Recommend a Vietnam era M-60 Patton tank??

Hmm, don't remember a Testors 1/35 M60. Their 1/35 armor was generally Italeri, and I don't remember them doing one. The M60s I know of were the old Tamiya one, followed by the Academy and ESCI kits.

Dave

Google ITA6397

Revell or Monogram did one - I recall building it when I was in high school (that was a LOOOONG time ago!). I'm not an armor guy so can't say what is the best, but this is probably the one he built.

John Alger IPMS 10906 Charlotte Scale Modelers

The yellow-band Testors kit you remember was the Italeri M47, not an M60. Currently, Italeri offers an M60A1, a repop of the excellent Esci kit, which is hands-down the best M60-series kit ever offered. Revell Germany also offers the same kit with alternate parts as an M60A3. These depict a relatively early chassis with the original finned aluminum wheels. The Army and Marines started to replace these with the M48-style steel wheels in 1980, as the aluminum wheel rims failed too often, but the aluminum wheels still appeared occasionally when the series was retired. The kit turret has the slightly thicker turret ring and cheek armor added after the Yom Kippur War show weaknesses in these areas--you can do some filing and sanding to backdate it a bit to the 1960s. I haven't seen the current boxing, so I don't know if the A1 kit offers the side-loading or top-loading air cleaners, or both. That said, the M60 did not serve in Vietnam. They were deployed to Europe, while the M48A3 was deemed adequate for Southeast Asia (Tamiya offers an M48A3, and Academy once did a mediocre clone of it). There are resin turrets available to depict the original M60, if you don't want to do an M60A1. The ancient Monogram kit mentioned was an M48A2, and Revell USA has never offered an M60 in 1/35th scale. Gerald Owens

ISTR that being a Monogram kit and probably 1/32nd scale. For awhile there Monogram had some armour program going. Just remembered the little kit folder here and the kit was the PM37 Patton Tank for a disgusting $2.00 in '66.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

That is a rebox of the ECSI kit, I believe. I don't think it was ever available in the Testors yellow box.

Dave

thx - must have been them glue fumes in my basement modeling corner...

Craig

Not sure what the writer is thinking as no M60s other than the AVLB were used in Vietnam.

Monogram reboxed their M48A2 kit as a "Vietnam" version with silly decals like "Flower Power" but only a small handful of USMC M48A2s served there. The Army ones were M48A3 Pattons like the one in the Tamiya kit.

Was that what he meant?

Cookie Sewell

well, dang it. I knew there was an M in there somewhere. I just missed everything else...

I googled "tanks used in vietnam" and got this link.

Craig