Yeah, what happened here? Looks like it was sat on, otherwise hit with a hammer. Was it deliberate? I've had models I wanted to throw against a wall before, but I never have.

Wow! You had said it was brittle, you weren't kidding. That really sucks.

Sean

Dan, Found your build just before the accident. It was looking great. The only thing I might have done differently was leave off the bilge pump exhaust to the right front of the drivers hatch. I have only seen those mounted on USMC tanks. Generally in Army tanks the driver would open the drains in the hull bottom to release water. The Marines need it for crossing surf en route to the beach. With that being said, still an outstanding build!

Just some comments concerning the Bronco track. Your track when installed had slack/sag. Per the TM-10 the sag halfway between support rollers must be between 3/8-9/16" or .95- 1.43cm., basically unnoticeable on a 1/35 kit. Additionally you should flatten out all the end connectors so that the end connectors and track blocks are parallel to the ground. The way your tracks appeared, the majority would be considered dead track blocks and the both sides of track would have to be replaced.

Not a criticism but a recommendation from a former M60A3 company commander.

I can commensurate with your "grief", I just had a similar event happen with my Trumpeter NBFZ Type I on the Trumpeter Group Build forum.

Guys,

I'm gutted at the outcome of this build so I'll apologise now for finishing this one off. I was changing Airbrush at the time and I knocked the hull off a Tamiya turntable onto a hardwood floor, I felt sick at this point. The plastic had already become brittle as this boxing was an original release. The rear end had shattered and all the nice PE had been wiped out

The rest is as they history, I do have a few other M60 boxings in the stash so you will see another build but not just yet.

I'm currently relaxing over a M4A3 Tamiya Sherman build.



A new WIP to be created for this build.

Thanks for all the nice comments chaps and I'm sorry to disappoint.


Dan

That is a shame. it was coming out great. A side note to Jeff I was an M60A1 driver and an M60A3 TC both Army tanks had bilge pumps. They were equipped for fording. That pump kicked water out 10 feet from the tank. My M60A1 came with the fording kit that allowed it to ford to the turret top. Thank God we never tried it the drivers hatch leaked in the rain.

Tom

Damn that stinks!!
Sort of looked like of my failed builds after I threw it at the wall in disgust

Were you able to salvage some stuff like the barrel and some of the resin stuff

So sorry! Was a beautiful build. Taps for the M60.

I've still got the turret in one piece and I've save as much as I can, from the lower hull.

Tracks and roadwheels are all good, it was just the lower hull that is a written off.

At some point I'll give it another go hopefully with a kit that not like glass


Regards

Dan

Tom, your comments about your vehicles having the bilge pumps made me look through my photos and I found the one below which clearly shows no bilge pipe. There was not even a plate covering a hole. Could be because the battalions tanks were rebuilds of very low serial number vehicles. I thought about not posting this and let it lie, but I thought everyone who get a kick out of the tanks situation Taken at Peason Ridge, Ft. Polk, LA in FEB 1977. It had been typical Louisiana rainy season and the S-3 briefing that he counted 28 battalion vehicles, wheeled and tracked and one commercial reefer truck stuck across the old WW2 drop zone. This was during testing for the then new Infared Maverick missle test. I got stuck seven more times during the 2-week event.

i'm really sorry for I was enjoying this build.
In any case I learnt a few things along the way so thanks again for this blog.
I'm waiting for the next one

Quite possible Jeff, The tank I was issued in 78 was brand new with 50 miles on it most had less. You can see the bilge pump outlet in this picture. waiting for REFORGER 78 to kick off, some where in West Germany.


Tom

Man, that build was looking good. Too bad about its demise.

I feel your pain. I had an old Tamiya M60A1 kit from the 70s (built in 1981-82) that got dropped. The plastic was brittle, but the damage was not as bad as yours. I a able to rebuild it (after thinking about it for about 10 years or so). Its hard to give up on something after putting that much work into it.
Ken.

Go for it! You can do it. Since it was mostly the hull that got destroyed, and assuming you still want to go old school, try using the AMT/ERTL kit. the hull is much better than the Tamiya kit.

Here is a link to my build, showing that you can bring it back from the dead! http://armorama.com/forums/235425#1985280

Ken.