The crewman, .50cal MG, fuel cans, and glue-able tracks are an improvement on the venerable (but still very good) Italeri kit, but they needed to replace the turret-side rails with the pairs of individual grabs seen on every in-service photo of German M47s, and the less said about that terrible canvas mantlet the better! Sadly the tracks look to have been injected in the old Italeri tooling, and have a big seam across all the end connecters. I'll stick with the Italeri boxing as I know I'll be replacing the track and adding tissue/glue canvas anyway.

Robert, I was unaware of the cheek armour differences; I agree that it would have been nice to at least have the option of the separate grab handles. Very nice Suez M47 by the way, and I love the "before I die" bit - I too must ensure I continue to cheat death in order to reduce the stash(!) Tom, Just for the record I note from the Tankograd book "The Tanks M41 and M47 in German Army service, that there is one image (page 61) of a tank with the long pattern grab handles (also fitted with smoke dischargers) as per the Tamiya kit. Brian

An extensive update set for Italeri M47 is available from DEF Model. http://www.defmodel.com/

Hi Brian, Well spotted! But it was apparently a late change, not commonly seen - I do wonder if this was actually a late-purchase tank from old US stock added to the existing German roster, since it looks like many served with the earlier rails up to the end. Hope to see you on the show circuit, if we ever get let out to play again!

First of all, click on photo to enlarge. This is my Portuguese M47 (Testors), almost ready for painting (yea, that one in 3 different shade camo). Been sitting around over 3 years waiting for me to get back in the game to get completed. Over the few years of these M47 kits (to include Takom's), I discovered a few cute little things can be done to the M47, no matter who makes it. Household items such as .032 and .020 aircraft safety wire and .010 picture wire, can account for all the grab handles and lift rings (in steel or brass) needs. Other brass items is used for the tow hooks, the hull .30 cal and surrounding support for the jerry cans. Also notice D.E. F. Model's mantlet cover with PE. Nice stuff. Foundry markings from Archer, along with foundry numbers/letters from various sprue sources. General M47 PE set comes into play for the vision block guards while the two antenna are striped down guitar strings. Note metal springs on hatch and not too far down the photo is Shapeways 3D .50 cal gun mount. Also note the addition of a oval shaped trunnion/gun complex weld mark, towards the bottom and aft of the mantlet cover. The mounted sledge hammer is Cal Scale Brass (yea, I'm aging myself). Mr. Surfacer (in gray) finishes of the missing cast texture. There is lots of things that can be done to the M47 nowadays, thanx to the aftermarket world and typical household items. The Takom kits? Don't get me started. Finicky fit issues abound...too numerous to mention here. The turrets might look the same, but are different sizes, to start. I have however, fitted a Italeri turret to Takom's hull to produced a M47E1/E2. In their (Takom) defense, its good to have competition concerning just the M47. Now if the aftermarket folks would pick up the pace to support these releases. It's been almost 2 years since Takom releases and the aftermarket is still anemic...not only to Takom but still, after many years, the Italeri kit. My 2 cents!

That is indeed some nice work there, proving once again this kit is far from being a dog. I'm starting a new thread later today, probably entitled "M47 Turret differences" so that this thread doesn't get lost over time. I'll post some photos there. By the way, one last comment on the link and length track - you can't readily reposition the bogies (a la Shep Paine) and make the track fit to it.

Thanx! And yea, I understand about the tracks. Its a crap shoot hoping you position everything correctly if you want to mount aftermarket metal tracks. My Jordanian M47 will receive Friul chevron shoes, while my Spanish M47E2 (Takom chassis/Testors turret) will receive Friul's rubber pads. The other two M47's (Portuguese and Somalia) will get the kit track, from left-over builds last century. My Somalia build has the rain gutters installed on the turret.

Hi Brian, Well spotted! But it was apparently a late change, not commonly seen - I do wonder if this was actually a late-purchase tank from old US stock added to the existing German roster, since it looks like many served with the earlier rails up to the end. Hope to see you on the show circuit, if we ever get let out to play again! [/quote] Hi Tom, Thanks for the felicitations; I must admit whilst it's nice to have time to build - including from the half-built box of doom - it would be nice to be able to attend a show or 2. Well, if nothing else it means that next year's display tables will consist of nothing but the new. Brian

My only concerns center around how much Italeri heritage remains and what -beyond stronger joints!- was upgraded. Looking forward to an eventual build review of this tank and the important development role it played in Western armour.