Old Tank Hulls Upgunned And Thrown Back Into Combat

[dy031101]

I could actually think of a few such kitbashing ideas (some are real world items though)...... heck, I might try to produce a few with 3D Studio Max if I could spare time from "celebrating the ordinary"......





The well-known M51 Sherman (with 105mm gun).

Churchill Infantry Tank hull with the turret (and the 105mm gun) of M51 Sherman (turret ring just too small...... too bad the Black Prince came too late).

Type 64 light tank (ROC/Taiwanese combination of M42 Duster hull and M18 Hellcat turret).

NM-116 Chaffee light tank (Norweigian upgrade with 90mm gun).

IJA Type 5 heavy tank "Chi-Ri" hull with the turret of JGSDF Type 61 MBT.

I heard there was an Egyptian modification of T-34/85 into turreted 100mm SPATG in a manner similar to another modification that created a 122mm SPH.

I keep on thinking about the Pershing/Patton (M26/46/47) series.  Would they be able to take the turret of TH-301/TAM medium tank?

Egyptian M4 Sherman hull with AMX-13 turret.

I wanted to think about ideas for WWII Panzers as well as KV and JS series of heavy tanks...... to no avail so far.

[Captain Canada]

A few years back, when the Germans put new turrets on their leos, we were offred their old ones to upgrade our C.1s.

I've got a tank half built using that premise, only it's a Centurion.

 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Taiwan did something similar with their M48 fleet by removing the turrets from the M48 chassis/hull and mounting them on an M60 chassis/hull.  These turrets were also upgraded from the original 90mm cannon to the 105mm cannon.  At first glance, you would think it was an M60 and not an M48/M60 hybrid.  AFV club kitted it a while back and you can still find it on the shelf.  

If you are going to upgrade your Centurion, have you considered using the Chieftain or Challenger turret?  

[Mossie]

I've had a few ideas in recent times, mentioned 'em before but no harm in repating:

Faun Elefant with PzH 2000 or Gepard turret, German version of the Czech Dana/Zuzana SPGH.

Chieftan hull (could use a Centurion too as Carlos mentioned, but it's a Chieftan I've got in the stash) with two mounted Bloodhound SAM's.  Kind of a Brit SA-4 Ganef.  The Mk.IV Bloodhound was to be a mobile version, but reading between the lines on the very little info availble, it was probably just a version that could be shifted around from place to place rather than being mounted on a vehicle.

Scorpion hull with a mounted Rapier system, it's finding a kit of the Rapier though that's the problem.

[Arc3371]

A Panzer IV or Sherman with the ARES gun?

[dy031101]

For KV and JS heavy tank hulls...... up-gun using the turret of 2S25 Sprut-SD with applique armours?

Tiger and Kingtiger hulls...... with CV90-120 or Centauro 120mm gun turret uparmoured to the max?

For relatively more modern hulls, I recalled some rumours that South African once offered the turret of their Tank Technology Demonstrator for upgrading foreign Centurion tanks.  How large and different is it compared to early Leopard 2 tank turret?

I remember seeing a diagram (which unfortunately I could no longer find) of how technologies used by the Russian Black Eagle tank turret (or is it the turret itself) could be used to upgrade the firepower of M48, M60, and Leopard 1 tanks.

Also, Americans once proposed M48A4, a combination of early M60 turret with M48A3 hull.  Is it safe to assume that M48A3 hull can also be made compatible with M60A1/A3 turret?  Then put on Magach 7 turret addon pack?

A few years back, when the Germans put new turrets on their leos, we were offred their old ones to upgrade our C.1s.

That'd have looked great.

I don't know if the M48 turrets used by CM11 (M60A3 hull) and CM12 (M48A3 hull) MBTs are then-newly-fabricated in Taiwan or salvaged from decommisioned M48A3.  Both tanks have fire control system that rivals that of early M1 Abram.

Right now I'm working on a T-10M heavy tank in 3D Studio Max.  Maybe somewhere down the road I'll see how good it'd look with the turret armour schemes of T-80 and T-84......

Hehe, I like the idea of WWII German Elefant hull with Gepard turret.

And what's an ARES gun?

[Arc3371]

The XM274 ARES was a 75mm rapidfire gun developed for the RDF light tank, it supposedly had the same hitting power as the M-68/L7 gun

More on the RDF :http://www.jedsite.info/tanks-romeo/romeo/rdf_series/rdf-series.html

[Captain Canada]

Here's a pick of a pair of my Leos

[ysi_maniac]

Hetzer gun carrier.  Replace the gun with a flexible 20mm MG213 (1,300 rpm) and use for street fighting.

This would be a neat concept, really.

[General Zod]

Late in the war,the Soviets built up one prototype ISU 152/1 It was an ISU 152 with a real long barrel of a 152mm It was built up for bunker busting,and taking on the Tiger 2 However,the barrel was too long,plus the Tiger 2's were kind of rare Here is a link to the PST 1/72 scale kit

http://www.modelsforsale.com/listphotos/PST72007.jpg

I think if the designers would have put the fighting compartment at the rear,like the Ferdinand/Elephant series,it would have one one bad a$$ SP gun

I read somewhere the 152mm gun on the SU 152/ISU 152 series was known as a "God has spoken" gun

If I had any decent scratchbuilding skills,I'd attempt a rebuild of one of them

[dy031101]

For something that would change the look of those tanks even more, how about CT-CV turret?

I've resisted this notion for quite some time, thinking that outright replacement of turrets might be too radical for the purpose they are to serve.  But if things get desperate enough and if CT-CV is compact enough (so as not to require too large a turret ring)......

More info on the turret here.

[dy031101]

A few years back, when the Germans put new turrets on their leos, we were offred their old ones to upgrade our C.1s.

That one suddenly gave me some potentially visually-interesting combinations: Leopard I turret for Panzerkampfwagen Panther and a simplified MBT-70 turret (120mm gun, no autoloader, no AA gun subturret, and obviously no driver's seat) for Panzerkampfwagen King Tiger.

That leaves Panzerkampfwagen Tiger.  I'm tempted to give it something blocky-looking (which fits Leopard 2 turret rather well), but not anything newer than MBT-70...... the brainstorming continues......

What are the sizes of turret rings on M46, M47, and M48 tanks?  I'm kinda tempted to imagine them taking in M60A3 tank turrets with Magach upgrades.

Does anyone has large line drawings of MBT-70 and Magach?

[dy031101]

Here is one that I've been trying to colour.  Type 61 tank turret on Type 5 tank hull.

Couldn't decide on markings though.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

A few years back, when the Germans put new turrets on their leos, we were offred their old ones to upgrade our C.1s.

The Leopard 1A2 and 1A4 turret would also look real good on the M41 hull.  I just came to that conclusion while looking at a series of images that show the conversion of a Tamiya M41 to the Danish M41DKA1 which has a lot of extra storage bins and racks attached to the turret (link to image gallery http://community.webshots.com/user/sapper141).  The rather slab sided appearance gave me the idea of using the Leopard turret on the M41 which could then be modified to use the 76mm gun of the M41 or upgrade it to the 105mm gun of the Leopard, either way it would certainly earn a second look if it was placed on the table with other armor subjects. 

[GTX]

Does anyone has large line drawings of MBT-70 and Magach?

Here's one of the MBT-70 - not that large, but it might help:



Regards,

Greg