I am planning to build a m728 cev and have found several postings for kits out there, such as H&K35 35.1701 M728 CEV Conversion, or Fine Cast Models
FCM-3513 M728 CEV Conversion. but am having a hard time who might have them online.
I read that AEF has a kit, but most reviews said to stay away from them.
I had a heck of a time finding a m60a1 blade tank but think I might have finally found one.
I spent 12 years on CEVs and AVLBs and biult a CEV from scratch years ago but got destroyed years ago.
I want to build a m60a1 avlb too, anyone see any kits? all I've found so far is 1/40 scale and prefer to build it at 1/35. any help would be gratefully accepted.
from a old engr tanker

Hello Garland,

the best conversion kit of the M728 is from Perfect Scale Modellbau from Germany http://www.perfect-scale.de/product_info.php?language=en&gm_boosted_product=M728-CEV-Conversion-Kit&products_id=35&
I haven`t got the conversion myself, I build my from scratch some years ago, but my friends and the reviews told that its great. And PSM ships directly to your door.

HTH
Hans-Hermann

I second Hans statement. I do have this conver and it is great. No worm holes in the resin. Best conver kit for your money. Perfect scale one of the best companies out there doing conver or full kits for that matter.

Another topic with your callsign I take it you were on 728's; what unit and bumper #, as I am into getting markings right on vehicles.

Hi Garland,

I myself have build the FCM coversion some years ago.
Look at my pictures to see the results !!
A lot of bubble and misfitting and flash.
I think it is no longer available, so i say, GO WITH THE PSM.
I hove bought some resin sets from them and they were excellent.
""GERMAN QUALITY ""

Good luck !!

Gé

Heh Garland !

The PSM kit would be your best choice, got one myself and the quality is outstanding ..... as for all the kits I have from PSM, got the M578 for X-Mas it's brilliant. I am waiting for the DEF Models "M60" upgrade and then I will start my M728 in Nato camo.
There is an article in "Model Military International" issue 67 from November 2011 covering the M728 CEV,
the author Andy King had to struggle a little with the ESCI M60 kit he used .... you will need the Academy "Dozer Blade" so one might be better off choosing the Academy M60 as base kit. I do believe Academy did sell the Dozer Blade separately though because that's the one I will be using with the Tamiya M60A3 kit.

Cheers
Christopher

thanks for the info, I looked at your pictures and was wondering where you came up with the camo colors. I was on the CEVs when they were OD and then had the first CEV with Europe camo pattern on the west coast (FT. Lewis, it was the only one at FT. Lewis).
Then when I went back to Germany in 1976, the CEVs I saw had the dark colors, I also got to camo paint my 2 AVLB bridges and tanks by brush- boy was that fun.
anyway, just curious about where those colors where used?

You can try to scatchbuild one, that's what I did a month ago. I need to finish a few before painting. Here's a link to my build albums.

Model builds

Happy Modeling,
Joe

BTW: I want to do mine as a late Cold War CEV. What do you suggest for paint, camo or a solid color.

Hi Garland,

If you are refering to my pictures, i got the idea from this site:
http://sites.google.com/site/merdccamo/home

Look under 7th army !
I tried to follow the camo-scheme for the M60 as close as possible !

Good luck !!

Gé

here is a link to the camo paint colors that I had on my cev at Fort Lewis Wa, and then had to paint on my AVLB's at CSC !/35 Armour of the 1st Arm Div.
http://www.military-vehicle-photos.com/picture/number7417.asp

also in those pictures you gave me the link to, the jeep belonged to the 11th Arm Cav regiment that I belonged to from 1972 to 1974, this picture had to be after 1976.
I think the dark red paint color had to be a odd ball, maybe because paint was running low in the green, these are of the 7th corps, which 1st Arm Div was part of.
is you want the color pattern for the late cold war period, go with the picture at that link.
another thing, those colors may have been a test period and what throws me too is the pictures of the M114s- they were dropped from active units as early as 1973. the 11th ACR replaced them with M113's in 1973 because they were junk and the 20mm gun would constantly break down.

To everybody who has helped in this quest I want to say thank you, and to
skyshark (Joey), I didn't forget you question about the bumber # but I had to really think about it.
with the 58th Engineer Company of the 11th Arm Cav Regiment, my bumber numbers were 7A/11cav X19 and my second tank was X29
on some of my other units- I will have to break out some of my old photo albums. give me a couple of days please
again thank you everyone

Academy does make a model of the M60A1 rise with the bulldozer blade that you are talking about

about unit markings, I found some good pictures at this link that shows the 58th engr company that I was with, this was part of the 11th Cav Regiment
http://www.armyrecognition.com/v_hicule_blind_s_lourds_char_de_combat_etats_unis/m728_description_identification_pictures_picture_photo_image_us_army_engineer_main_battle_tank.html

I know it it long, but has real good pictures.
I did order the mod kit from germany and have got my m60a1 with blade, now I have to see how much modification I will need to do on the base.
thanks again everyone

Hello Garland,
In the linked photo it seems the CEV is painted in a solid color. Would that be the norm, I'd like to do a solid color for mine and stay away from the cammo if I can. So my question is...olive drab is this the color. The photo seems that The CEV is in a lighter color.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

O.D. with a touch of yellow? Will that do?



Taken on Hawaii 1975.

More here:
http://s423.photobucket.com/albums/pp320/29ToyA/M60/Other%20M60s/M728/?start=all

Cheers,
/E

hey zapper
it would depend if you want the vehicle to be late cold was time (1975 -) or when all army vehicles were just OD green. I'm going to do mine in the time frame of 1971-1974 when I was with the 58th engr company of the 11th Cav Regiment, which was od green.
anything later would have had the camo colors (1975), it took about 2 years for most units to get camo paint.
on the green with yellow that you mentioned, I'm not sure about the yellow idea because OD green was kind of glossy and of course dark.it did fade some with age and dirt.
looking at a whole lot of pictures, it appears that some units used different shades of green in the camo pattern, but most was a sort of dark green like in my main picture.
anyway, I hope this helps you, if you want to ask any more questions, feel free to do so.

Hi, unfortunately I do not understand everything, but I will still meet in the next upload pictures of a green M-728th I have pictures from here once a finely Casel model. I have to replace a lot of parts. if I'm building one M-728, then only the scale Perfect model .











greeting
Jürgen

I realize now that my comment can be interpreted as refering to the acctual shade of green used. The yellow I 'm talking about are the yellow painted details - blade, sprocket, tow cable ends - on these particular vehicle/s. Gives the option to not paint a camouflage scheme but still have a bit of color to break up the overal green.

Cheers,
/E

When deployed in 2001, I took some time and built my CEV using the Academy M60 with the M9 blade. To this I added the AEF resin conversion, to which I found I also had to add a number of details and a few corrections. Overall, it came out to be a good representation of the "1:1" scale item.

I don't believe the AEF is very available these days.

And I second on the PSM kits. I too am going to order the VTR, after trying to make the Verlinden conversion work. I also have built the Gama Goat and GOER kits from PSM, and both speak highly of this companys' product line.

Late Cold War? I was in Germany and 2nd ACR's engineers was camo'd That was 1974 to 1977. I don't think I ever was a straight OD tank there. Except for German armor.

Thnaks Zapper and Jim. I'm looking at a time frame from 1979 thru 1989. Again I'd like to do a solid color or even the 3 tone nato green/black and brown.

The 4 tone cammo colors...something I could never pull off, tried it with bad results.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Hi everyone
it really amazes me on how much interest there is on the CEVs now a days, not that many years if you mentioned CEV- everyone would go-what is that? its great for a old CEV commander and section leader to see this interest. on to questions,etc

ZAPPER- on the yellow for the blade and cable ends, that had to be only in the islands. in europe during the cold war time period- everything was camo. so if you want to go for the island units, you could go that way. it certainly looked pretty.

AIKINUT- so you you were with the Armoued Cav also, cool, what was the engr company number? I guess you got there right after they camo'ed everything, border units always got stuff first. when I got to the CSC of the 1/35 Armoued Battalion of the 1st arm div, my AVLBs were still OD green,and my section got to camo paint them by brushes.

MOTHER- for the time period of 79 to 89, the tanks would have been the 4 color camo, but if you go the 3 color pattern, it should work. I know trying to do the 4 color pattern is a real pain, just think of what it would be like to do a AVLB with bridge.

How can anyone NOT love the M728?

I almost agree with you regarding the paint jobs but only to about 99,9%. There are always the exceptions...



(From http://m136.de/us-berlin-brigade

Another M88 with black/yellow blade can be seen in the Tankograd M88 book.

In the latest Tankograd (MASSTER/MERDEC/DUAL-TEX) book there's a few MASSTER painted M578 with details (spade, tip of crane...) painted yellow/black as well.

With that said: the exceptions are rare and of course none of them are an M728...


BTW: For those of you that fancy US cold war armour I can recommend the latest Tankograd book!

Cheers,
/E

Great book btw !
You forgot to mention the very nice pics of an M728 in Dual Texture camo ... myself, I am seriously thinking of building mine in the MASSTER camo.

Cheers
Christopher

Hey everyone
I finally uploaded some pictures of my CEVs and AVLBs, its just a few but some are rather good I think. especially the two of gunnery. here is the link to photobucket
http://s1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa413/ssggbroot/CEV%20and%20AVLB/

The photo of the 25 Div 56 EB M278 CEV is mine and here is some added info. I visited it with Marty Swanson, an ex marine who did great armor modeling in Hawaii during the 70s. We visited in 1974 or 75, I believe. I had only a limited amount of film and didn't shoot as much as I wanted. I seem to remember that only one of the M278s had the yellow and black blades, so I didn't take a photo of the other blade. But looking at the photo the other one had the sides of the blade painted yellow. The markings were different between the two and the 299th M728 was also finished differently. We got there during the middle of the transition over to the subdued markings and looking at the M551 and M113s and M114s, the stars and bumper codes were starting to be painted black and the large numbers on the sides were eliminated by being painted over. The M551s sometimes had the gun barrels trimmed with green, red or white stripes. The 25 DIV had only two brigades so the 3/4 Cav had only two squadrons. The 299th provided the round out brigade, but I don't think that their Cav squadron had M551s. When the 25 Div returned from Viet Nam, they took over the equipment from the deployed brigade from the 6th Div that was to be organized in the states. That's why they were painted up real pretty, I guess.

There was only one M88 to be seen and it already had subdued markings. I couldn't tell if it ever had the blade painted yellow and black. I did see and shoot one assigned to the 299th at the facility in Diamond Head, and it had just the top and bottom edges of the blade painted black and yellow. There may not have been any unit bumper code, just the vehicle code.
I never saw the AVLB at Schofield Barracks and wonder how it would have been painted in the CONUS peacetime markings. I did see it at an Armed Forces Day display, but don't remember anything.

I put the photos into a new folder in my photobucket account.

Best wishes,
Grant Matsuoka