Read the DRAGON M48A3 Mod.B reviews and following commentary on this site, and you'll find out...

As far as I can tell the Mod B is the one that got all the good reviews (HeavyArty's review on this site was very favourable) its main omission being the mantlet cover and searchlight. Gino gave it 85% and (I'm paraphrasing) "would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys building Vietnam era vehicles" The ones that followed however (M48 and derivatives) have not fared so well,the ''straight" M48A3 though it included mantlet and searchlight had issues with size..... Soooooo yes to the Mod B (TMD to the rescue) in my book Yeah,I was looking forward to DML releasing the Mod B but in this case I didn't order blind,took my time,read the reviews,took note of the missing bits and took the plunge when resin replacements became available (scratch building skills being.....not up to scratch) If it turned out that it weren't so attractive then I'd probably still be waiting for someone else to kit it (maybe AFV Club but I'm hoping for a USMC M60A1 w/ERA circa Desert Storm from them) So yeah,I'm guilty of lusting after what isn't out there as much as anyone,but I don't lose sleep over it Apart from when if anything on the wish list goes down in price and its 2 days before payday

Read the DRAGON M48A3 Mod.B reviews and following commentary on this site, and you'll find out... [/quote] I have read all reviews that I can find, and most threads on this and other forums. Most reviews comes to the conclusion that the kit is excellent, and a great improvement over the Tamiya kit. The gripe would be the lack of canvas and searchlight on the Model B, but that is fixed on the standard M48A3 kit, or easily fixed with aftermarket parts of you would want a Model B. Personally, I will probably use the leftover parts from a Magach 3 build where I didn't use either the supplied canvas or searchlight. It's an easy problem to fix. IMHO the Dragon M48 is a great kit, better than any M48 alternative. If AFV Club would release a M48, I would probably buy it, but if the casting texture is anything like the ugly, overdone texture on their M60A1, I will probably pass on it. Even the 25 year old ESCI kit had more convincing casting texture. The rest of the AFV Club M60 is great, but the ugly casting texture sticks out like a sore thumb, and isn't easy to correct either. I regret buying the AFV Club M60A2, since it looks even worse, with heavy casting texture on the hull, but smooth, almost non existing texture on the turret. Hopefully, I can use the turret in some kitbash, and use the hull for USMC M60A1 or a Magach 6-conversion where the hull texture will be hidden from sight with the ERA bricks.....

Read the DRAGON M48A3 Mod.B reviews and following commentary on this site, and you'll find out... [/quote] I have read all reviews that I can find, and most threads on this and other forums. Most reviews comes to the conclusion that the kit is excellent, and a great improvement over the Tamiya kit. The gripe would be the lack of canvas and searchlight on the Model B, but that is fixed on the standard M48A3 kit, or easily fixed with aftermarket parts of you would want a Model B. Personally, I will probably use the leftover parts from a Magach 3 build where I didn't use either the supplied canvas or searchlight. It's an easy problem to fix. IMHO the Dragon M48 is a great kit, better than any M48 alternative. If AFV Club would release a M48, I would probably buy it, but if the casting texture is anything like the ugly, overdone texture on their M60A1, I will probably pass on it. Even the 25 year old ESCI kit had more convincing casting texture. The rest of the AFV Club M60 is great, but the ugly casting texture sticks out like a sore thumb, and isn't easy to correct either. I regret buying the AFV Club M60A2, since it looks even worse, with heavy casting texture on the hull, but smooth, almost non existing texture on the turret. Hopefully, I can use the turret in some kitbash, and use the hull for USMC M60A1 or a Magach 6-conversion where the hull texture will be hidden from sight with the ERA bricks.....[/quote] I NEVER said that DRAGON's M48 kits were terrible- I DID say that there are ISSUES with them. There are issues with nearly EVERY PLASTIC kit on the market today. There are several "builds" on this site of DRAGON's M48 kits- Read through them and study the pictures where corrections HAD to be made to bring the kits up to snuff... Personally, I'm very satisfied with AFV CLUB's M60A1 and -A2 kits, but they have ISSUES, as well. As you say, the "ugly" casting texture DOES stick out like a sore thumb, but when I used some MR HOBBY filler on the texture, the filling properties of this filler takes care of much of it. I then wet-sanded the surface after the filler had dried, leaving just enough of the texture to replicate the ACTUAL texture of the REAL tank. I then used a spray-can automotive primer, (These automotive primers are "self-leveling", which smooth out the surface even further...), and waited for that to dry. I then applied my base-coat of FS24087 OLIVE DRAB, which is a semi-gloss version of the flat FS34087 OD. This method works just fine for me. Having to fill in rough textures on armor models is pretty much a "non-ISSUE" for me... As you say about the DRAGON M48s being much better than the old TAMIYA M48s, you have NO argument there from me, because I AGREE with you on that point, but nevertheless there ARE issues on these M48s that DO need correcting. The DRAGON M48-series kits, well, they require a lot of trimming, filling and sanding in certain areas where the Upper Hull mates up to the Lower Hull, and also in the rear area of the Lower Hull. I'm not going to go on and on about the relative merits and warts of these M48-series/M60Ai and -A2 kits, because clearly, we've gone off topic, which is DRAGON's IDF M3 (US) Half-track. I'm sure that the molding will be crisp and well-defined, and the fit of the earlier-series of M3-based kits, for me anyway, were a pleasure to assemble. But DANG IT- those damned "screws" are too prominent...

Here we go again with this nonsense sentence. From that point of view, which is the point of any review or any discussion about kits? Just go build whatever you prefer, the way you prefer, and be happy with that... Meanwhile, leave other grown-up modelers exchange their opinions and critics freely, this is actually good for modeling, you know? Among other reasons, these kind of critics and demands led to the quality of most of the kits we can enjoy today.

The rest of us thank you for doing that!

Here we go again with this nonsense sentence. From that point of view, which is the point of any review or any discussion about kits? Just go build whatever you prefer, the way you prefer, and be happy with that... Meanwhile, leave other grown-up modelers exchange their opinions and critics freely, this is actually good for modeling, you know? Among other reasons, these kind of critics and demands led to the quality of most of the kits we can enjoy today. [/quote] You seem to have missed my point This isn't a review,or even a preview,just an announcement of something that may or may not be released,DML has been known in the past for not following through on some previous press releases.... If you read my whole reply you'll see we actually agree,what I'm having a go at are the naysayers at every kit release "Oh I don't like that,it's another 'X',I wanna 'Y' or a 'Z',sometimes not even vaguely related to the imminent release Plus here we haven't even seen any plastic so WHO knows what this is going to turn out like Yes,the issue of screws versus rivets is annoying but an easy fix,I do have an M3 HT derivative (from DML) in the stash with the relevant cab panels replaced with ones with screw heads (can't remember which kit,away from stash at the moment) but who can say this kit is the same without it in their hands..... And as for the 'grownup modellers' quip,well,let's leave that kind of talk where it should be,just keep it civil,thanks Steve

It would be nice to have a resell of the standart M3s and M5s for those who did not get them years ago

For those interested, this is now on pre-order at Hobbyeasy for the modest amount of $44.65US...