M-51 Welded Hull = Kitbash Academy M-51 & Dragon M4A3 Wet

Shalom.

I've aborted the Academy M-51 1967 build. Instead I'm going to build a Welded Hull M-51 by combining parts from the Academy M-51 and the Dragon M4A3 Wet kit #6325.


This should be an interesting build of an unusuall IDF tank for me and I hope you enjoy it too.

Here are 4 START images showing the date and the two opened kits.





The Academy M-51 kit.



The Dragon M4A3 Wet kit #6325



Thanks for watching. Friendly comments are welcome.

Well will you be able to make a model with all the spare bits left over ?

Jenny

Jenny Ryan wrote:Well will you be able to make a model with all the spare bits left over ?

Jenny

Shalom Jenny.

With some luck I might be able use most of the extra parts to build one of the first fifty M-50 tanks used by the Israelis. They had the VVSS system but the tanks were found to be too heavy for it which is why later M-50 tanks used the HVSS system.

Cheers

Jenny Ryan wrote:Well will you be able to make a model with all the spare bits left over ?

Jenny

Shalom Jenny.

It's really tough getting through this day. Valentine's Day is a very sad day for my family*. I haven't done any work on any model today but I did manage to do some more research.

Yes, I can definitely build another model with all of the left over bits. I can build an israeli M-1 thus saving the cost of the Tamiya kit. I still hope to be able to combine the parts to build an early M-50 but if I can't then the kit bashed M-1 will be next in the queue to be built.

Cheers


*Today is the anniversary of my sister's passing.

Sorry for your loss!

CaptainJack wrote:Sorry for your loss!

Shalom.

Thanks Captain Jack.

I've decided to use the leftover parts from the kitbashed M-51 Welded Hull model to build an IDF M-1 Sherman. I might as well work on both at the same time. I guess I'll need to start another thread here for the IDF M-1 Sherman.

Should make some progress tomorrow.

Cheers

Hi TB2:

This will certainly be an extremely interesting build to follow. I am really looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

Gary

Shalom.

Lucky me.

I was searching through all my Sherman kits and in one of the boxes I found these. There are four trees of Dragon M4A3E8 individual track links. What's great is that they are extra links from some kit and they are T-80 pattern tracks which are the PROPER tracks for the IDF M-51 Super Sherman. I do not use the designation 'Isherman' as that is a term that was never usedby the IDF.

It looks like I now have everything I need for both my M-1 Sherman kitbash and my M-51 Super Sherman Welded Hull kitbash builds. Yippee!

Here are the Dragon T-80 tracks. Can anyone say "Sink Holes"?





Cheers

Hiya TB2 again:

All I can say is good luck with those tracks. I remember the absolulte horror of putting them together for a DML Sherman I did a loooooooong time ago, and all I can say is that about %10 of the way through the job I decided that they need a good coat of heavy mud instead of a proper construction .

Gary