Palepainter's Century M48A3, HL Pershing mashup.

palepainter · Post by **palepainter** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 4:37 am

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So I started on my M48 build after a year off from the hobby. I have always had a bit of a thing for the Patton since I was a kid. I vividly remember building the Monagram version and having it hanging around most of my childhood. This one will be a bit of a challenge. But yet, I am fortunate that there have been a few of these conversions already here and on a few other forums. I am going the same route as MichaelC with the Pershing bottom. I will be adding as much detail as I can, with references I find in my research.

So here it is in it's condition as arrived. Not too bad of shape. But they really were liberal with the glue on this. Nothing budges.

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Tearing it down was pretty basic, 3 major components. The lower hull will be used for some of the additional stowage and surplus repair parts on the tank.

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I started with the loader's hatch on the turret. I eliminated the molded bumps for the hinge and drilled it out for a cross shaft of brass which would hold the springs made from brass wire. Those little things are a treat.

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I tore apart all the pieces internally, in the turret, that would be in the way of future work. I also started on the barrel conversion and reclaiming the recoil bellow on the back end of barrel against the mantlet. I found the right size brass tubing in combination with some modified styrene tubing to create the sliding support for the barrel. I used the same modified diameter styrene tubing for the fume collector and muzzle break device. I also modified the break according to what I have found on my research for the m48

I finished up the visible section of the barrel and left room to attend to the recoil mechanism in the near future. At this time, I wired up the front spot lamp assembly on the turret. Ran a Red LED into it for firing indicator. I will mount the IR send bulb in the barrel.

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There is an awful lot of detailing and misc stuff with this particular mod. The Century version, isn't too bad, but is lacking enough details to make it interesting and educational. I will be evaluating quite a bit of the stowage racks and other things that are a bit large for the scale.

The Pershing should be here in the next few days.

MichaelC · Post by **MichaelC** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 5:09 am

Will be following this closely with much interest !

PainlessWolf · Post by **PainlessWolf** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 5:40 am

Pale,
Following along! Great work, especially that nifty barrel and the search light.
Regards,
Painless

Ad Lav · Post by **Ad Lav** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:36 am

Looks good!

Didn't know the muzzle break was that shape. Early version?

palepainter · Post by **palepainter** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 4:01 pm

Ad Lav wrote:Looks good!

Didn't know the muzzle break was that shape. Early version?

I have seen both A2s and a3s with this brake. Perhaps a transition.

Ad Lav · Post by **Ad Lav** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 4:57 pm

Kinda like it!

Must resist the urge to find one on eBay...

palepainter · Post by **palepainter** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:09 am

I managed to get a little time in today. I am in semi shut down mode with my business. This has been a nice distraction. Today I started to get rid of the very large bulky appendages on the turret and started to access the research photos for ideas. The Pershing showed up today. I gave it a quick disassembly and made an in initial assessment of the future swap.

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MichaelC · Post by **MichaelC** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:30 am

The Pershing showed up !

palepainter · Post by **palepainter** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:44 am

MichaelC wrote:The Pershing showed up !

Indeed. Kind of a drag that I couldn't find a lower hull by itself. Buy this will give me a good portion of the electronics and a few other bits of plastic I can use. The Pershing is one of the very early units with the first electronic system in it before the RX.

palepainter · Post by **palepainter** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 2:44 am

I snuck in a couple hours this eve before dinner. I cut up the lower hull enough to get the top into rough position. I will be finalizing placement after I get the rear drive in. I continued on with some detail work on the upper hull and also got rid of the space between turret and hull. There will be a little work filling the gaps in the back of the hull and in the front, other than a .060 spacer on each side of the lower hull, it was a damn good fit. I cut out all the real bracing that existed on the HL hull, but will be rebuilding it with the placement of electronics and such figured out in the future.