Im looking for a kit of this tank, at least I think this is the one I'm after. I got an idea after reading a book called tank sargent and now I'm needing to know what and where I need to get this stuff to do it. I'm need to know, who makes the best kit, is there a searchlight package available, is there a dozer blade kit available, and is there anything else that would be needed to make an accurate representation of this tank? Any and all help is appreciated

Tamiya makes the M48A3 Patton tank kit you want. Academy also made a copy of that kit, but it is long out of production. Another older kit kicking around is the M48A2 Patton by Monogram. Not as detailed and a much older vintage model.

The Tamiya kit comes with the serachlight. Academy sells an M9 dozer blade separately for around $5. It is not the exact type for the M48 series, but you could probably make it work to look cosmetically correct.

There is a current Academy kit, the M48A5-K that builds into a more modern version used by the Koreans and US Army in the 1980s. It would not be the proper kit for a Vietnam era tank depicted in the book Tank Sergeant.

Thanks for the info.

Hello Josh, the dozer kit from Academy is made for the M-60 series tanks, not the M-48. The front of the hull on the M-48 is rounded, or boat-shaped. The hull front of the M-60 is flat and angular. It might take a lot of work to mate the Academy Dozer kit with the Tamiya M-48. I don't know if there are any differences between the Blade on a M-48 'dozer as opposed to a M-60 one. I have read that book also, and since then I have always wanted to model a M-48 'dozer, too. You can also try Missing Lynx, which is an armor site. Good luck, and I hope I helped P.S. The weight of the 'dozer blade causes the suspension of the tank to compress towards the front giving it a nose-down attitude when running with the blade raised, so you have to modify the position of the swingarms which isn't too difficult to do.

And here I thought Armorama was an Armour site...

The Tamiya kit is easy to build, but has many dimensional issues, because it was designed to be motorized. The suspension needs to be lowered, a lot of holes in the hull need to be filled, and the hull is to big, because the batteries needed to be fitted in... A nice looking kit none the less.





Henk

Henk, given the short comings of the tam kit, woul you still recommend it? I really hate those "meant to be motorized" kits, but if it's the best available in plastic I guess I'll go with it

Gary,
I understood that the hull is to 'fat' due to the size of the batteries that needed to be fitted. IIRC, that was one of the faults highlighted together with the other ones. If that is incorrect, than I stand happily corrected.

Josh,
Yes, it is a good kit, typical Tamiya, so quality and fit are fine. Builds up nice, but you need to fill the holes. It's not a big problem, some plastic card and filler will do the job. As for the suspension, al you have to do is cut off the position key on the suspension arm (on the part that fits into the mount), and glue them in at the correct angle.
Simple way to line every thing up...
get a lump of clay or such, blue tack works also.
put a pile on a flat work surface, and lay down the tracks next to this, spaced as the go on the vehicle.
Dry fit the prepared suspension, with the wheels attached, and position on the tracks.
Push the hull down, into the clay, untill the position and height are satifactory. This is an extra bonus, as you are fitting the dozer blade. You can make the front sit down at any requireed angel.
When happy with the position, remove the vehicle, glue the suspesion arms, and reposition the vehicle on the mount as before.

Reason for doing the glueing later, is that you may need time to add, or remove clay as required.

Good luck

Henk

doesnt sound to bad. thanx for the info.

Hi Henk

I think you're referring to the ride height of the tank rather than the width. According to legend, Tamiya measured up a tank that had the engine removed so it rode higher than a fully equipped one. Not that it's noticable to the naked eye on the model built OOB, but you may feel like raising the road wheel arms as you suggest in your post..

David

Hello Henk, I guess I should have said it is ANOTHER armor site

I did mention that the M9 dozer blade is not the proper one for the M48, but that he could make it look cosmetically correct. In fact one problem with most of the dozer kits is that they all miss the hydralic reservoir and piping.

Dosen't Legend do an IDF M9 dozer blade that includes the hydraulics?

I located Mr. Zumbro online and have requested pictures. If he has any that he wants to share I will be sure let everyone know

Well, the front road wheel is the right height, so it floats in mid air ahead of the rest of the wheels, so the mistake is kinda noticeable. It's less so if you push the completed model into a muddy diorama base.

Here is a list of tweaks and corrections to the Tamiya M48A3. None of these "have" to be done, but they will make it more accurate.

1. Turret height should be increased by approx 1.5mm, which can be done by adding a sheet styrene shim, which can then be sanded to the turret's shape.

2. Fill the motorization slots and holes on the model.

3. Three oval holes should be added to the drive sprockets at the 12, 4 and 8 o'clock positions, these are not present on the model, but were there in real life. Check reference pics for shape and location.

4. It's worth considering replacing the fender stays with PE items or homemade efforts of very thin sheet styrene.

5. Rebuild the stowage basket from thin wire; it really improves the model.

6. Add casting numbers to the turret roof, rear hull, and engine access doors.

7. Glue mantlet in place and fill gap with milliput to represent the canvas cover.

8. Replace the cover, fixing clips with plastic strip and add bolt heads.

9. If shown opened, shave off loader's hatch internal handle and latch mechanism, and replace with brass or plastic strip, rod and tube.

10. Turret water jerry cans have incorrect style filling cap.

11. You could replace the molded on tie downs on the turret with brass items.

12. Use copper wire to add 3 lifting lugs to the commander's cupola, at the 12, 4, and 8 o'clock positions.

13. Shave off and replace the hull stowage bin handles with plastic/brass strip.

14. Fill up the main turret site periscope, as well as the driver's periscopes.

15. Add cast texture to the turret and hull.

16. Replace the awfully incorrect kit tracks with aftermarket ones. The AFV set is great, just make sure you get the correct one, they make two sets that they say can be used on the M48 and M60 tanks. One of them has octagonal shaped pads; the other has chevron shaped pads. The latter (chevron block) are the correct ones for a Vietnam era tank.

17. Suspension height correction. The Tamiya kit was based on a vehicle that did not have the engine installed, as such, it was lighter and rode high on its suspension. The kit is about 3mm too high. To fix it, cut the tabs off the road wheel arms and lower all the arms by 3mm. Each suspension arm damper should also have about 2.5mm removed, they are too long and also make the model sit a little too high. You may also have to remove a couple track blocks on each side to take the slack out of the track.



18. Not so much a tweak, as it is a hint, do not add the barrel for the 50 cal to the commander's cupola. Do the other option the kit gives you and position the 50 cal outside and on top of the cupola as most tanks did this, because they felt the 50 cal took up too much space inside the cupola, restricting movement and vision for the commander. Fill the hole for the original position.

Good luck.