SPA Modeler

Stuart wrote:Looks great Carlos!

So what is the idea about the canvas covers over the gun mantel?

Thanks Stuart. What’s the reasoning for the covers in reality? An educated guess says to reduce the amount of rain, dirt, dust, and grime that can enter the turret through those openings and dirty up the main gun and associated equipment in that area.. Dust cover fittings began to appear on the 76mm gunned Sherman turrets at the end of WWII, so I would presume that it was based upon wartime experience.

That's what I was wondering too, thinking about it, the Centurion had them too. I guess we've got better at sealing the gun these days.

I’ll bet that nowadays the cover is mostly internal and made from more durable material than canvas.

Looking good Stik,sometime ago I enjoyed doing the Dragon M60.

As for DS,early on I built maybe 8 kits with them,and after a decade,only one dried up and broke on a Panther G,but all of the others have acted normal,I have stopped using them since so many have reported problems.

Thanks for the kind words on this project and for the information on your experience with DS tracks. I still have a few more Dragon M48/M60 family, plus several Sherman’s with the DS tracks. I am so worried about the dry out and crumble factor due to the dry climate here in AZ most of the year. We will see…

And now back to our regularly scheduled build… today I finished up priming the rest of this build so it’s all in black now, ready for regular painting to begin

Excellent stuff Carlos, looks good in black!

Thanks Stuart. But now it’s no longer in black…

First up I put down some Insignia Yellow on the turret front sides for the company insignia. Then I cut some circle masks from Tamiya tape and masked off the appropriate areas. Much easier to do it this way due to the location and items around there that would interfere with masking around the area.



Then earlier today I airbrushed on a coat of Gunze Olive Drab (2)





Now I’ve got to let that dry and cure before the next stage of gloss coat & decals.

Just catching up on a few blogs and this one caught my eye, loving it! Great progression.

Question, after building my Tamiya M48A3 for my Hue City dio back in 2010, I was informed about the lower chasse and the actual lower deck from the springs/shocks, they were represented as being too high by Tamiya. Which means ya better lower the shocks and get the dimensions of the hull correct. Was this an issue with this kit? I hate finding this stuff out way past the point of fixing things, lol.

I'm liking this SBS, btw!

Thanks Steve. Regarding this M48 vs. Tamiya’s M48, yes Tamiya goofed… in a way. They got their measurements off of a real M48 that had no combat load or engine, so the tank was several tons lighter and the suspension less compressed. Or at least that is the story that is accepted lore nowadays. Dragon on the other hand got the dimensions for a vehicle that at least had the engine in it and the suspension appropriately loaded. So no, no such dimensional issues with this kit. The Dragon M48 kits are really sweet, and they offer most of the main M48 family, with the exception of the original variant, before all of the A series suffixes.
I didn’t find out about the Tamiya kit being in error until a couple of decades after I built mine. So yeah, way too late to go back and fix things.