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Dragon 3553, M60 Patton
Lots of Cold War mavens have been looking forward to this one, including us!
It's got the earlier turret that looks a lot like an M48 turret, but is not. The kit includes the aluminum wheels with the strengthening ribs. All of the goodies we have seen in the more recent M48 kits are in here as well like the spotlight, dust cover and decent looking one-piece tracks. A slide molded 105mm gun barrel is in there too.
Dragon 3565
This kit contains parts to do either an M48A1 or an M48A2C. Just for review, the M48A1 had the flat engine deck while the M48A2 had the humped one that was passed down to the M48A3 and the M60 series. The M48 A1 had five return rollers while the M48A2 had three. The M48A2 had an extra track-tensioning wheel that looked like a return roller between the rearmost road wheel and the drive sprocket while the A2C dispensed with this.
There is a bit of conversion work to be done to make it an M48A2C. The fenders need to be chopped and so does the T-shaped muzzle brake in order to replace it with theY-shaped one.
Markings for 3 Israeli M48A2C and one Jordanian M48A1 from the 1967 Six Day War are included.
Our M48 Patton book provided some good technical reference as the Israeli M48s did not have major modifications at this time. Sabinga Martin SMBK-18 is also a great reference for this one.
