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M48A3 Lower Hull


Sgt.Squarehead

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Is anyone building or does anyone have stashed a decent quality large scale kit of the M48A3 at all.....If so is there any chance they could take a few photos of the detail around the lower hull and suspension arms for me please? :pray:

I'm trying to build a reasonably accurate 1/72 version and the kit I'm using (the only one there is) has detail that I strongly suspect to be spurious as the kit is also intended to be built as an M48A2 or M48A2C. I've some reasonable reference photos, but none of them seem to show what I want, probably because tanks aren't usually displayed upside-down with the wheels off. :winkgrin:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Sarge

Dragon released a 1/35 Vietnam M48A3 about 18 months ago.

Maybe you could find the instructions / sprue shots of this?

Sadly I don't have one or I'd photo it for you

Ben

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Could you be a bit more specific?

The M48A2 and A3 were slightly different underneath but not that much. The A3 was created from rebuilt A0 or A1 hulls so might retain the residual mounting for the tensioner wheel, whereas the A2 (IIRC) were all new-build hulls without a tensioner wheel. There were also variations in the number of return rollers - A3s having five whilst the A2s had three.

M48A5s were created by rebuilding any earlier hull type so they exhibited features seen on any of the earlier variants (including a choice of 3 or 5 return rollers).

Cheers,

Centaur

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Tricky to explain, hence my request for a photograph of nominally accurate kit parts.....The ESCI/italeri 1/72 kit was designed to be buildable as one of several variants, with the usual compromises that entails. I'm trying to pin down the details specific to the M48A3.

My understanding was that the A3 was rebuilt from the M48A1, which had a track-tensioning idler mounted on a backing plate......One of the things I'm tring to discover is whether this plate was still present on the A3 (which did not have the track-tensioning idler)

The M48A2 did have the track-tensioning idler, but the M48A2C variant did not. The only walkaround I have is for a M48A2C.....Should I copy this configuration or was the M48A3 different? :shrug:

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The A3s definitely didn't have the tensioning wheel, but since they were rebuilt earlier vehicles I would expect the residual mounting point to be retained.

Came across the following blog that may help - an A3 build using the Tamiya 1/35 kit. The lower hull clearly has the residual mounting, even though Tamiya only kitted this as an A3.

http://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/M48/m48-construction.html

Cheers,

Centaur

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Hmmmm.....It's definitely still there as of picture #26, but it's kind of difficult to tell thereafter. However one would expect the modeller to mention it if he had removed or modified the mount, so I must assume it's still there. :nerd:

Which is bad news.....Guess who removed the damned things before thinking to check! :doh::wall::blush:

Never, never step outside of your comfort zone.....It just ain't safe out there! :shutup:

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