INTRODUCTION

The M60 Patton series of tanks served the United States armed services beginning in 1959. Though no longer serving active duty for the United States, some are still in service with foreign nations today. The original M60 underwent a number of upgrades over the years to improve performance and reliability.

One variant, the M60A1 last saw active service with the United States Marines during the invasion of Kuwait. It had been through several inline upgrades, the last change being the inclusion of explosive reactive armor (ERA). The most common successor is the M60A3, but both served during the same period.

CONTENTS

The accessories are intended to be used with Revell kit number 03168, M60A1 with ERA, though Black Dog does not specify the kit. All parts are crisply molded in grey resin with large molding blocks. I found the molding blocks to be very easy to remove. Almost as though you could snap them off, however this is definitely not advised.

REVIEW

The set includes a number of items not commonly found on M60A1 with ERA installed. These could be omitted, but I have found references online that show USMC M60A1 tanks in Desert Storm with the full resin set. The set is worth the turret stowage details alone, so you won’t regret if you opt to leave the pieces off forward of the drivers hatch or back at the engine exhaust. Some stowage is specifically fitted to ERA panels, but the turret basket as well as some of the individual items may work with the M60A1 without ERA or M60A3 kit as well.

Though technically, I am considering this an out-of-the-box review, I did check parts fit. All parts fit well to the kit parts. Every lump and bump on the kit part is molded into the back of the resin parts providing a snug fit and positive location of the parts. I’ve test fit every resin part to the kit parts and found no fit problems at all.

Detail on the resin parts is excellent. Often in Braille scale features are soft, vague, or missing details commonly expected on 1/35 scale parts. This set, however, has detail that makes me wonder if it weren’t literally shrunken from a larger scale. I am often reluctant to buy resin accessories due to past experiences with poor fit, marginal quality, or simple blobs that vaguely give the impression of detail. This set would influence me to buy Black Dog's other Braille scale offerings for modern AFVs.

CONCLUSION

This set could be used by model builders of nearly all skill levels. Removal of the molding blocks isn’t quite as simple as removing parts from sprues, but I was able to crudely remove some blocks without much difficulty. While you might have some reservations about spending as much on accessories as you do the kit, a quality set like this will make it worthwhile. It will also give you something with a little more “life” to it that doesn’t make your model look like a simple museum piece.

A review of the Revell M60A1 can be found Here on Armorama.