Didn't AFV-club show a M48 turret at a show some years past? And they've done the M60A3, seems like they were aiming at an all new kit of this? Or is this a reaction to Takom? And in case it matters it's an M48A5 turret not M48A3. The M48A5 turret has the low profile cupola and 105mm gun.

Obviously a reaction to Takom's release. They will be late though, as Takom kit will be available in a few weeks, while their kit next year. And yes, they did show M48 turret a few years ago. So this will almost certainly be an all new kit, but it is strange that they decided to reuse the same part number (AF35S01) as their old Academy-based kit...

105mm gun yes, the cupola not necessarily. Originally M48A5 came with the same cupola with raiser like M48A3 Mod.B. The Urdan cupola was introduced later.

Interesting news, it's always nice to have alternatives. I wonder if they will release the version with the add on armor also?

The AFV Club announcement Stephen refers to was made quite a few years ago, long before Takom released its first kit. And that's the problem with AFV Club, they announce stuff, then you don't hear about it for years, if ever. Aside from the M48, they also announced a M8 HMC, a M1 57mm AT gun and probably a few others I can't remember that never materialized.

This will be an interesting release from a construction and price point, of particular interest to me is the complexity of the AFV Club and Takom kit, as well as the kind of tracks that they will be using. I am assuming that AFV Club will be using rubber tracks as it has been their regular approach to their recent release, and Takom might be a link and length tracks. I am really looking forward to this release. The price for the Takom versions based on the Lucky Models website is around US$33-36, so it will be interesting if Afv club could match Takom's price or even less.