Here's one you don't see everyday. It's comprised of the US M24's chassis with the turret replaced by one off a French AMX13. And no, this is not a "what if". The French actually converted one or two of these for testing purposes.

For this build I used Testor's M24 Chaffee and Heller's AMX13 kits. The hull was built out of the box. The turret, however, had some modifications done to it, in the way of added weld lines, periscopes, hatch handles and short antennae. I had to thin the rear hatch down, and remove the molded on canvas dust skirt. Also, the turret needed to be spaced up so that it fit at proper height. The kit band tracks were used. I still need to go in and glue them down.

It might be pointed out that it's not painted in the proper shade of green. By the time I found the suitable color, with the help of Olivier, I had already laid down the base coat. Not wanting to wait for the proper color to be ordered in, I decided to let it ride as it was.

Comments and critiques are most welcome.

Cool vehicle. And with the leftover parts, you can fit the Chaffee turret to the AMX-13 hull, which was also tested!

It's already on the TBD list, Jesse. They actually converted a fair number like that. Most had their main armament removed and were used as driver training vehicles, before eventually ending up as range targets.

Good job, very interesting subject.

150 were ordered in 1960 and they were deployed in Algeria until 1962.

http://www.chars-francais.net/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1255

H.P.

Thanks Russel.

Frenchy, thanks for the link and the extra information.

Bob love the conversion you made. I thought about doing this with the bronco M24 and EBR turret I have laying around.

I have a good question, why would you install a turret from a M24 onto an AMX-13 chassis and then deploy them? I can see the M24 with the AMX turret, after all the AMX had a better gun......right?

I don't know why they would mate them together, but the original AMX-13 and the M24 had the same caliber gun, both 75mm. The AMX had an autoloader though, as opposed to the Chaffee being manually loaded.

Christopher - First, thanks for the compliment.

As to your question, I'm sure there are people out there who can answer it better than I, but I can think of few possibilities. Maybe someone can affirm or correct the statements.

I understand the AMX was pretty light in the armor department, possibly the M24's was better. There is also the possibility that the Chaffee had better optics and fire control systems. As Gino mentioned, both had 75mm guns, maybe the Chaffee's was ballistically better. The auto load feature may have proved more of a hinderance than an asset in the area of shell choice for given situations.

Whatever the reasons were, it didn't work out so well, or a better suited replacement came out. They were only deployed in combat for less than 2 years before being recalled and turned into training vehicles.

Unfortunately you can't use the Heller hull out of the box for this option. The M24 turret was fitted to early chassis which means a lot of modifications on the hull. The whole suspension system was different and the idlers were the first type with 6 holes.
It is not impossible, I'm currently converting the Heller kit into a Suez affair one.
AMX 13 chassis 2A

Olivier

Why did I have the feeling that was going to be the case. After watching your build, Olivier, I know I won't go through that much trouble. I may go ahead and do it with the newer hull under the "what if" category. I did use some of your modifications to the turret in this build.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.