New Tank for Honduras Army. M224 Bushmaster NOW WITH BETTER PICTURES!!

[chrisonord]

After a confrontation with a Cartel armoured column, The Honduras army severely came off second best. The AMX-30's were no match for the T-80's and T-70's belonging to the Cartel. Four AMX's were destroyed and only one of the Cartel tanks, a T-62 was destroyed outright.
This was not good news for the Honduras army, and they needed to upgrade and quickly. The U.S was unable to offer any M-1 Abrams, as all the surplus ones had gone to the new Iraqi army, plus the Honduras  army really did not like the idea of a gas turbine powered tank.
Whilst taking delivery of the final 2 F-4's from Israel, the head of defence acquisitions, asked the Israeli's if they were able to supply any armour as a replacement for the AMX's or temporary stopgap until a suitable replacement could be found. Two weeks later the head of acquisitions was sent an email with a link to a contractor in Israel who upgrades converts and rebuilds retired Israeli and captured armour.The Tank they had just completed and had finished testing was the "new" M224 Bushmaster, a fitting name really as it shares its name with a deadly South American snake.
Pictures of the tank and the spec sheet was shown to the army Generals, and also a film of the rigorous testing of the new Tank, the film showing the far superior performance compared to that of the AMX-30.After an official visit by the Honduras army to Israel, and several days of testing, 15 of the tanks were ordered.
The basis for this new tank is the venerable M-60, up engined and up armoured with new computerised fire control and targeting systems, and the turret from the Israeli Merkava with the same gun also.
The model is made up from a mock up I made a while ago and thought it would look cool, the hull being the revell M-60 with ERA and the Turret from the Lee Merkava, oh and a few other bits and pieces stuck on for good measure.








Cheers,
Chris.    

[ChernayaAkula]

Cool beast! 
Too bad the pics are so blurry. Does your camera have a macro mode? If not, how about taking the pis from a bit further out (as in the first pic) and the cropping the pic to size in MS Paint or Picasa? In the first pic, it seems that the distance between the lens and the joints of the trash bin is okay for the camera and makes for a sharp pic. Maybe you could try taking the pics from various distances to find out which distance will produce the best pics. Your models would certainly deserve it!

[chrisonord]

Cheers Morritz,
The camera is on macro setting, it is just a pain to get the pics to work out correctly on it as it is a crap camera.
Chris

[ChernayaAkula]

Hmmm. Maybe you're still too far out (first couple of pics)? Or too close in (last couple of pics)? Or the camera didn't find the proper spot to focus on? Maybe try the normal mode from farther out and crop the pic?
I know my cheap point'n'shoot has some trouble in macro mode when you're too close or just a tad too far out. So I usually take a couple of pics from the same angle from a couple of different distances in 10 cm ("guesstimated") steps and use the one I like best. That's one of the great things about digital photography - shoot as much as you want as you can always delete the surplus images.

[Weaver]

Nice one Chris - it certainly shows what an odd shape the Merk turret is compared to just about any other tank's, doesn't it?

[NARSES2]

Nice one 

As for pictures I sometimes find the method as suggested by "Chernaya" is better then using the macro facility

[tanktastic43]

I like the look of this one. 

Shame about the pics.

tt43.

[chrisonord]

I will try and get some more pictures done of this and repost them, I really must invest in a new better camera, as this one is really annoying me now.
Chris.

[Taiidantomcat]

Great work! Looks like a real production tank and the side skirts are really neat 

[chrisonord]

Ok then,
I have done some more pictures with a different camera, and I think they are a lot better than before 
Here goes.
 




Cheers,
Chris.

[NARSES2]

Looking good 

[thedarkmaster]

Really liking this one mate, love the green in the cammo