Search the Community

After what seems like an age of no plastic modelling , I decided to go for something I wouldn't normally choose just by way of a change . I settled on something Modern-ish and something U.S. Finally after reading a lot of great things about AFV Club's M60 Patton series I couldn't wait to try one for myself . Opting for the M60A2 because I really like the look of this vehicle , even though by U.S. Military standards they were relatively short lived and a little unpopular ,they were for a short time at least ,a part of the vanguard that would help protect Europe from the "Red Tide" who would invade and overwhelm western forces should WW3 erupt . The kit itself is a really nice kit with some really neat things going on inside the box like textures a nice drivers station interior and a rear section that's all ready to accept an aftermarket engine . This will be a relatively slow build as I plan to adapt a voyager etch set made fro the M60A1 for parts of this build and also some of the textures area little over the top in places and in others either too dissimilar or non existent . I will also be doing some additional detailing along the way and finally converting the crew figures ...eventually . So here's the kit box and overflowing contents ...this is a very full box ! The Lower hull is a very nice slide moulded item , the Cast texture though is a little overboard and looks akin to pebble dashing , There's also a few large mould seam lines to deal with . My copy seems to be suffering in a little mould misalignment though , this impacts on some key areas such as the large flat areas where the plates mount to build the suspension arms onto . Lots of nice features though such as the casting/foundry marks including the "G shield" of manufacturers General Steel . To my eye these also look a little bit too sharp but they'll doubtless be fine for most . These interesting Circular marks are to be removed , they're what I hope are marks to mount Blazer armour to in a future release ? A M60 RISE and an IDF Magach 6 would be nice eh ? So I began this project by trying to calm down the heavy pebble texture with 800 grade Wet or dry paper , This actually gave a much more convincing "Cast" look and I'm quite pleased with the result . Maybe I wont need to Mr surfacer it after all ? , Next I began work on the Turret mouldings . I didn't take a photo of their "Before" state but they are almost devoid of texture completely . I think AFV Club listened to critique regarding the texture and dialled it back .. almost completely . Anyhow I started to add cast texture using a 1mm round dental burr and a very fine 0.5mm round diamond burr in my motor tool , the speed setting was slow at first and then turned up for subsequent passes . This will give me the multi layered effect of a cast surface . Finally I brushed out some solvent cement over the entire turret to help soften things out a little . Incidentally upon test fitting the turret halves I found a strange anomaly , it appears it may be mould misalignment ? but I will have to do some blending in . Need to find out the shape of the real turret . The opposite side seems to mate a lot cleaner . Lastly It was time to add some smooth marks and some linear marks to the upper turret edges to simulate areas where the raw casting was ground and finished at the foundry and also to simulate more of the layering effect of laminations to the steel . These were made with the tip of my scalpel blade and point respectively . this was then partially softened and melted with solvent cement . Throughout I have been using photos of Jacques Littlefield's M60A2 for surface effects . More soon , thanks for looking ! Jim .