SPA Modeler

The 1/72 M-51 was one of Mark's 40 builds this year

John that’s right. I had to go back and look at Mark’s M51. Hard to remember one among that 40!

Today was a good couple of sessions at the bench.

In the morning I added the HVSS Bogie assemblies to the lower hull, as well as assembling and adding the rear hull plate, and transmission cover to the front.





then in the afternoon I began working on the upper hull. I added the accessories to the left side and glacis, as well as building the engine deck and front hull hatches



Tomorrow I’ll try to get the rest of the upper hull wrapped up…

THAT..................



looks BAD A$$!!!!

They were bad ass!



A WWII tank re engined and upgunned, capable of knocking out the latest Soviet MBTs of that time. I’m sure that nobody in the 1940’s dreamed of that when the Sherman was designed.

I'm guessing that the accompanying half track was an ammo carrier? I'm gonna have to do some research here on the powerplant. Curious......

Probably accompanying infantry in the half track. Resupply trains will usually not have tanks in the column.

All I know about the engine is that it is a Cummins Diesel. I never paid attention to what particular model.

Nice!! It looks like if they shot the gun to the side it would flip over!!

That’s one reason it had the muzzle brake, one of several mods that the Israelis made to the gun to adapt it for the Sherman. It was also reduced in length from the original French design. This was originally the same main gun as used on the AMX-30 tank, not the British designed 105mm gun used on the Centurion and M60 tanks, and retro fitted to the Israeli M48s. The French gun was unique in that it’s primary AT round was a spin stabilized hollow charge HEAT round, rather than solid shot AP, sabot, or squash head. The HEAT round has on advantage in that no matter the range and velocity, the armor penetration is the same, over 300mm of rolled homogeneous armor.

Carlos, the engine was most likely the Cummins VT-555, which was a rather unreliable truck engine but worked well for marine use. Taking 400 horsepower would make it even less reliable but for tank use it probably lasted long enough. The 903 series of Cummins V-8's you may be familiar with, I had a VT-903 in a Freightliner, but they were used in military equipment though they were a later engine and were not yet being built when the Ishermans were converted.

The upper left engine is a VT-555. Their normal horsepower rating was 240 horsepower in trucks and boats.

According to Tanks Encyclopedia it was a 460 HP Cummins VT-8-460 turbo diesel.