Palepainter's Century M48A3, HL Pershing mashup.

[palepainter]

I paid $40 USD for mine, $20 USD shipping + $15 USD import charge. It was quite reasonable I thought. It was used, turret MG was missing and mount was broken, missing the exhaust extension also.

That seems like a fair price. I have been seeing 100-120+ shipping. I got lucky on mine. It had some damage, so I think it held buyers off, but it was perfect for this build.

[palepainter]

I managed a few hours today. A bit under the weather with a nasty sinus cold. Great time for some modeling. First, I finalized all the mounting for the upper to the lower hull. Next,I finished up the fender edge detailing with bolts and missing bolts here and there. I am also working on the turret filling in a lot of the large mold holes. I started all the gas can mounting and started on H20 and gas storage containers. I also took the commander out of the Pershing and reworked him a bit for this tank for the hell of it. I found an Ak underfolder for him to hold.

Pale

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[palepainter]

I snuck in a bit before all the football on Sunday. Mostly cutting bolt heads and applying them. I do not even want to count them at this point. Just trying to fill in the gaps of in detailing. I also added auxiliary 50 cal mount. The crews often times used one at the loader hatch rather than the second one on top of the commander cupola. That was my approach.

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[palepainter]

Taking a bit of a break from the detailing and moving on to some of the technical and engineering aspects of this conversion. I took the Henglong Airsoft unit and chopped it down to use with a servo for recoil. I also worked on the bottom turret ring gear and drive. Not a whole lot of room, but I think it will all clear OK. I am also considering making a gear drive for the commander cupola. Not sure how the radio would support it.

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[palepainter]

I managed to finish up the recoil servo set up. Worked out pretty good, needs a bit of lube, but should be pretty solid. I am just about done with the detailing on the M48. Will be adding a bit more, but since it is a battler, I do not want it to be as fragile as a few of my other tanks.

Right now I am planning the electronics and lighting set up and finalizing the lower hull for lipo battery and remote charging access. Getting closer.

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[palepainter]

I got most of the turret finished up on Fri night, and started to paint today. The elevation and recoil servos and attachments are in place. For the paint, I went with a tribute to Monagram's old Patton tank. Lots of paint work left, chipping, dust, mud... But you get the idea. Now for the lower hull reinforcement and electronics. Not sure which board I will go with. But I am open for suggestions. I have a clark in one of mine, like it...I have the Mako series in a two others. I was considering the IBU3. All the mechanisms are working out fine so far.

One other thing I ran into on this build is, That the tracks from the earlier versions to the later versions are made differently. Since I extended the track length needed, I will need extra links to get it to fit on the new chassis. That means, if I go with metal tracks, I will have to buy two sets to accommodate the 4 extra links I need to finish both sides.

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[Ad Lav]

Looks awesome! Great work!

[MichaelC]

pale, looking great........ If you stick with plastic tracks let me know and I can send some extra ones your way since I have to buy a new set to make it longer. There is also a variation on the plastic one as well, but it can be made to fit. I think there is one version where the joint end pieces are complete separate from the tracks, and another one where the two end pieces are part of the track.

[EddyK]

Really great model!

[palepainter]

pale, looking great........ If you stick with plastic tracks let me know and I can send some extra ones your way since I have to buy a new set to make it longer. There is also a variation on the plastic one as well, but it can be made to fit. I think there is one version where the joint end pieces are complete separate from the tracks, and another one where the two end pieces are part of the track.

Exactly Michael. When I built my Super Pershing, the tracks had the separated end caps and solid internal tracks. But this one I picked up for the M48 had the end caps molded to the center track portion and the inside of track is somewhat hollowed out in the mold.