AFV Club M60A2 "Starship"

[sonofjim]

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 .

[PlaStix]

Hi Jim. That is a very impressive looking kit! It's a shame they went overboard with the textures in some areas and didn't provide enough in others. Your work on minimizing the overdone areas and adding to the undone areas seems to going very well.  Very impressive work!

Kind regards,

Stix

[sonofjim]

Thanks mate , going to be slow at first I think . Next job will be welds .

[Mike]

That's a good solid start to the hull detailing Jim.  Keep it up

[snapper_city]

Watching with interest. 

[sonofjim]

Thanks Mike/ snapper 

much appreciated .

Edited February 13, 2017 by sonofjim

[Carius]

watching with interest too 

[sonofjim]

1 hour ago, Carius said:

watching with interest too 

Thanks mate , got some welds done today ,so more pics tomorrow hopefully .

[FrancisGL]

Cast look more real IMO, , cheers mate

[sonofjim]

1 hour ago, FrancisGL said:

Cast look more real IMO, , cheers mate

Thanks mate , progress is kinda slow because in finding more a d more things about ot o want to improve on . Nothing wrong with the kit , just my AMS kicking in 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I'm really pleased to see this build.....This kit is top of my list for potential future 1/35 purchases. 

[sonofjim]

Thanks Sarge , it's a great kit out of my usual field I think that's why I'm enjoying it so much . I love the look of this vehicle , that and in the very early nineties I worked a bit  with US military personnel in my civilian job . Met some great people mostly tankers and Flyboys  so this is dedicated to them . 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Is there any chance you could you give me some more info on the various markings supplied with the kit please.....I'm particularly interested in the dates, I'd like to enter the NATO/WarPac 1970s GB, but I'm not sure if this thing is suitable OOTB (far too modern for me). 

[phildagreek]

Looks good so far, nice to see you going for the extra casting detail on the turret - keep a steady hand now!

[sonofjim]

3 hours ago, phildagreek said:

Looks good so far, nice to see you going for the extra casting detail on the turret - keep a steady hand now!

Thanks Phil , textures are something I really enjoy with modelling .

 

[sonofjim]

3 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Is there any chance you could you give me some more info on the various markings supplied with the kit please.....I'm particularly interested in the dates, I'd like to enter the NATO/WarPac 1970s GB, but I'm not sure if this thing is suitable OOTB (far too modern for me). 

well Sarge ,in the instructions it doesn't mention units or dates ! just two examples in full colour

I have no idea about modern US Military unit markings  but I'd be happy to take a photo of the decal sheet .

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Not sure it would mean much to me either.....My limited knowledge kinda runs out around 1945. 

[sonofjim]

4 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Not sure it would mean much to me either.....My limited knowledge kinda runs out around 1945. 

mine too  . I believe it would be fine for the NATO/Warpac 70's GB . The M60A2 was virtually fully withdrawn from service in 1980

I'm working on a 1977-1979 time frame for my completed build .  both profiles in the instructions are in MERDC camo one brown/green (Europe Winter verdant)

and green green ( Europe Summer Verdant) .

 

[Procopius]

3 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Is there any chance you could you give me some more info on the various markings supplied with the kit please.....I'm particularly interested in the dates, I'd like to enter the NATO/WarPac 1970s GB, but I'm not sure if this thing is suitable OOTB (far too modern for me). 

 

The markings are for "an unassigned vehicle in MERDC winter verdant (forest green, field drab, FS30277 sand and black); [and] “Aces Wild”, A Company 1-32 Armor 3rd Armored Division, Germany (MERC summer verdant - forest green, light green, FS30277 sand and black)." The 3rd Armored one is almost certainly from the 1970s. 

[sonofjim]

Just now, Procopius said:

 

The markings are for "an unassigned vehicle in MERDC winter verdant (forest green, field drab, FS30277 sand and black); “Aces Wild”, A Company 1-32 Armor 3rd Armored Division, Germany (MERC summer verdant - forest green, light green, FS30277 sand and black)." The 3rd Armored one is almost certainly from the 1970s. 

Thanks mate , that's a good bit of info . the summer verdant I'll be doing .

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Thanks guys.....I think I will treat myself. 

[sonofjim]

3 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Thanks guys.....I think I will treat myself. 

Go for it , you won't regret it .

[sonofjim]

OK So a quick update this time as I'm still battling the running gear .

There's also so much to deal with in the shape of sink marks and mold seem lines sometimes 2 or 3 on one single small part  I have no idea what AFV Club were thinking there ? Not to mention the aforementioned misalignment ...I'll take some photos of all of those for another day .

So last couple of days I've been tackling the Welds.

I decided to re do them using Magic Sculp as the moulded plastic ones ,particularly on the thin lower row of bump stops just wouldn't actually connect to the hull moulding .

The welds were done with a tool I made using brass tube milled away and rounded at the end to create a "C" shape impression in the wet putty .

 

 

The Large "D" lifting lugs ? AFV Club would have you attach four of them , however after studying photos there seems to be all kinds of arrangements of these

ranging from two to four and on some M60 2 smaller ones applied vertically ! and not being to well informed with M60 development  I decided to go with what seemed to be the most common which was two .

This is the arrangement the Littlefield M60A2 has, and so as I was using that example as a reference I followed that .

 

 

This however meant that I also had to remove two of the square placement indicators moulded onto the lower hull tub and some how blend them .

For this I first scraped the lines flat with a no10A blade and then used EMA Plasticweld applied with a no3 brush and stippled to reapply the lost cast texture after scraping and sanding.

 When this had dried I polished it with a sponge polisher .

I managed to do this successfully with three of them however on the final one was another story , for some reason the plastic had a reaction with the Plasticweld and formed a large sink mark !

 

 

This will have to be filled , later .

So while I was at it I attached the Final drive housings.

These are actually very nice, with a subtle cast texture and a pleasing two part appearance like they could be unbolted and the covers removed .

There's also a pleasing pair of grease ports ? very nice !

 

 

Well that's about where I am at the moment more to follow , when I can get to grips with the seemingly endless suspension system .

 Thanks for looking in !

Jim.

 

[phildagreek]

Excellent attention to detail.

[sonofjim]

Thanks mate . 

Its slow going but I suppose some builds are a marathon rather than a sprint .