Palepainter's Century M48A3, HL Pershing mashup.

[MichaelC]

pale, loved the close-up of the paint job. Looks amazingly realistic. I noticed that the laser is not very focus, it might be because of the 9v battery ? It should be sharp as a tack at that distance.

[palepainter]

pale, loved the close-up of the paint job. Looks amazingly realistic. I noticed that the laser is not very focus, it might be because of the 9v battery ? It should be sharp as a tack at that distance.

I think you are right on the voltage Michael. I added a resistor to one today and ran it off the 7.2, much better.

[Cruiser133]

Did you have any issues mating the 1/18 top to a 1/16 bottom? It looks awesome and you did a hell of a bang up job but I am curious if you noticed any fidelity issues dealing with the scale differences between the two hulls? Is the upper a mismarked 1/16? The reference point I have in mind is the Bandai 1/15 Stug IV project I attempted. I wanted to use a Tamiya lower but I noticed some subtle differences which made me finally give up on the Bandai and use the Asiatam kit instead.

[MichaelC]

Cruiser133, I did this recently as well, and one of the consideration was to cut the Heng Long 1/16 Pershing hull length wise and remove about 4mm as there is probably a 2mm gap on each side. Pale fixed this by adding fenders. I don't have the skill or desire and just left mine as is. The Pershing is also a little bit longer, and because of the boat bottom shape of the M48, there is lots of body work to make it look reasonable. Luckily the front idlers of the Pershing is not mounted to the lower hull but rather attached to the first road wheel so that didn't create any additional problem. The backend however do requires some additional body work on the M48 upper but it is mostly due to the gearset and not the overall shape i.e. If we are mating a static hull then you don't need to do much work at the back end.

I think overall it does not detract the overall look significantly. I have done couple of these mash-up now, and for some strange reason, 1/18 to 1/16 always seems more palatable than 1/15 to 1/16. I just have this suspicious feeling that Bandai is not really 1/15 but closer to 1/14......

[palepainter]

Like MichaelC mentions, it really isn't that noticeable of a difference. Mostly in the size of the wheels more than anything I could visually see. But It works great together as far as a fitment. The upper hull slides right into the sides of the HL Pershing Lower. Just a bit of shimming will make up the difference for a nice tight fit that really strengthens the side hull of the HL unit.

I am waiting on a few bits and pieces for the wiring and she will be ready to rumble. I will post some video when I get it all wrapped up.