Hi All,

Here is a question for the armor buffs. Specifically those that served on or are very familiar with the Army version of the M60A1.

To convert the AFV Club Marine version M60A1 model to an Army version, what has to be done to the kit?

Thanks

The only difference between early (pre-Desert Shield/Storm) Marine and Army M60A1s is the deep wading gear for amphibious operation. Army units were not issued this gear with their tanks, at least the units in which I served.

Dave,
If you build it out of the box, you have an early US Army vehicle (60's - mid 70's). Use the aluminum wheels, side loading air cleaners (omit the air gauge and cage shown in the instructions). If you are using a driver figure or closing the driver's hatch, I would not bother with the Driver's station parts. I also found that the upper grill doors on the engine deck needed some finessing to get into place correctly. I dealt with the cover done cast appearance with Tamiya primer (the stuff like Mr Surfacer) and a cheap brush to paint on the primer followed by some wet sanding with 220-320 grit evened the surface out nicely.

I have the Legend detail set that gives you the mantlet and .50 caliber covers in resin and really like them. I didn't use the SGLs and spare ammo boxes as I am doing an early 70's 3ID vehicle with the MASSTER scheme. The PE included with the set is nice, but less the water can racks and SGL mounts (if using them) I feel that the PE is not really needed.

Drop me an e-mail or PM if you have any questions

Thanks Jeff and John.

John, I emailed.

Dave

To be technical the Marines never fielded the version that they direct you to build in the instructions (They used the M60A1 RISE/PASSIVE). What AFV does give you will build an early Army version with side loading air cleaners, but ironically they do not provide white stars and stencils or the bright tactical markings typical of the 60s. I concur with John on the Legends set, it's very nice. I also skipped most of the PE because the kit pieces are very thin and actually closer to scale thickness. I however, did something a little more drastic with mine regarding the casting texture. I'll try to post something soon.

After some additional web searches and talking to people, it seems that the version I will be building is an M60A1 RISE, used by the 4/73rd Armor in Germany during the late 70s.

Is there anything that should be done to the AFV Club kit to better represent this particular version of the tank?

Thanks

Dave,
I was going to answer your e-mail but this the reply to this post covers what I was going to send...

You will be looking to build either a M60A1 (RISE), which will require you to source a set of early unarmored top loading air cleaners from either Shapeways or Click 2 Print as well as T-142 track from AFV Club, Spade Ace, or Fruili. According to Gary O, the 3d printed parts are pretty nice.

The second and more likely M60A1 variant, based on the time frame that you indicated is the M60A1 (RISE) (Passive). For this one, use the armored top loading air cleaners that are included in the A1 kit, add T-142 tracks, and an AN/VSS-3A "pink" search light, which I believe you can get from the Academy USMC M60A1 kit or maybe from the resin Verlinden M60 Update kit. Hunnicutt does not specify if the addition of the M239 Smoke Grenade Launchers with the spare ammo boxes were part of the RISE Passive tanks but I suspect that the addition of the SGLs to the M60A1s were a MWO added in the M60A1 fleet in the early 1980s

HTH

John

Thanks John,

I remember that the M60A1s in the 4/73 had the smoke dischargers and ammo boxes. The version that the 4/73rd had were probably the Rise/passive. The Germany units were usually the first to get any improvements to vehicles. I remember we were the first to get the modification for the M113 that added the Dragon launcher to the TC hatch.

In my research, I found a picture of a 4/73rd M60A1 on REFORGER '79. The caption says its a Rise version, and it has the dischargers, ammo boxes and the small searchlight.

Dave,
If you have a picture reference with features, then you are good... 4-73 Armor were they with 1ID(F) down in Goppengen???

Let me know if you have any additional questions or need some references.

Yes John. The 4-73 was part of the 1st IDF. The 4th Bn was actually collocated at Panzer Kasserne in Boeblingen with the 1-16 In, my unit. We also had 1-4 Cav, and a Maintenance unit there.

I think I will try to find someone who was actually in that unit to get the exact version used. Wish me luck...lol

I was with 3/68th Armor, 8th ID back in 1980 to 1983. When I first arrived, we had M60A1 RISE/Passive tanks, which all had the SGLs and the spare external smoke grenade storage boxes... Which were perfect for storing 12 oz. cans of Coke while in the field. They also had the newer version of the search light

When I rotated back to the U.S. in 1983, I was sent to 1/63rd Armor, 1st ID. My tank was an older M60A1 RISE/Passive WITHOUT the SGLs. It was an older tank since I had to "touch up" the front slope from time to time since the old "white star" would show through the half-@ss paint job.

Being the youngest and lowest ranking tank commander, I naturally got the worst tank in my platoon... I didn't care since I was a 20 y/o SGT!!


It also had the older version of the searchlight and during gunnery, it slipped one of the mounting points and was "lightly" damaged by coax machinegun fire... It was patched up and put back into service.

Thanks Ted