the right and the radar right behind the hatch really limit your ability to put on any additional armament. Maybe a skate ring that is welded to the radar tower?

how about mounting the weapon system from the york to the turret of an m109..instead of the howitzer...that should give ya room to play....or the weapons set from the bushmaster to the m-109 turret...love that 109...lol

What about a frontal turret armor mounted machine gun? Or side firing ports? How about two M2s mounted like the old SAS jeeps in front of the commander?

2-2 Dragoon - I have some drawings and maybe s ome photos of the "Super M60". My brother works for GDLS-Logistics (at least until he was mobilized after 911) and he sent me some GD propoganda showoing the M-1 turret on the M60A3 chassis.

Jeff