M41 Assault Gun

[kerick]

Fugly is the word ...love it 😀

Ken when it comes to the ERA you'll only need that if this is a relatively modern vehicle...pre  1987 vehicles wouldn't have it .

I'm going to use some welded on armor plate in a few spots and that's all. And side skirts. I'll need those to hide were the tracks are joined as they will be a little short now.

Good ...a simple but effective way to go and it's the two birds with one shovel trick 😉 😀
ERA is also alot of work when you have to custom mount it ...ya just never seem to have ERA which fits scratch built models properly 

I would use the UV resin casting to make what I need like I did with the junkyard dog. I'm sticking with the weld on armor for this project. Unless these vehicles get sold to the Israelis sometime in the 90s.

[Wardukw]

Fugly is the word ...love it 😀

Ken when it comes to the ERA you'll only need that if this is a relatively modern vehicle...pre  1987 vehicles wouldn't have it .

I'm going to use some welded on armor plate in a few spots and that's all. And side skirts. I'll need those to hide were the tracks are joined as they will be a little short now.

Good ...a simple but effective way to go and it's the two birds with one shovel trick 😉 😀
ERA is also alot of work when you have to custom mount it ...ya just never seem to have ERA which fits scratch built models properly 

I would use the UV resin casting to make what I need like I did with the junkyard dog. I'm sticking with the weld on armor for this project. Unless these vehicles get sold to the Israelis sometime in the 90s.

True that but if the Israelis did get em then they would have used their own Blazer ERA which is made from individual blocks and  those are bolted to raised mounts on the hull ..that's alot of work right there .
How your going about it now makes sense...it could be before the Israelies got em and part  of the sales deal is they'd fit their own ERA..so you don't have to 

[kerick]

Fugly is the word ...love it 😀

Ken when it comes to the ERA you'll only need that if this is a relatively modern vehicle...pre  1987 vehicles wouldn't have it .

I'm going to use some welded on armor plate in a few spots and that's all. And side skirts. I'll need those to hide were the tracks are joined as they will be a little short now.

Good ...a simple but effective way to go and it's the two birds with one shovel trick 😉 😀
ERA is also alot of work when you have to custom mount it ...ya just never seem to have ERA which fits scratch built models properly 

I would use the UV resin casting to make what I need like I did with the junkyard dog. I'm sticking with the weld on armor for this project. Unless these vehicles get sold to the Israelis sometime in the 90s.

True that but if the Israelis did get em then they would have used their own Blazer ERA which is made from individual blocks and  those are bolted to raised mounts on the hull ..that's alot of work right there .
How your going about it now makes sense...it could be before the Israelies got em and part  of the sales deal is they'd fit their own ERA..so you don't have to 

The blocks I cast from UV resin are copies of the Blazer ERA from the Israeli M60 kit. I should build that one too and use up the jars of Israeli sand color paints I have. Project for another day.

[Wardukw]

Fugly is the word ...love it 😀

Ken when it comes to the ERA you'll only need that if this is a relatively modern vehicle...pre  1987 vehicles wouldn't have it .

I'm going to use some welded on armor plate in a few spots and that's all. And side skirts. I'll need those to hide were the tracks are joined as they will be a little short now.

Good ...a simple but effective way to go and it's the two birds with one shovel trick 😉 😀
ERA is also alot of work when you have to custom mount it ...ya just never seem to have ERA which fits scratch built models properly 

I would use the UV resin casting to make what I need like I did with the junkyard dog. I'm sticking with the weld on armor for this project. Unless these vehicles get sold to the Israelis sometime in the 90s.

True that but if the Israelis did get em then they would have used their own Blazer ERA which is made from individual blocks and  those are bolted to raised mounts on the hull ..that's alot of work right there .
How your going about it now makes sense...it could be before the Israelies got em and part  of the sales deal is they'd fit their own ERA..so you don't have to 

The blocks I cast from UV resin are copies of the Blazer ERA from the Israeli M60 kit. I should build that one too and use up the jars of Israeli sand color paints I have. Project for another day.

Ohhhhh smart 👌 👏
Great way to cheat and I like it ..ive got an assembled Israelie M60 with the mine roller that I was given..let's just say...it's wasnt built well so I suspect a youngster built it ..still tho..a good score 👍

[Rick Lowe]

I stumbled upon a prototype light tank called the T92 that used two of what appeared to be M48 cupolas. A regular one on the right side and a mirror image one on the left side. Twice as fugly! No wonder it got canceled.

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/US/76mm-gun-tank-t92/





Actually it couldn't be an M48 cupola as the M48 hadn't been built yet but the family resemblance was clearly there.

There was a motorised kit of that around, way back... 50 or so years... may even have been close to 1/35.
But the 'fun' of finding one?   

[kerick]

I stumbled upon a prototype light tank called the T92 that used two of what appeared to be M48 cupolas. A regular one on the right side and a mirror image one on the left side. Twice as fugly! No wonder it got canceled.

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/US/76mm-gun-tank-t92/





Actually it couldn't be an M48 cupola as the M48 hadn't been built yet but the family resemblance was clearly there.

There was a motorised kit of that around, way back... 50 or so years... may even have been close to 1/35.
But the 'fun' of finding one?   

There's a new 3D printed kit in 1:72nd on evil bay.

[kerick]

On scalemates they list Ideal Toy Co. in 1/24th with remote control, Otaki in 1/30th, Hawk or Tamiya in 1/50 or a couple more in even smaller scales. All from the 60s. Pretty good for something canceled several years before.

[Wardukw]

I remember the T92 and why ..well partly why it failed ..couldn't seal the thing from NBC contamination...cool little machine, and I always liked that turret..it's does need a bigger gun thou 😀

[kerick]

Other than airborne ops I just don't get the whole "light tank" idea. It's another vehicle that clogs up the logistics trail and has to run away every time it encounters a real tank. Yeah it provides fire power to the guys with boots on the ground but so does a regular tank. But this idea keeps coming back over and over. Maybe because it looks like a tank but it's cheaper. Makes the bean counters happy.
But at least our little versions are fun to build!

[Old Wombat]

Light tanks were a product of the armoured warfare doctrines of the time, where, initially, an army had heavy tanks (Commonwealth = infantry tanks) & light tanks (Commonwealth = cruiser tanks).

Heavy/infantry tanks were to be used as "break-through" tanks, piercing the enemy lines, while light/cruiser tanks were to be used as "exploitation" tanks, racing through the break in the enemy lines & disrupting the enemy's lines of communications & logistics - & were not expected to encounter large formations of heavy tanks.

During WW2 the medium tank was introduced, in the forms of (primarily) M3 Lee/Grant & M4 Sherman tanks - one could argue quite successfully that the Germans introduced the ideas with the Panzerkampfwagen (PzKpfw) IV, although in practice during the "Blitzkrieg" invasions of Poland & France. However, the PzKpfw IV of the time had a short-barrelled, low-velocity gun & was used more like a heavy tank with the lighter & faster PzKpfw III's & PzKpfw 38(t)'s acting as light tanks to exploit the break-throughs.

Anyway, with the introduction of the medium tank, the doctrine shifted & the light tanks became "scout"/"reconnaissance" tanks (better armed & armoured than armoured cars but faster than medium/heavy tanks - thus able to extricate themselves from trouble a little more easily).

This doctrine continued into the post-war period but was already struggling by the time the M41 entered service due to the introduction of the Centurion into the equation at the end of WW2, & the gradual realisation of the Main Battle Tank concept.

[kerick]

And now the US Army is going back to it with the Booker tank. I suppose they say it's for low intensity conflicts until you hit an IED.

[Wardukw]

Light tanks have since WW1 have had a place on the battlefield Ken ...recon being there primary job .
They can be very useful against  other light armoured vehicles and can go place big tanks can't.
They played a big part in the war against the Japanese who's tanks were easy kills for even the little 37mm gun on the Stuarts and quite handy fire support against not so heavily protected firing positions..a coconut trunked bunker was a problem for the even the 75mm gun on the Sherman .
But tanks like the M24 Chaffee helped out alot with the roles of killing things ..they even managed to kill a few Panthers ..so that was cool 😎

The M551 Sheridan light airborne tank really changed the battlefield doctrine with its ability to destroy tanks ..concrete bunkers ..ability to be air dropped with ease and ease of use .
Yep IEDs and AT land mines are a problem but in the modern world these sort of problems are dealt with with crew protection systems far better than before..unless your in a russian tank that is 😆
The M10 Booker is basically a replacement for the Stryker MGS packing the same 105mm gun but with a much better system mounting it.
Far better protection..better offroad preformance and survivability..will be interesting to see where that goes ...it's not the first time the US has designed something good and then canceled it.

[Rick Lowe]

So basically an enlarged Scorpion.

Redux of the 'Tanks support the Infantry and Tank Destroyers deal with the tanks' concept?

[Wardukw]

So basically an enlarged Scorpion.

Redux of the 'Tanks support the Infantry and Tank Destroyers deal with the tanks' concept?

No not really...a Bradley IFV can deal with a MBT with its TOW missiles.
The Booker is a infantry support vehicle..it can deal with everything up to medium sized armoured vehicles but not a MBT .
These tanks are designed to give the troops firepower long enough to establish a footing in the beginning of a conflict to give the main force time to land with the big boys .
It's like " I'd rather have a small tank with a good gun than have no tank at all"

[Jakko]

light tanks (Commonwealth = cruiser tanks).

Correction: Commonwealth (=British) divided tanks into light, cruiser and infantry types. Light tanks were mostly intended for scouting, and probably combat where enemy tanks were not expected. This is unlike the US concept of light tanks, which by the late 1930s were intended as viable combat tanks in their own right — but even though they were heavier, and more heavily armed, than anyone else's, they proved unable to do that.

IMHO, much of the reason why people don't see the point of light tanks, is because they have the American ones in mind. In a one-on-one fight between an American light tank and anyone else's from the Second World War, the American one will win — it'll be impervious to the other guy's gun yet can shoot right through the opponent's armour. But that encourages using them in fighting against other opponents too, which they could decidedly not handle. OTOH, if you're in anyone else's light tank, you'll know that your gun and armour aren't going to cut it against much more than lightly armoured opponents and machine-gun fire, so you will try and avoid fighting those.