had one of those what would happen if moments. dragon's M48A3 can be backdated to an A2. just leave off the G305 riser and build up the cupola. the tabs on the clear insert are a perfect fit for the turret opening

The A2 has a different engine deck! You can build an early A3 by leaving off the riser but for an A2 you must leave off the air cleaner boxes and alter the engine deck to remove the air cleaner notches.

The engine deck grills were narrowed to make room for the air cleaners when the tanks were upgraded to the diesel A3 configuration. You would have to rebuild the grills, no easy task. The old solution was to kit bash the ancient Monogram (now Revell) M48A2 engine deck onto a Tamiya hull and rebuild the fenders, but now Revell Germany is about to release an all-new M48A2, so there's no need to.

it's a given there'd be other changes, but still at least you're not restricted to anything after the mod B came out