Steve,did any of the tanks in your company/battalion have the gun tube with no bore evacuator,but having the mounting pads on the barrel? I know our comapny had a few.

Remove the tie down loops on Academy's rear fenders.

Ugh,Dragon's hull sprue attachment points!



But they sand off easy.

As has been pointed out,the spacing of the last roadwheel is off.Too far apart. I measured, and it is more than the scale 2.5 foot spacing of the others.
So,I trimmed the aligning boss on the torsion bar mount part, to allow it to be closer to the #5 axle.

Working on the turrets,I did some searching on the web for better color images of the searchlight.
Academy would have you paint the inner surface near the bulb silver part P-18. This is incorrect,only the parabolic mirror at the back was silver:

Carl,
Just out of curiosity, since you brought up the searchlight, does the kit come with a searchlight hanger? One of my pet peeves with all the M48 and M60 kit manufacturers is the absence of a searchlight "hanger" for stowing the searchlight when not in use. these were sometimes mounted on the bustle rack or just behind the turret fan housing (on M48s/M60s)
VR, Russ

Yes. Both Academy and Dragon have the travel mount for the searchlight.
Tamiya's is actually the best,it has all 3 mounting balls on it.
Academy has NO mounting balls,just u shaped openings where seperate pieces can be added(?) I will know more when I look closer at that sprue.
Dragon has the mount, and only 1 ball on the top,not the other 2.
Frankenkit to make it perfect.

Made a mold of the Academy Aircleaners, I will not even bother doing much with the Dragon ones, except perhaps use the 2 exhaust blower outlets on the Academy boxes.

Getting the AFV club A2 up to the same level of in process as the Dragon / Academy ones. This is ,in my opinion the best of the releases.

Getting the hull buttoned up.Back deck and access panels.




The "Ha-Ha" panel. 60 series tankers know why...

How does the TAMIYA one compare with the latest releases ? I know the AFV Club one is probably the best. But whats your thought on it ?

No comparison. The Tamiya kit is horrible. The basic hull is just weak and lacks lots of details. The CBSS bulge at the rear isn't even there, but is represented by two boxes that you glue onto the existing hull. The tracks are bad and have the guide horns incorrectly placed in the middle of each pad as opposed to between the links. The Turret is too long and not really the right shape. The cupola is not correct in shape and lacks lots of details. It isn't really worth even attempting with the two newer versions shown here.

I am building the Academy A2 with the DEF models kit. Good insights so far glad I got the Academy instead of the Dragon

Note that the turret baskets are a great deal of fun to build-so check the instructions again and again.

Thank you

I am completing each kit. I will do what I need to to make the AFV club a direct copy of the A2 I was on in Germany.Sadly AFV only gives the smooth gun launcher barrel, and I may reuse one from my Tamiya build from years gone by.
I will do the comparison of the Academy to Dragon, for what has been improved since the Tamiya version.
It seems like the bustle racks on all versions will be the most tedious part of all builds.Take Your Time! Fortunately,I can reuse the 2 extra 5 gallon oil cans we added to our real A2s from my Tamiya version to make the AFV match mine,"Chaos" C-23

Carl,

A2 operational question. I have noticed in the photos (in the Sabot Vol 2 book) the addition of a wood ammo box on the rear deck and/or on various parts of the rear of the turret. Was that a scratch built box or standard ammo box for?

Also noticed the/a tarp (or camo net) usually stowed on the front of the turret? Was this a tarp? made of canvas or the plastic sheeting?

TIA
Bret

DEF Model make both types of barrel in turned metal, I have the two types and they are very nice.

You can order the one you need.

http://defmodel.com/catalog/dm/dm35063/dm35063_03.jpg

Cheers,

Christophe

Christophe, thanks for the address! I will look into that.
Bret, In 1/37th, most of the crews flopped the camouflage net bag on the top of the gunmount / transmitter for the missile. The bag of support poles / spreaders usually went in one of the areas of the bustle rack, or behind the cupola. we were supplied with,
Wait for it,
DUECE AND A HALF & TRAILER CAMO NETS. can you believe it???
The net itself, was net, with squiggly strips of plastic woven in in the standard NATO colors.
The ammoo box, was a standard 152 mm ammo box, from the service (real) HEAT round.TPT HEAT rounds came in metal tubes.


The build continue,slight sidetrack to make the Dragon m60 plain, my first ride in Apr '75

The camo net bag is made of vinyl - the same stuff like Humvee soft tops and mantlet covers. The support poles are in a vinyl bag that looks kinda like a golf bag in shape. The vinyl can carry in color from forest green, to blue green to brownish olive drab. Lots of variability.

Carl,

Another question. On the front glacis fire extinguisher- what was the common painting? Seems that some just had the pull handle painted red and other have the cover and immediate area painted red.

A lot of the pictures are B&W so cannot always tell.

Thanks
Bret

Brett.On my A2 in Germany, the housing and handles were red.May vary from unit to unit.The best you can look for is a variation in tone in the B&W images.A hint MIGHT be, if there is a coloered section leading down from the cover.This would be red, with 1st shot,and 2nd shot painted on it.

OK-just to add some color I may paint the front are red.

On another topic- how many T142 shoes per side?

Brett,
On my tank, when we switched fro Chevron to octagonal pad it was, 88 per side.I don't know how well this will translate onto the model, you might need more or less. The odd good thing about the early Tamiya,was the ability to slide the sprocket / motorization frame bacwards, to create tension.

So far, the Academy bustle rack is as similar a assembly as Tamiya.It does have a few extra parts which were not in the Tamiya kit, but were on the 1:1 tank. The Dragon bustle rack, is a bit more fiddly, but if you build it slowly,it seems to go together fine.

OK- I am building the AFV Club T142 tracks- to put on the Academy kit- will see if it all works.

But the AFV Track box does not give any guide on numbers per side.

So in test fitting one side 88 shoes are too much.

Seems like 80 works using the AFV Club track and the Academy kit. Fit on the drive sprocket is good.

FWIW