SPA Modeler

I followed that up a bit and found this in a thread about the VT-8, written by a Cummins rep.

All of our (Cummins) V6 and V8 engines in the 1960-70s were a design progression - scaled versions of each other. The V&VT 555 came from the V6-140/V8-185/VT8-225, and the V903 came from the V6-200/VT6-300/V8-265/VT8-375.

The V8-350/VT8-430 was not a particularly popular engine, and tanks such as the M51 were its only major users.

So the VT-903 that I had in the Freightliner was a descendant of the VT-8 series.. I had a long relationship with Cummins engines, and used and worked on many of the H and NH series engines which were all 6 cylinder in-line. They were great engines. The last two I had were a 400 hp NTC-855 and an NTC-290. That 290 was one of the best that Cummins built, ran very clean and since it was the same basic engine as the NTC-855 it was very long lasting. All this is without a doubt way more than you wanted or needed to know, although if you want to detail the engine a 903 might be a good reference.

I don’t plan on detailing any tank engines for the next while… The M47 took care of that for me…. But thanks for that info John.

Todays update starts with a fix of yesterday’s session. The kit has two different exhaust options, but doesn’t fully explain them, only that one is “early”.



While doing image searches last night I came across info that,1, they are not both attached at the same time, and 2, that only the early rear type was in use during the 1967 and 1973 wars. The top engine deck exhaust was not installed until 1975. So first thing today I took off that part and cleaned up the attachment marks.



Then I finished up the rear area and right side upper hull accessories



Then I had to try test fitting the upper hull onto the lower hull





One other bit of info that I turned up last night was that between the ‘67 and ‘73 wars, the bow machine guns were removed from last M51s, so I cut the barrel off, and drilled out the mantlet.

Next stage, the turret…

A good start to an interesting project. Can'r remember seeing one of those before, even though I've read a lot about the Arab-Israeli Conflict. How's the Academy plastic to work with?

Really coming along nicely Stik

Thanks guys!

mostrich wrote:A good start to an interesting project. Can'r remember seeing one of those before, even though I've read a lot about the Arab-Israeli Conflict. How's the Academy plastic to work with?

Torben, the Academy plastic is pretty good to work with but I am finding some less than positive attachment points along with ambiguous placement in the instructions sheet.

Tanks Encyclopedia has a good write up on this tank, so I highly suggest looking at the article first if you decide to get and build this kit. That would have answered me a few questions ahead of time.

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/ ... herman.php

Two days progress for this report:
On Friday, I started assembling the turret, but ran into a speed bump fairly quickly. The lower portion of the mantlet dust cover was not as wide as the upper potion. After gluing those two parts together, I had to add putty then allow it time to dry overnite before sanding and adding fold contours with needle files. And since I didn’t want to add all of the easily broken off external turret fittings before adding the mantlet, I stopped at this point.





Saturday was smooth sailing on picking up where I left off. With the help of online reference photos for more accurate placement, I added all of the remaining turret parts, aside from the antenna bases and the TC’s .50 cal. MG.

Then I set everything up for a couple of progress photos





I just have a last few small bits to add, then I can start painting.

Wow.... that was fast.

Nice work!

That really did build up quickly.

BlackSheep214 wrote:Wow.... that was fast.

Medicman71 wrote:That really did build up quickly.

It would have been a day faster except for that issue with the mantlet cover…

LyleW wrote:

Nice work!

Thanks Lyle.

I do still have a few more small parts to add, and of course the tracks, but, major construction is done. All that in less than a week…