I saw mention of this on another Braille scale forum. Has anyone seen the sandbag armor set for the Esci/Italeri M48A3 tank?

I picked up the Legends set before leaving Massachusetts and just found out about the Goffy set. I hear the Goffy set is supposed to have two piece road wheels (or look like two-piece) whereas the Esci kit has the double road wheel molded solid.

Hi Sabot!

Check out:

http://www.smallscalemodelling.dk/modelnews.html?mid=16

regards,
Steen

Thanks Steen. While I like the looks of the road wheels, I do not like the looks of the turret and armor. The loader's hatch is perched at 90 degrees and looks wrong. Also I'm not sure the cupola .50 cal was installed when the .50 cal was mounted on the top.

I guess I'll build what I've got and maybe try Goffy if I get a hankering to do another.

Esci produced several 1/72 scale M48 kits in the mid 80s. All basically the exact same kit but added a sprue to make different variants. The series consisted of:

#8322 M48A2 (US Army/Marines)
#8326 M48A3 (US Army/Marines)
#8329 M48A2GA2 (West German Bundeswehr)
#8333 M48A5 (US Army National Guard)
#8336 M48A2C (Israeli Defense Force).

Decent kits that had some detail compromises due to the small size of the kits, but are generally still well received.

Italeri reissued the M48A2/A3 kit late last year. It is kit #7015, click here to see the boxart. The only difference between the M48A2 and M48A3 in the original issue was decals and which optional parts to use off of the sprue. Italeri did us a favor by packaging the variants together.

As far as Goffy goes, Pawel forwarded some of the 1/72 scale detail sets to me last year (see his reviews). They looked pretty good to me. I am unsure of where to purchase Goffy items in the US, but will probably order mine from Tracks & Troops (Belgium) if I do not find a US supplier. They do not show the Goffy set, and do not carry the Legends set.

I don't know the Goffy set price. The Legends set cost me $12.95 before my IPMS club discount. The Legend set included a 3 or 4 piece sandbag armor set that wrapped around the kit turret. It also included a searchlight and perhaps some other bits. The Goffy set includes replacement road wheels in addition to the entire turret assembly. Based on this information, I would imagine the Goffy set would be more, probably closer to $20.

I should elaborate that the Esci kits are pretty good M48A3s but not accurate M48A2s. The A2 had a rear hull more like an M47 or M46 and a back deck that had more of a bulge to it. The M48A3 had engine grills in the rear hull (like an M60 series) and the back deck did not "hump" as much as the A2.