1985 ? The Last Patton

I have built Takom’s M46, M47 and M60A1. I had been hoping that they would release some M48s. My patience has been rewarded.
The link and length tracks in the M46 and M47 kits are OK. The flexible vinyl tracks in the M60 kits are fantastic. I had high hopes they would continue that in their M48 kits. Alas, I am greatly saddened…...
 

Modified the build sequence to concentrate on just the running gear to start. Driver’s left side first.
Step 1. Fit Parts K7, K8, K24, K25, and J14s to the lower hull. There is some play in placement.
 

Steps 6 and 8. Assembled the road wheels and drive sprockets. A little flash but a good fit. 

I have little desire for a working suspension and zero desire to mess with the six-parts-per-link, 78 links per side track… 468 parts that have to be removed, cleaned and fitted precisely per side.
So I am modifying the working suspension for static display using vinyl tracks from Takom’s M60 kits.
My first attempt using the torsion bars in the working configuration.... Not great. 

Most of the suspension parts have a loose fit when assembling. Lots of detail that might not be all that visible. 

Found the T142 tracks from Takom’s 2137 M60A3 on eBay.  

Once I had the running gear installed I tested the fit. About three links too long.
I cut three links off on the connector end. I used a tailoring pin to poke a hole through the three connectors and then used it as the track pin. Worked like a charm….. 

Decided to only use the full torsion bars for the first and last road wheel stations as they will act as markers for aligning the middle road wheels.
Cut the middle torsion bars from the hull.
Cut the thin bit of the middle torsion bars off and glued the stubs to their swing arms (H5)
Once the first and last road wheel stations are dry, attached all the road wheels to their swing arms.
Mounted middle road wheel with swing arms on the hull and applied glue.
Set the hull up-right on a flat surface to let the middle wheels dry level.

Results are good enough. I will do better on the other side….. 

The other side, second attempt. No working torsion bars.  

Eye-balled a middle-ish position for the swing arms and glued everything down. 

The first side with fender fitted. Good enough. 

The second side. Better. 

Started planning the turret construction. Red arrows point to a couple of mounting points that should be removed but are not mentioned in the instructions. 

Assemble the fenders in their entirety to make sure everything is square when the glue dries. Some of the mounting tabs slots need a larger amount of cleanup than others.
At this stage, they can be fitted and removed. The fit when mounted is good and probably won't need to be glued on. 

Step 9. Fit was sometimes good and somethimes not... Make sure to install B31-B36, B37-B40, B34-B35, and B38-B39 at the same time. The completed fenders are now harder to install and remove (they don't flex so much).
Next time, I will leave off Parts A3, A4 and T8, T9 until after the running and fenders are permanently mounted. 

I installed K3 on to the fender itself as opposed to the hull. 

As well as K4.  

Step 19. Dread. 

Wrestling the bear....
Its hard to work on the stowage basket off of the turret. Getting everything to line up is ..... challenging.
Next time, I will glue D31 and D32 onto the turret first with a slow drying glue. I will then glue on D72 and let it dry (constantly checking alingment).  

And let dry for 24 hours. 

Checking the fit of the commander's hatch and the main gun. 

The top rail of the stowage basket is on. Festonning various bits about the turret while waiting for the stowage bin to dry. 

The fit of most turret bits is mostly good. I trimmed the "legs" of the smoke grenade box by approximately half. In this photo, I can still see the hollowness of those boxes. Might need to trim them some more (or plan ahead and put backs on the boxes). 

The instructions would have you assemble the headlight guards and then mount them. I mounted T50 and T51 to the hull, then T13 and T24, and then T12 and T23 while the glue is still drying. I gently prodded everything into position and set aside to dry. Big honking seem on top of the guards.... 

Progress is being made. 

The rear hull lifting eyelets (K28 and K29) might be labelled backwards. I don't known for sure but they seemed to fit better on the opposite sides. The infantry phone box mount looks like it might be missing something. I will leave the storeage box handle off until the very end. 

Patching seams, adding more dodads, and the main gun is on.
Turns out that Part K1 shouldn't be mounted, I don't what it is but the hose-sticky-up part can be snipped off leaving just the mounting plate base. 

Still filling seams on the stowage basket. The hull is almost finished and the turret is coming along nicely. 

Much bad language was deployed during the fitting of photo etch screens... More will follow. 

I failed to fully drill out the mounting hole for the .50cal and it's crooked.... 

Not happy with the positions of Parts D59 and D60. They look like they are "splayed out" to me. 

No instructions on the tow cable's length. So I cut the provided cable in half and tried that. Too long by the length of the plastic end. So I tried again.
(Edit. The instructions do show a length (73mm) for the tow cables in Step 18.) 

The basket is done.
My tow cables don't look like the real thing.... There should be a couple of backets holding the tow cables in position but they won't be very visable when done. So, meh... 

Starting to think about stowage for the stowage basket. Need a spare road wheel and some track pads for the outside. 

So, just about done. Still a few gapes and holes to be filled. Ordering some metal anntenas and I want to show the smoke dischargers loaded, so I need to figure out that. 

I was going to build this as a US Army vehicle in Korea in the 80s. But upon inspection of the kit and checking of references that wasn't going to work due to a lack of a searchlight. Takom's M48A3 kit has one (Spruce S) and I thought about hunting around on the Internet to find one but I just wanted to get started now.  

I notice the extra stuff that come with the kit that I think is from Takom's "Brave Tiger" kits. So my build is a "What-If" build of an M48A5 with a gunnery upgrade. Thermal shroud on the barrel, laser rangefinder, wind sensor, thermal sights, and a FN MAG machine gun for the loader. I only had to scratch-build the laser sight cover, everything else is in the box. 

I'm glad I built this kit but it was a bit of a slog. My mental health track "downgrade" worked well but I was struck by the thought that some things were needless complex.
I would recommend this kit with the proviso that you need to be paying attention during the build and to check your references before you start glueing stuff together....