I'm looking for either a kit or a conversion to build a US Army M48A5 tank in 1:35 scale. I don't recall seeing one advertised - does anyone know of one?

This is the last version of the M48 with the 105mm M68 cannon in it, and the lower silhouette IDF-style cupola.

Academy makes a ROK M48A5K. It can easily be converted to the US version by leaving off the side skirts and a few other items. You should be able to get it there in Korea pretty cheaply. I did in '00 and built it. It is a pretty nice kit.

Be careful with the Academy ROK kit I am pretty sure it has major issues with the fender width. They moved some stuff around to put the skirts on and caused issues with either the width of the fenders or the tracks (or both). Others will have more detail on this I am sure I just recall that from a conversation I had with someone regarding building an A5 variant.

Other than the decent Academy kit, there were two conversion available in the late 80s. One was by Verlinden and included updates to both the old Tamiya M60A1 and M48A3. The other conversion was a short lived Taiwan company called Lo Models. Their plastic conversion set contained parts to update the old Tamiya M60A1 and M48A3 into M60A1 RISE/Passive, M60A3TTS, M48A2GA2 and M48A5.

Personally, I thought I got an easier conversion by using the hull of the Tamiya M247 Sgt. York (retooled M48A3 kit hull) and the turret and gun tank fittings from the Academy M48A5/K.

As Rob stated, I've read that Academy shrunk the width of the M48 tracks in order to fit the side skirts for the Korean version. I do know that the tracks are narrower than the Tamiya kit's tracks (never bothered to confirm if the Tamiya tracks are too wide or if the Academy tracks are too narrow). Plus, the side skirt mountings need to be shaved off the side of the Academy kit hull. The Tamiya Sgt. York kit can often be found cheaply on eBay.

Rob,
Good tip as I just finished scratching the fenders on my M48A3 Mod B. What a PITA... Armed with this, I might have to start on a M48A5...

John

W4,
Why, yes, I did... I might take some of the mini Mod B tonight also.

John

John,

Feel free to post them up on our site if you need a place for them or mail them and I will post them for you. Would like to see both the real deal and your model.

Rob

Rob,
I need to go back and see what privledges I have... I should be able to get the pics up on the page.

John

The Academy track is indeed narrower by one track connector width.

The fenders are nearly 2mm wider.
Not only does Academy have you shave off the top lip for the fenders, you must fill in several notches along the edge of the fender with scrap plastic stock. It's much easier to ignore the instructions and remove the excess width from the fenders to the depth of the notches. This alleviates the problem off the excess width in addition to saving you tons of time.
Why go throught the trouble? The nose ot the Tamiya hull is markedly too pointed. The angle on the Academy kit is correct.
I wasn't as concerned with that as I was the fact that the Academy kit came with rubber wheels. I purchased it for this reason alone as I had to do an October War build which required bare wheels.
Some folks don't care for the rubber wheels, but if you're not using them, it really doesn't matter.

Thanks for the info, guys. At least now I have some ideas, and I can decide what direction to go.