A couple of Cold War Warriors.

[BlackSheep214]

Green but weather the crap out if it using rust weathering powders. Perhaps faded Olive Drab? Stik would respond soon....

[Stikpusher]

Olive Drab for the mantlet dust cover. I do believe that they were some sort of rubberized canvas.

[Stuart]

Thanks Gents!

[Stikpusher]

For reference

[Stuart]

Thanks Carlos!

The bag over the Commander's MG is interesting, Tamiya have missed that out completely.

[Stikpusher]

That’s not a bag over the MG on the cupola, that’s a separate dust cover made from the same material. It was not always installed. Especially when the .50 was moved to an external mount from the cupola




Here is a good blog article on M48s in Vietnam with lots of reference photos

https://mikesresearch.com/2020/11/29/pa ... n-vietnam/

[Stuart]

Did I say bag? Obviously I meant cover lol! Over basically what is the MG gun mantle.

Really interesting blog-post that Carlos - thanks for sharing the link.

[Stuart]

So putting the Chieftain asides for a while, I've been concentrating on getting the basic colours down on the M48A3.

The OD is on, and I've started to drybrush the upper hull with a light green just to break it up a bit - all prior to decals and weathering. I've also painted the wheels and tracks and base colours and need to work on them also.



Detail painting next.

Cheers!

[Stuart]

Another thought I've had - if I'm going to fit the .50 CAL on a pintle-mount, should I remove the one form the commanders mini-turret? I've not seen a single photo with both fitted yet.

[Stikpusher]

Correct. If the .50 is mounted externally, it is removed from the cupola interior.