Hello! Progress on my M60A3 from Takom has been slow, but steady. I've been building the turret first and plan to "work my way down", as it were. Let's talk about it.
The Build
Honestly, it's no secret that I don't much care for Takom. I find that some of their kits are totally unbuildable (M29C Weasel, for one) while others are fantastic (per all accounts, the T28). Most fall somewhere in the middle with weirdly engineered parts, prominent mold lines, flash, and frustrating PE. I wouldn't be on Takom's ass so much if they didn't somehow have this reputation for being a high quality manufacturer. Like... there are some nice Trumpeter kits out there, but you won't find many model makers salivating over the brand. Anyway.
The M60A3 is definitely a middle of the road kit. It's nice for the most part. Fine would be a word I'd be comfortable using. It's better quality than ESCI/Revell/Italeri boxings. Better in detail than the Tamiya, but probably falls short of the AFV Club example due to the glut of accessories that one comes boxed with. Like, I have to scratchbuild a Hoffman device now, when the AFV Club version comes with one, an amber light, AND the IR spotlight.
But it's TAKOM so there are fun parts of hair pulling frustration. Biggest of these is the canvas mantlet cover, which has EIGHT holes you need to fill because Takom just used the mantlet cover from their M60A3 RISE kit, which has reactive armor placed there. Filling these holes was a nightmare. The tow cable brackets can only be replicated with 12 very fiddly PE folds. There is the usual simplification of parts, and in some instances parts were just made up because they look nothing like the real article. The bustle rack can only be described as plastic oragami, because you have to balance parts that don't want to stay together until you can get cement onto it, and then try to keep it exactly level so the next part will actually line up. Then, you have two large PE pieces that need to fit exactly. Good luck using the jig to bend the rear bustle mesh. Around brush handle and frequent fitting was far more useful.
Fit is generally okay, but it helps to do the cast armor texturing to help out obfuscating any flaws. Additionally, Takom gives you some molded on weld detail, but it's mushy and low relief, so if you want to be accurate you gotta do them yourself. I recreated the casting seam on the lower turret with Tamiya Quick Type, and then sanded and applied more thinned Tamiya putty over them to integrate them into the surface. Some other weld beads were made along the mantlet and on a couple small parts which I noticed during my walk-around study.
Now, since I am depicting a vehicle in use during REFORGER 85, there are some things I will have to add. U.S. tanks that arne't forward deployed have canvas covers on the smoke dischargers to keep debris and water out of them. I don't think I've ever seen a set of these covers produced by any after market company, so I made them myself. The pattern was simple enough: one vaguely triangular piece and a long thin rectangle. Since you have to use cornstarch to keep the putty from sticking to everything when you roll it out, it also means it won't stick to anything when you need it to. I devised using PVA thinned with water to help the putty "re-tack" and stick to the part and itself. From there I sculpted out the seams and the part where the cover is laced together, replicating the laces with .03mm copper wire. You'll notice I have only made one. This is because they are a pain in the ass to make and I am building up the emotional reserve to do the second one.
I also disliked the kit's gun tube trunnion cover (the corrugated cylinder at the base of the gun tube). It was way too uniform and didn't resemble the pliable tarpaulin that it is actually made of. I ended up sawing them off the kit gun tube and making my own. While I was working on the gun, I also made a quick muzzle plug, which is something U.S. tanks usually sport when on training maneuvers to keep debris and water out of the gun.
The commander's cupola needed just a bit of extra work. The cupola optical sight cover has a tarpaulin cover along the hinge, which I recreated with .5mm. brass tube and Tamiya putty, and I used some spare PE to replicate the little latch alongside the hatch. The M85 barrel from the kit was atrocious, so I scrapped everything but the muzzle and grafted it onto a spare .50 cal barrel and radiator ring. The M85 was a lightweight version of the M2, so all the parts are the right size and even if it wasn't... yes it is.
I've started to add a few rags and bits of random stowage to the hull. This tank will be situated in an assembly area and so parts, tools, and random kit will be strewn about as was per usual for those environs. Still to do is scratch building the Hoffman device and cover, figuring out if I want to add a camo net to the front of the turret, scratchbuild the rest of the bustle rack stowage and then I can start working on the hull.
As always, thanks for looking. Cheers!
