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M103 inbound


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Read over on Armorama that Dragon has announced an M103A1 heavy tank. Not my top pick (still wanted them to release a Stryker with plastic slat) but it look pretty cool nonetheless. We've got a new tool M48, AFV Club has announced an M60 series and Tamiya just released the Gamma Goat. Not a bad time if you are into US cold war armor. Sure beat yet another WW2 German subject!

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=15351

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  • 4 months later...

Read over on Armorama that Dragon has announced an M103A1 heavy tank. Not my top pick (still wanted them to release a Stryker with plastic slat) but it look pretty cool nonetheless. We've got a new tool M48, AFV Club has announced an M60 series and Tamiya just released the Gamma Goat. Not a bad time if you are into US cold war armor. Sure beat yet another WW2 German subject!

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=15351

It's completely awesome. I just pre-ordered the MBT 70 kit. Gonna MERDC that ship up, as a "what if," perhaps in some sort of scene with a Bradley. I hope they keep going with this Cold War business. I kinda wonder if Dragon might do the other M48 variants. There's some great picks in various places on the web of early M48s in Berlin.

I'd like some troops that are out-of-the-box appropriate for the U.S. Army during the 1950s and 1960s, but aren't suited up for Southeast Asia. A simple set from Master Box or the like, with one or two tankers, one or two infantrymen in combat kit, and then a soldier glossed up for gate-guard and such work would make a fine, universal set. I could wish the same for other NATO and Warsaw Pact troops of the era. Granted, it seems foolish to ask for such things in a market where World War II has such clear dominance, but hey, we have a new-tooled Gamma Goat, right?

EDIT: And as long as we're at it, with all those little Italian and French World War II cars in 1/35...bring on a Trabant!

Edited by Fishwelding
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Heh. I joked about a Trabant, but we're halfway there. I just discovered that We now have a model to depict the frustrated Autobahn commuter caught in REFORGER traffic.

First Irofl.gif, then blink.gif , and finally jaw-dropping.gif .

For some strange reason I find that kit a little on the morbid side. And I don't know why.

It definitely caught me off guard, though. Wow.

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"It's completely awesome."

I wouldn't say that. It will look like an M103, but that is about it. It has a lot of issues. Read here.

Yea, I'm not qualified to give any particular kit the Rivet Counter Seal of Approval. I suspect the internet will find gripes even with Baron Tamiya's Goat. But in general, I'm glad to see the Cold War getting some attention from kitmakers. Terry Ashley's Perth Military Modeling Site "New Kit" list passes on other tantalizing pronouncements, too. ICM and Trumpeter pledge some great Soviet stuff coming up.

While I already paid for an MBT 70, if I had my choice, I would have probably put that off in favor of other Cold War gear, like some earlier U.S. trucks. Or the above-mentioned troops.

We still need a Davy Crockett!

For some strange reason I find that kit a little on the morbid side. And I don't know why.

It definitely caught me off guard, though. Wow.

Yea, personally, I'm not interested in the IED gear. But it's nice to have a car that fits into 1980s West Germany so nicely. I bought a toy Beetle allegedly in 1/32 scale, that's (I think) way too big for 1/35. It will work parked next to Renwall/Revell's Mace Missile rig, however.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Heh. I joked about a Trabant, but we're halfway there. I just discovered that We now have a model to depict the frustrated Autobahn commuter caught in REFORGER traffic.

Funny idea, that! :thumbsup: And one that sounds somewhat familiar. :woot.gif: One day in the late 1980s (must've been just months before the Wall came down), we were getting ready to go to school/kindergarten. In those days, we lived in a secluded former forester's house in the forest, about two klicks away from the next village (and less than 20 klicks beeline from the inner German border). We had barely gotten half of the way when we found the road blocked by a couple of tracked vehicles. My Mum had to turn the car around and drive the long way to school. I don't think they had heard "A tank blocked the road!" as an excuse for being late that often, but they bought it. :lol: Now the kicker: The car we drove in those days was a dark brown W123 series Mercedes-Benz - not quite the Diopark version, though, but a station wagon! :woot.gif:

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Funny idea, that! :thumbsup:/> And one that sounds somewhat familiar. :woot.gif:/> One day in the late 1980s (must've been just months before the Wall came down), we were getting ready to go to school/kindergarten. In those days, we lived in a secluded former forester's house in the forest, about two klicks away from the next village (and less than 20 klicks beeline from the inner German border). We had barely gotten half of the way when we found the road blocked by a couple of tracked vehicles. My Mum had to turn the car around and drive the long way to school. I don't think they had heard "A tank blocked the road!" as an excuse for being late that often, but they bought it. :lol:/> Now the kicker: The car we drove in those days was a dark brown W123 series Mercedes-Benz - not quite the Diopark version, though, but a station wagon! :woot.gif:/>

This is one of the reasons that era is so fascinating to me. Typically, it seems, we see twentieth century (and modern) armies deployed to sparsely settled, rural, or frankly poverty-stricken (though frequently resource-rich) areas of the world. But in the 1980s NATO struggled to plan and train to fight amidst one of the wealthiest (per capita) societies on Earth, with dense automobile traffic over high-quality roads, dense urban and suburban settlements, traffic lights, highly developed utility systems, and so forth.

I, too, spent much of my childhood in a station wagon. Also seems to be a staple for the era in the NATO world, until the Minivan came along.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made the mistake of buying the kit based on the first reviews which were positive and now I'm stuck with a dog. The detailed review on Armorama show were Dragon messed up trying to save, time?, money? and use a lot of the M48 molds. The M48A3 looks very good though. It looks like the MTB70 is another poor kit. A mix between 2 different German prototypes. Major work needed to make it US. It does look cool though.

I spent the late 70s driving an M60A1 in Germany so I got to block alot of traffic.

TC

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I suppose Kpz. 70 fans can be disappointed if this kit doesn't strictly adhere to one prototype or another. For my part, I'm unconcerned with that because my build(s) will be speculative: what does the thing look like in different stages of a speculative service life? That is, what would Kpz. 70 look like by 1988, had the Bundeswehr adopted it? This gives me room to maneuver.

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Fish I have to agree the cool factor is high. Its a good looking tank accurate or not. I will wait for a good sale or a US version though. $70 plus is steep and I got burned on the M103 at $65. It is so dimensionally off its nearly impossible to convert to an A2.

TC

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