I ordered the M48 A1 Dozer Blade Kit (35154) from PSM the same day Gerold's email hit my mailbox. it arrived ten days later, and as always, the box contents were amazing.

The instructions are xerox sheets, and the builder has to be innovative in deciphering what goes where, as the sequencing jumps around a bit. I do wish the images were larger and gave more detail especially the very crowded hydraulic tanks section on the glacis and blade area. Perhaps someone with good reference images can post some helpful hints here?

Now, all of that being said, my Dragon kit had already been built, minus the roadwheels and tracks. A word to the wise; the biggest amount of work involved cutting off the front section forward of the idler wheels, on the lower portion of the hull. There is a direct replacement piece with an amazing amount of support structure for the blade assembly that will go in its place.

Although I was able to remove my idler mounts, and section off the portion that gets replaced, it is not for the faint of heart, and I might recommend doing this to a fresh, unassembled kit!

I spent most of Monday working with the conversion, and actually got quite a bit done. With the exception of the lower hull replacement, all of the remaining work can be done with the kit being already built. Some slight revisions are required, but everything was accessible on my built kit.

Back to work today, so more work will follow next week. I'm thinking of a reasonable way to slightly lower the front of the tank, to represent the slight nose-heavy attitude of the vehicle with the blade kit added on the 1:1 scale item. I prefer not to have to cut suspension arms if possible.

I for one am very curious about how all this works out. I have a Tamiya M48 started, with the lose lowered, ready for this conversion. I was going to try and adapt the Academy M9 dozer kit and got chicken.....

It's a good conversion kit. Even the U-shaped lifting handles are represented well, with none broken during shipment. The kit is designed for the Dragon M48A1, so I imagine there would be some dimensional differences with Academy or Tamiya kits.

The set for M48A1 is not suitable for M48A3. PSM have another dozer blade set dedicated for later variants.