M71 Ichaffee

[Richard/KeroJP4]

Hi everybody,

I am not as familiar with tanks and AFVs as I am with aircrafts, but I got an unfinished 1/35 tank model on the bench, which is a mix of Italeri models of the M24 Chaffee (hull and turret), the M4A1 Sherman (gun), and Academy M60 Blazer (Blazer reactive armor boxes)...

To me, this tank saw action in the 1973-1982 period, while the IDF was upgrading its ageing fleet of Shermans and Chaffees (they never used any Chaffee...), waiting for a Merkava... Kind of a transition tank, testing new features.

The kit will soon be over, at the moment the most important missing thingies are the tracks











Let me know what you think about it  

Cheers,

Richard

 

[Scooterman]

THAT'S COOL!!!!  

Great idea and something the IDF possibly would/could do!

[dexter059]

Great Idea! and maybe you wanna make it chilean In that era, Chile had M24 and bought upgraded Shermans from Israel.....maybe you could do an improved chilean M24 in that fashion.... . You´re falling to the dark side of armor hahahaha B)
best regards

[John Howling Mouse]

Looks VERY professional!  Man, I do love tanks.  Why the hell am I too chicken to actually build any?!

     

[Sisko]

Man that is so cool.

I like the Idea of the rockets mounted to the front of the turret.

[Captain Canada]

woah...great job with the weathering ! looking forward to seeing her all 'tracked up'.

neat idea with all the diferent kit bits, really gives it an unusual look.

Cheers !

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Perfect, just perfect and as an added bonus it would really mess with the head of any track based JMN/Z  

I H-G

[jonesthetank]

Beautiful, love the weathering over the armour panels.

Would the turret be able to cope with the recoil of a main gun that big?

The Norwegians upgraded their M24s to become NM116s (If I remember correctly), which had a new engine, and a low pressure 90mm gun, as fitted to the French AML90 armoured car.

Israel also marketed a hyper-velocity 60mm main gun, which was supposed to be as good as the L7 105mm main gun of many MBTS.  Chile uses the 60mm gun on its M24 fleet

Magic stuff!

Mark

Chilean military pages

[Radish]

Oh how wonderful!!!!!            

[nev]

Wow, that is awesome!!!!  Great bit of kitbashing, and the paint and weathering is excellent!  

Isn't all this armour great?  

Man, I do love tanks. Why the hell am I too chicken to actually build any?!

Thing is Baz, tanks are soooo easy to build!  So much easier than aircraft.  No awkward seams to fill etc.  And you can weather them up nice and ditry so a pristine finish isn't necessary  B)   And a man like you who lives to scratchbuild little bits and bobs could fill their boots making all kinds of extras to add to the tank

 

[Mike Wren]

 superb!    

[cthulhu77]

VERY nice !!!!  Superb job.

[noxioux]

Excellent.  I've always thought the Chaffee had good lines, too.

[Richard/KeroJP4]

Hey !!!!!

Thank you very much for all of your comments !!!

That's really great to me, for my fellow modellers at the club often say "why you kitbashin'em ? waste your kits man..."

I do always tell them that's worth ! And you all gimme the proof I am not wrong ! Thanks !!!

I will send pictures when the kit is over, I have spare M1A1 tracks or LVTP5 too, I 'll check which fit better and then let you know !

BTW, thank you !

Best regards,

Richard