Interesting discussion over at ML on the A3 turret armor. Never knew that some of the tanks had an up-armored turret base or that the "cheek" armor was just hollow sheetmetal.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47209/message/1477776216/Interesting+M60A1+pic

im sure the tank was made in a number of factorys, so will have casting descrepencies.
same as chieftain was.

I recently had a look at an M728 with out the dust cover and the cheek pieces are quite thick. It is least an inch and thicker the closer it is to the turret. Later production turrets had a thickened turret ring that covered the gap between the turret and hull it was at least 2 inches thick. This was cast in not added to in service tanks. Look at the original Tamiya M60A1 and the M60A3 kit you will see the difference. Not sure when they changed the casting.

Tom

Guys,
According to the Squadron book, the fix was made after the 1973 war when a number of Israeli tanks were taken out by hit in that area, IIRC.
Regards,
Georg

Plenty of pictures around of M60's with the cheek mod pre-YKW.

Just like at Missing-Lynks, you guys are confusing two different areas. The mod made after '73 was the turret ring at the sides (3 & 9 o'clock positions), discovered during the '73 Arab-Israeli war, being filled in to eliminate a shot trap. Many people call this "cheek armor". The area on either side of the front mantlet which is usually covered by the dust cover is not the cheek armor. It was originally thin sheet metal and was changed early on to a thicker cast metal to add some more protection there.

To be clear the cheek was there to fair in the gap for the mantlet opening. It was sometimes welded sheet metal, other times poured metal and other times was the sheet metal with a fill. It was there from the beginning of the M60A1 series production. The Tamiya kit lacks it because it was based on the prototype turret.

The collar around the base of the turret ring was what was added after 1973. It probably started appearing in castings around the late 1970s. Newly produced M60A3s had it cast in.

There were a handful of tanks that had a welded/cast modification to cover the turret ring that may have pre-dated the cast in turret ring protection.

Until somebody documents every little casting change that's all we have. Now I know some "experts" are going to chime in with this picture and that, but I actually bothered to check every tank I ever sat on during my time because I was bored. So over 8 years on M60A3s going through motor pools it's at least 50 or so tanks. (yes Tom, that's how I spent my time when I should have been doing maintenance)

There were three sources of M60A3: built fresh, rebuilt M60A1 and slick M60 with new turrets. They did exist. When in the driver's hole filling out the papers you have to inspect the hull data plate. Some thing you really can't do looking at a display piece.

There were different casting marks on turrets so there was more than one company making turrets. So there were changes and variations. The angles and shadows on many pictures of M60A1 turrets make it difficult to really determine a lot of details of the turret front and turret ring.

I've wasted enough time and to think I don't even own an AFV-Club M60 series yet.