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This is my Lego version of the American tank, the M48 Patton. It’s a mix of the variants, as I included the noticeable spotlight above the gun, and a small machine gun on the right hatch.
An M48 tank, probably 4/23rd Armor, provides backup fire power for A Co. 3rd Platoon grunts on the ground (barely visible in the tall brush) on a search and destroy mission in the Boi Loi. Photo by John Michael Massey (Mike).
The pretty open cluster, M48, resides in a lonely section of the night sky, if you observe from the lighted-skies above the suburbs. I have, over the years, developed a feel for where it is, about four times the distance below and in-line-of the two brightest stars in Canis Minor and forming an equilateral triangle between Alpha Hydrae and Epsilon Hydrae. Using just a Telrad (1x – finder), from the deck of my house, I can now land the cluster in the low power eyepiece in a couple of tries.
When Messier tried to describe the location of this cluster in 1771, he really had no good reference points (close bright stars) for him to refer to. His declination measurement was off by a full 5 degrees. This resulted in M48, becoming one of Messier’s missing objects. Caroline Herschel (sister to William Herschel) rediscovered M48 on March 8, 1873. By then a much better system was in place for recording the location of objects in the night sky.
I find M48 a nice collection of stars. It has strings of dimmer stars scattered between the brighter members of the cluster. In addition, faint stars appear scattered throughout the cluster, that are on the edge of visibility in the telescope but never coalesce into apparent nebulosity as in so many other clusters. A pleasant sight through the telescope – but not the easiest cluster to capture in a drawing.
To see other astronomy drawaings visit: www.orrastrodrawing.com
4th squad track 34 in front. Far right: Donald Mousseau (WIA), Richard Purkis (WIA) to his left, Kelly next to him,and SSgt Bobby Epley (WIA) with movie camera. Heading up to the jungles of Katum. We left civilization about 10 miles behind us and still had 20 to go to get to the Cambodian border. This was not looking good. Photo by Frank Thomas Goins (Tom).
Another of The War Remnants Museum arsenal pieces is a M.48 A3 Tank.
The U.S. military used 370 of these tanks in Vietnam.
The war main battle tank weighed 47.2 tons and had a maximum speed of 48km / h.
The M48 Patton is a medium tank that was designed in the United States. In February 1963, the US Army accepted its first of 600 M48 Patton tanks that had been converted to M48A3's, and by 1964, the US Marine Corps had received 419 Patton tanks.
These Pattons were to be deployed to battle in Vietnam. Because all M48A3 tanks were conversions from earlier models, many characteristics varied among individual examples of this type.
M48A3 tanks could have either 3 or 5 support rollers on each side and might have either the early or later type headlight assemblies.
This standard length 9.7m MCW Mk2 Metrobus was one of 88 such vehicles in the KMB fleet and was new in 1985, finally being retired in May 2003. It was seen in Nathan Road in July 2001 on the 2c which at the time operated as a circular service. KMB also operated 12m Metrobuses.
Cape imperméable toile vinyl extérieur, grise, capuchon détachable, passe-bras, TRAPO, DDR (ex-RDA), m48, homme.
The M47 Patton was an American main battle tank, a development of the M46 Patton mounting an updated turret, and was in turn further developed as the M48 Patton. It was the second American tank to be named after General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates of tanks in battle.
The M47 was the U.S. Army's and Marine Corps' primary tank, intended to replace the M46 Patton and M4 Sherman medium tanks. The M47 was widely used by U.S. Cold War allies, both SEATO and NATO countries, and was the only Patton series tank that never saw combat while in US service.
Although similar in appearance to the later M48s and M60s, these were completely new tank designs. Many different M47 Patton models remain in service internationally. The M47 was the last US tank to have a bow-mounted machine gun in the hull.
Deployment
With the arrival of the improved M48 Patton in 1953, the M47 was declared 'limited standard' in 1955, and examples in tank units were replaced with the M48 series before long. After being declared obsolete in 1957, M46s and M47s were retained in active duty infantry division battlegroup assault gun platoons (four tanks each, one platoon per battlegroup, for a total of 20 tanks per division) until replaced with the light truck-mounted SS-10 anti-tank guided missile in the early 1960s. M47s were used by the Reserves for a relatively short time, soon being replaced by early production M48 Patton series tanks; thus, most of the M47s were exported in the late 1950s.
The US Marine Corps also fielded M47s starting in late 1952; after the Korean War, all seven Marine tank battalions, three divisional, two reserve training, and two force level, each fielded M47s. But these were soon replaced with M48A1 Pattons and M103 heavy tanks, with the last M47s being retired in 1959.
The M47 was widely used by many countries, especially NATO and SEATO allies, including Austria (147), Belgium (784), Ethiopia (30), France (856), Greece (396 from USA and West Germany), Iran (around 400), Italy (2,480), Japan (1 for evaluation only), Jordan (49), Pakistan (100), Portugal (161), Saudi Arabia (23 from the US, 108 on the international market), Somalia (25 from Saudi Arabia), South Korea (531), Sudan (17 from Saudi Arabia), Spain (389), Switzerland (2 for evaluation), Turkey (1,347 from the US and West Germany), West Germany (1,120), and Yugoslavia (319). Like the US Army of the time, the West German Bundeswehr also used some of their M47s as interim tank destroyers/assault guns until replaced by the Raketenjagdpanzer 1 tank destroyers armed with SS-11 anti-tank guided missiles in the early 1960s.
US Army M47s remaining in storage were expended as targets. In the 1970s, they were used for the M60A1's 105mm gun with devastating effect. The 105 mm HEAT round would penetrate the frontal armor with ease. Many M47s in like-new condition met their fate in this manner, showing the M60 crews first hand the effects of modern tank weapons on conventional steel armor.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In October 1951, a heavy tank project was underway to mount an oscillating turret with an automatically loading 120mm Gun on the hull of the 120mm Gun Tank T43. (The T43 would later be serialized as the 120mm Gun Tank M103, America’s last heavy tank.). This was the T57, and the Rheem Manufacturing Company were granted a contract to design and build two pilot turrets and autoloading systems.
During the T57’s development, it became clear that it was feasible to mount a lighter armored version of the T57 turret on the hull of the 90mm Gun Tank T48 (The T48 later became the 90mm Gun Tank M48 Patton). This combination granted the possibility of creating a ‘heavy gun tank’ that was considerably lighter (and therefore more agile and tactically flexible) than any previously designed.
In May 1953, a development project was started to create such a tank. It would be designated the 120mm Gun Tank T77, and another contract was signed with Rheem to create two pilot tanks. The T77 weighed about 50 tons, with armor of the hull being up to 110mm thick. It was originally powered by a 650 hp Continental AVSI-1790-6 V12, air-cooled twin-turbo gasoline engine. This would propel the tank to a speed of 30 mph (48 km/h). The tank was supported on a torsion bar suspension, attached to six road wheels. The drive sprocket was at the rear, while the idler was at the front. The idler wheel was of the compensating type, meaning it was attached to the closest roadwheel by an actuating arm. When the roadwheel reacted to terrain, the idler was pushed out or pulled in, keeping constant track tension. The return of the track was supported by five rollers.
The T77 had a crew of four: The driver’s position was standard for M48 hulls, located centrally in the bow at the front of the hull. Arrangements inside the turret were standard, too: The loader was positioned to the left of the gun, the gunner was on the right with the commander behind him.
The T77’s oscillating turret could be easily mounted to the unmodified 2.1 m (85 inch) turret ring of the M48 hull, and on other tanks, too. It consisted of two actuating parts: a collar that was attached to the turret ring, allowing 360° horizontal traverse, and a pivoting upper part with a long cylindrical ‘nose’ and a low profile flat bustle that held the gun, which could elevate to a maximum of 15 degrees, and depress 8 degrees. It also held the complex loading mechanism and the turret crew.
Both turret halves utilized cast homogeneous steel armor. The sides of the collar were made to be round and bulbous in shape to protect the trunnions that the upper half pivoted on. Armor around the face was 127mm (5 inches) thick, angled at 60 degrees, what meant an effective 10 in (254 mm) equivalent of RHA at the turret front. Maximum armor strength was 137mm (5.3 inches) on the convex sides of the turret, and this dropped to 51 mm (2 inches) on the bustle.
Though it looked like two, there were actually three hatches in the turret’s roof: There was a small hatch on the left for the loader, and the slightly raised cupola for the commander on the right, which featured six periscopes. These two standard hatches were part of a third large, powered hatch, which took up most of the middle of the roof, granting a larger escape route for the crew but also allowed internal turret equipment to be removed easily. It was also a convenient way to replenish the ammunition storage, even though a use under battle conditions was prohibitive. In front of the loader’s hatch was a periscope, housings for a stereoscopic rangefinder were mounted on the sides of the swiveling turret part, and there was another periscope above the gunner’s position, too. Behind the large hatch was the ejection port for spent cartridges, to its right was the armored housing for the ventilator.
The initial Rheem Company turret concept had the gun rigidly mounted to the turret without a recoil system, and the long gun barrel protruded from a narrow nose. The gun featured a quick change barrel but was otherwise basically identical to the 120mm Gun T123E1, the gun being trialed on the T43/M103. However, for the T57/77 turret and the autoloader, it was modified to accept single piece ammunition, unlike the T43/M103, which used separately loading ammo due to the round’s high weight. This new gun was attached to the turret via a conical adapter that surrounded the breech end of the gun. One end screwed directly into the breech, while the front half extended through the ‘nose’ and was secured in place by a large nut. The force created by the firing of the gun and the projectile traveling down the rifled barrel was resisted by rooting the adapter both the breech block and turret ring. As there was no inertia from recoil to automatically open the horizontally sliding breech block, a hydraulic cylinder was introduced. Upon firing the main gun, this hydraulic cylinder was triggered via an electric switch. This new variant of the T123 cannon was designated the 120mm Gun T179. It was fitted with a bore evacuator (fume extractor) and a simple, T-shaped muzzle brake.
A single .30 Caliber (7.62mm) machine gun was mounted coaxially, and another such weapon or a medium 0.5” machine gun could be attached to a mount on the commander’s cupola.
Using standard Armor-Piercing Ballistic Cap Tracer Rounds, the T179 was capable of penetrating 221-millimetre (8.7 in) of 30-degree sloped rolled-homogenous armor at 1,000 yards and 196-millimetre (7.7 in) at 2,000 yards. It could also penetrate 124-millimetre (4.9 in) 60-degree sloped rolled-homogenous armor at 1,000 yards and 114-millimetre (4.5 in) at 2,000 yards.
The T179’s automatic loader was located below the gun and it gave the weapon a projected rate of fire of 30 rounds per minute, even though this was only of theoretical nature because its cylinder magazine only held 8 rounds. After these had been expended, it had to be manually re-loaded by the crew from the inside, and the cannon could not be operated at that time. Ammunition types such as High-Explosive (HE), High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT), Armor Piercing (AP), or Armor-Piercing Ballistic-Capped (APBC) could be fired and be selected from the magazine via a control panel by either the gunner or the tank commander, so that it was possible to quickly adapt to a changing tactical situation – as long as the right rounds had been loaded into the magazine beforehand.
The cannon itself was fed by a ramming arm that actuated between positions relative to the breech and magazine, operating in five major steps:
1) The hydraulically operated ramming arm withdrew a round and aligned it with the breach.
2) The rammer then pushed the round into the breach, triggering it to close.
3) Gun was fired.
4) Effect of gun firing trips the electric switch that opens the breech.
5) Rammer picks up a fresh round, at the same time ejecting the spent cartridge through a trap door in the roof of the turret bustle.
Beyond the 8 rounds ready-for fire in the magazine, the main gun had only a very limited ammunition supply due to the large size of the 1-piece rounds: only 21 more 120 mm rounds could be stored in the hull and at the base of the turret.
After thorough trials, the T77 was, powered by a more fuel-efficient Continental AVDS-1790-2 V12, air-cooled twin-turbo diesel engine with 750 bhp (560 kW), accepted as a replacement for the U.S. Army‘s unloved heavy M103 and introduced as the M77. The first M77s were assembled at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in March 1964. However, the M77 was primarily a support vehicle for standard tank units and reserved for special operations. Therefore, the type’s production numbers remained low: only 173 tanks were eventually built until 1968 and exclusively allocated to U.S. Army units in Western Germany, with a focus on West Berlin and Southern Germany (e.g. in the Fulda Gap), where they were to repel assaults from Eastern Germany and defend vital installations or critical bottlenecks.
Due to its high rate of fire and long range, the M77 was ideally suited for defensive tasks and hit-and-run tactics. But this was, unfortunately, the type’s only selling point: The oscillating turret turned out to be complex, concerning both handling as well as maintenance, and in practice it did not offer the same weapon stability as the M48’s or the later M60’s conventional design, especially when firing during movement. The cramped interior and the many mechanical parts of the bulky autoloader inside of the turret did not make the tank popular among its crews, either. Several accidents occurred during manoeuvers while the loader tried to refill the magazine under combat pressure. A further weakness was the type’s low ammunition stock and the fact that, despite the autoloader, there was still a loader necessary to feed the magazine. The low ammunition stock also heavily limited the tactical value of the tank: typically, the M77 had to leave its position after expending all of its ammunition and move to a second line position, where the huge one-piece rounds could be replenished under safer conditions. But this bound other resources, e. g. support vehicles, and typically the former position had to be given up or supplanted by another vehicle. Operating the M77 effectively turned out to be a logistic nightmare.
During its career, the M77 saw only one major upgrade in the mid-Seventies: The M77A1 was outfitted with a new multi-chamber muzzle brake, muzzle reference and crosswind sensors (the latter was mounted in a small mast on the rear of the turret) and an improved turret stabilization system along with an upgraded turret electrical system. All of these measures were intended to improve the tank’s 1st shot kill probability, esp. at long range. A large AN/VSS-1(V)1 white/IR searchlight was added above the gun barrel, too. All tanks in service were upgraded in this fashion, no new tanks were built. Unlike the M48, neither the M77 nor the Rheem turret or its autoloader system were cleared for export, even though Israel showed interest.
In the early Eighties, there were further plans for another upgrade of the M77 fleet to a potential A2 status. This would have introduced a laser rangefinder (instead of the purely optical device) and a solid state M21 ballistic computer with a digital databus. The M21 would have allowed a pre-programmed selection and fire sequence of different ammunition types from the magazine’s chambers, plus better range and super-elevation correction. However, this did not happen because the M77 had become obsolete through the simple depletion of its exotic 120 mm ammunition from the army’s stocks. Therefore, another plan examined the possibilities of replacing the T179 gun with the 105 mm M68 rifled anti-tank gun, a license-built version of the British L7 gun, which had, despite the smaller caliber, a performance comparable to the bigger 120 mm T179. But since the M48 chassis and its armor concept had become outdated by the time, too, the M77A1 fleet was by 1986 fully replaced by the M60A3, the US Army’s new standard MBT.
Specifications:
Crew: 4 (commander, driver, loader, gunner)
Weight: 51 tons
Length: 6.946 m (22 ft 9.5 in) hull only, 10,66 m (34 ft 11 in) overall w. gun forward
Width: 3.63 m (11 ft 11 in)
Height: 3.08 m (10 ft 1 in)
Suspension: Torsion-bar
Ground clearance: 1 ft 6.2 in (0.46 m)
Fuel capacity: 385 US gal (1,457 l)
Armor:
0.5 – 5.3 in (13 – 137 mm)
Performance:
Speed:
- Maximum, road: 30 mph (48 km/h)
- Sustained, road: 25 mph (40 km/h)
- Cross country: 9.3 to 15.5 mph (15 to 25 km/h)
Climbing capability:
- 40% side slope and 60% max grade
- Vertical obstacle of 36 inches (91 cm)
- 102 inches (2.59 m) trench crossing
Fording depth: Unprepared: 4 ft (1.219 m), prepared: 8 ft (2.438 m)
Operational range: 287 ml (463 km) on road
Power/weight: 16.6 hp (12.4 kW)/tonne
Engine:
1× Continental AVDS-1790-2 V12, air-cooled twin-turbo diesel engine, 750 bhp (560 kW)
Transmission:
General Motors CD-850-3, 2-Fw/1-Rv speed GB
Armament:
1× 120 mm T179 L/60 rifled anti-tank gun with an autoloader and a total of 29 rounds
1× co-axial 7.62 mm M240C machine gun with 3.000 rounds
1× .50 cal (12.7 mm) M2 Browning (600 rounds) or .30 cal (7.62 mm) M73 machine
anti-aircraft machine gun (1.000 rounds) on the commander’s cupola with 600 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This is another fictional creation, but, like many of my whif builds, it is rooted in reality and an extrapolation of what could have been. The oscillating tower with the M103’s 120 mm cannon and an autoloader was actually developed, and there were several tank projects that made use of it. The T77 was the final proposal, but, like the T57 on the M103 basis and other designs from the Rheem Company, the T77’s development was arduously slow, so that the project was finally canceled in 1957 by the US Ordnance Department. Two turrets were actually built, though, but they were scrapped in February 1958, and the T77 only existed on paper or in model form.
The impulse for this build actually came from a 1:72 resin turret for the T57 project from ModelTrans/Silesian Models. I found the concept cool and the turret had a very futuristic look, so that I bought a set with the vague intention to use it for a mecha conversion someday. Then it gathered dust in the stash, until I recently stumbled upon the 1:72 M103 kit from Dragon and considered a T57 build. But this kit is very rare and expensive, at least here in Germany, so I shelved this plan again. However, I started to play with the idea of a U.S. Army vehicle with a Rheem Company turret. Then I found a Revell M60 kit in the stash and considered it for a whiffy build, but eventually rejected the idea because a turret concept from the late Fifties would hardly make its way onto a tank from the late Seventies or later. When I did further research concerning the Rheem turret, I came across the real T77 project on the basis of the M48, and dug out an ESCI M48A5 from the pile (realizing that I had already hoarded three of them…!), so the M77 project was finally born.
Otherwise, the build was a straightforward affair. The T57 turret is a massive resin piece with a separate barrel and very fine surface details. Some of them, delicate lugs, were unfortunately broken off, already OOB but also by me while handling the pieces. They could be easily replaced with brass wire, though, which was also used to add small rails to the collar. The very long and thin barrel was replaced with a white metal aftermarket piece. It’s actually a barrel for a Soviet T-10 with a complex muzzle brake (made from brass), but the size was just fine and looks very good on this fictional tank.
Some details were added to the turret or transplanted from the M48 kit, e. g. the prominent IR searchlight or the machine gun on the commander cupola. Furthermore, I added a textile seal to the gap between the turret sections and to the barrel’s root, made from paper tissue drenched in thinned white glue. The same method was used to create the searchlight cover, too.
Since the turret base had a smaller diameter than the M48’s attachment opening, I had to improvise a suitable adapter with styrene strips. The M48A5 hull itself was taken OOB.
Painting and markings:
I was happy that I could place this model into a later time frame, so that the U.S. Army’s uniform Olive Drab times were already over. In the 1970s, the US Mobility Equipment Research & Design Command (MERDC) developed a system of camouflage patterns for US Army vehicles. These consisted of a set of standardized patterns for each vehicle, to be used with a set of twelve colours. The local terrain conditions and colours decided which of the paints were to be used, and on which parts of a vehicle. Then, if conditions altered, for example by a change in the weather, or by the unit moving into a new area of operations, the scheme could be quickly adjusted to suit them by replacing only one or two colours by different ones.
For example, if a vehicle was painted in the US & European winter scheme, which had a dark green and a medium brown as its predominant colours, and it started to snow, by overpainting either the green or the brown with white, one of the two snow schemes could be created. This gave a high degree of flexibility, though in practice it was hardly ever actually made use of—most vehicles were painted in one scheme and kept that.
I gave the M77 the “Winter Verdant” MERDC scheme, which was frequently used in Germany. It consists of Forest Green (FS 34079), Earth Red (FS 30117), Sand (FS 30277) and Black (FS 37038). The pattern itself was adapted from the standardized M60 MERDC scheme. Colors used were ModelMaster 1701 and 1710, plus Humbrol 238 and Revell 06. The seals on the turret and the searchlight cover were painted in a faded olive drab, the track segments with a mix of iron, dark grey and red brown.
After basic painting with brushes, the kit received a washing with thinned black and red brown acrylic paint. Decals (taken from the ESCI kit) came next, then the model received an overall dry brushing treatment with Humbrol 72 (Khaki Drill) and 168 (Hemp). Finally, everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can and the lower hull areas were dusted with mineral pigments, simulating dust and mud.
Another relatively simple conversion, since only the (oscillating) turret was swapped. However, I was skeptical at first because the turret was originally intended for an M103 hull - but mounting it on a smaller M48 chassis worked well, just like in real life!
First Somerset & Avon no 51348 (M48 BEG)
Ex-Streamline MB 811D / Marshall
Service 20A
Bath
18th March 2005
Cape imperméable toile vinyl extérieur mat, gris, capuchon détachable, 5 boutons à l'avant recouverts, longs passe-bras boutonnables au milieu, TRAPO, DDR (ex-RDA), m48, homme.
This kit was partially built and then abandoned by some kid 60 plus years ago. It had many issues: glue smears, parts assembled incorrectly, and a gaping hole in the front of the hull (short shot during injection molding). I corrected everything the best I could and then assembled it retro style, leaving the color of the plastic, and painting in the details according to the instruction sheet. I only used one of the "Big Pat" decals because I think they are a bit corny.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Even while the heavy T43 (M103) tank was still in development during the early Fifties, the U.S.A. was not done with attempts at making better heavy tanks. The primary concern were the Soviet heavy tanks that were expected to roll over Western Germany in the case of a Cold War escalation. Development was split into two schools of thought: One based its work on the T43, leading to the T57 and T58 auto loading tanks, while the other started from scratch, trying to mount a heavy weapon that could engage enemy tanks at long range in a more compact hull than the large and heavy T43.
In June 1954, the Detroit Arsenal held its third Question Mark Conference, the goal of which was brainstorming ideas for new heavy tanks. Conditions these proposals had to meet were that a prototype had to be constructed within two years, and the vehicle had to be able to fit within the confines of the Berne International Clearance Diagram, a code of standardization for rail tunnels established at the international conference at Berne, Switzerland, in 1913.
Various designs were submitted and discussed: The TS-2 and TS-5 were both armed with a 105 mm (4.13 in) T210 smoothbore gun; in a turret on the TS-2, and in a fixed casemate on the TS-5. The TS-6 and TS-31 were armed with the 120 mm (4.72 in) T123E1 gun; again in a turret on the TS-6, and casemate on the TS-31. Power for the tanks would have been supplied by either a 700 hp Continental AOI-1490-1 engine with an XT-500 transmission (TS-2 and TS-5), or an 810 hp Continental AVI-1790-8 with an XT-500 transmission (TS-6 and TS-31).
In the end, the TS-31, outfitted with a gimbal gun mount and estimated to weigh 45 tons, was chosen for further development, because it promised the most compact outlines. Chrysler was assigned to the development of the TS-31, which was given the project designation “120mm gun tank T110”; at the same time, the T43 was entering pre-production as the M103.
The original TS-31/T110 had a driver in the hull, a gunner to the left of the gun, a commander and his machine gun cupola to the right of the gun, and two loaders. It was rear-engined and had six road wheels on either side. Armor was to be as thick as 9 inches (228.6 mm) on the gun mantlet. Despite the TS-31 concept being chosen as the winner, it still was slightly too big to fit through the Berne Clearance Dimensions. Additional problems were found with the off-center commander’s cupola: the field of view was poor and the additional metal to support it added to the tank’s weight and increased its size. These flaws led to Chrysler redesigning the tank.
The second draft, the T110E1, was an improvement over the original TS-31. It was slightly smaller, becoming shorter and the front becoming flat. The driver was moved into the casemate, to the left of the gun, with the gunner being moved to the right of the gun. Behind the driver and gunner were two loaders and the commander behind them. The commander was placed directly in the middle of the tank, leaving him to sit almost directly atop the engine and with his feet worryingly close to the gun breech. Despite all this, it was still too big to fit through the Berne Clearance Dimensions. Size, in addition to the Detroit Arsenal’s disapproval of the driver’s position, led to a second redesign.
The third draft, the T110E2, was sort of a reversion to the original; the driver was moved back to the hull outside of the casemate, and the gunner was moved back to the left of the gun. The commander’s turret was moved slightly forward, so he would no longer have to sit on top of the engine, but was now forced to sit in a very awkward and cramped position in order to avoid being crushed by the gun’s recoil every time it fired. The casemate reverted to being rounded at the front. Unfortunately, the third draft was no smaller in size than the second.
The Detroit Arsenal replied to Chrysler’s unsatisfactory proposals with the fourth draft of the T110 on its own (even though this proposal did not receive a dedicated designation): The casemate was moved to the back, hanging over the rear of the tank. The transmission was moved to the rear as well, joining the engine. In its place up front was a massive fuel tank, nearly encompassing the driver. The power plant (which was now a Continental 700 hp AOI-1490) was pushed to the left to afford the commander a more comfortable (but still probably hot) position on the far rear right. The suspension was changed to a more conventional (for the Americans) type, with smaller road wheels; although the original draft was without them, return rollers would have been necessary.
Chrysler rejected the Detroit Arsenal’s idea to put the casemate on the very back on the tank and kept it in the middle, leading to the T110E3. The driver was moved back again inside of the casemate, this time to the right of the gun and in an elevated position that offered a very good field of view, and the driver had an M24 infrared periscope.
Chrysler originally tried to simplify maintenance on this design by allowing the engine to be pulled out, on rails, via a hatch in the rear of the tank. But this novel feature created rigidity issues and the engine was returned to a standard position, now turned lengthwise in the tank. This new engine placement again left the commander stuck between the engine and the gun breech. The gun mantlet, which had been relatively tiny before, was much bigger in this iteration, weighing 2 tons and being 9 inches (228.6 mm) thick. The tank was now short and narrow enough to barely fit into the limits of the Berne Tunnel standard.
This version of the T110 was eventually the first deemed worthy enough to be turned into hardware. A wooden mockup was built and engineering diagrams were drawn up. The main weapon was a 120 mm T123E1 rifled anti-tank gun (the same gun that was carried by the M103, later designated M58), combined with an M14 stereoscopic sight. Gun traverse was 15 degrees to each side, with 20 degrees of gun elevation and 10 degrees of gun depression. Frontal armor was 5 inches (127 mm) at a 60 degree slope from vertical. Secondary weaponry comprised as a .30 cal (7.62 mm) machine gun, paired with the main gun, and the commander had a remote-controlled .50 cal (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine gun on the M1 cupola, which could be aimed and fired from the inside.
Interest from the U.S. Army for this tank, which was rather a self-propelled gun carriage than a classic battle tank and rather passé in the U.S. Army’s eyes, was high enough to warrant the build of two prototypes – primarily because the Army was not too enthusiastic about the large M103. While the T110E3 featured basically the same armament as the M103 and offered comparable frontal armor, it was considerably lighter (50 vs. 65 tons) and more compact.
In order to save cost and development time, a modified M48 Patton chassis was chosen for the prototypes, which featured three rollers per side and the early track tension wheel between the last road wheel and the sprocket wheel at the rear. All six road wheel pairs were sprung on independent torsion arms, while the two front pairs and rear ones received extra shock absorbers with dampers to block excessive amplitude from the torsion arms. Power came from an uprated Continental Motors, Inc. AV-1790-3 petrol engine, which delivered 875 hp instead of the early M48’s 810 hp standard output.
The prototypes were built by Chrysler and ferried to the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground for field tests and comparison with the current standard tanks, namely the T43/M103 and the standard medium M48 MBT.
Potential service vehicles would have received the designation M90 and were supposed to be powered by a more reliable and longer-range Continental AVDS-1790-2 diesel power plant, but no more than the two T110E3 prototypes were built and tested in the course of 1956. However, no series production ensued, since the tank’s performance did not meet the U.S. Army’s expectations – even though the T110E3 proved to be much more agile than the T43/M103 and the commonality with the M48 made the T110E3 an attractive concept. Alas, the casemate layout was outdated and the ergonomics for the crew were poor and the interior was cramped due to the large cannon and the need for two loaders, because charges and warheads for the 120 mm rounds were separate and weighed 51 lbs (23.1 kg) in total, too much for a single loader and a decent rate of fire. The commander had, despite the cupola, a very limited field of view esp. of the tank’s direct surroundings. Furthermore, the development of improved armor-piercing ammunitions for lighter guns, as well as the advent of guided anti-tank missiles, made the heavy tank, including the M103 as well as the T110E3, obsolete. As a final blow to the project, development of the new medium M60 tank with the powerful Royal Ordnance L7 105mm cannon had just started when the T110E3 finished its trials, and an update of the M48 with the L7 cannon was the eventual solution.
A single T110E3, the first prototype, survived and is preserved at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, MI.
Specifications:
Crew: Five (commander, gunner, 2× loader, driver)
Weight: 50 tonnes
Length: 6.87 m (22 ft 6 in) hull only
9.29 m (30 ft 5 in) overall
Width: 3.65 m (12 ft 0 in)
Height: 3,02 m (9 ft 11 in)
Suspension: Torsion-bar
Ground clearance: 15.2 in (387 mm)
Fuel capacity: 200 US gal (760 l; 170 imp gal)
Armor:
12.7 – 229 mm (0.5 – 9 in)
Performance:
Speed:
- Maximum, road: 30 mph (48 km/h)
- Sustained, road: 25 mph (40 km/h)
- Cross country: 9.3 to 15.5 mph (15 to 25 km/h)
Climbing capability:
- 40% side slope and 60% max grade
- Vertical obstacle of 36 inches (91 cm)
- 102 inches (2.59 m) trench crossing
Fording depth: Unprepared: 4 ft (1.219 m), prepared: 8 ft (2.438 m)
Operational range: 160 ml (258 km) on road
Power/weight: 17.5 hp/t
Engine:
1× Continental Motors, Inc. AV-1790-3 petrol V12 engine with fuel injection, delivering 875 hp,
plus a 1-cylinder auxiliary generator
Transmission:
General Motors CD-850-4A with 2 ranges forward, 1 reverse
Armament:
1× 120 mm T123E1 (M58) rifled anti-tank gun with 34 rounds
1× co-axial 7.62 mm M73 machine gun with 3.000 rounds
1× 12.7mm M2 Browning anti-aircraft machine gun on the commander’s cupola with 900 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
Yes, this is a whiffy tank, but the T110 project as such actually existed as an alternative to the M103. However, there never was any hardware beyond a wooden mock-up, and after many iterations (T110E5 was the last one!) the project was dropped in favor of classic designs with a fully rotating turret, and the availability of the British L7 cannon made the need for the American 120mm cannon obsolete.
I came across this obscure American tank project when I browsed the online shop of the German tank model/conversion kit manufacturer ModellTrans/Silesian Models, who offer a T110E3 resin conversion kit for an unspecified M48 chassis. I found the concept odd and the kit looked good, so I bought one, together with an ESCI M48A2 kit as chassis donor.
The rest was simple kitbashing. The M48 chassis was built OOB, just the upper hull replaced by the T110 resin parts, which also include the gun barrel and the mantlet, the commander’s cupola and several other small parts. Fit was/is surprisingly good! The T110 hull also went very smoothly onto the ESCI chassis: not plastic or resin had to be cut, just a 2mm gap at the lower rear had to be filled with a styrene strip, and only minor PSR had to be done on the front and the rear.
Some personal improvements include a scratched wall inside of the muzzle brake (made from a simple piece of 0.5 mm styrene sheet) and rails along the sidewalls, made from thin brass wire. Furthermore, some small parts from the ESCI M48 were transferred to the T110, including the barrel support, the housings for the stereoscopic rangefinder and a jerry can. Since this was supposed to become a prototype, I did not want to change too much.
Painting and markings:
The whole vehicle became Olive Drab, a conservative choice. I could not imagine that this outdated tank concept could have seriously entered service, so I decided to represent a prototype. But even if I had wanted a U.S. Army in-service vehicle, it would most probably have been painted all-over Olive Drab, anyway, since more complex paints schemes were only introduced in the late Seventies.
AFAIK there was no clearly defined standard for “Olive Drab” in practice, even though there was a contemporary Federal Standard tone, 24087 (very different from the later, much lighter FS tone with this code), also known as “OD ‘50”. In order to keep things simple, I chose Humbrol 66 (HM3), since it is supposed to represent the typical US Army tone. At first this looked rather dark and murky, but with some dry-brushing (with a mix of 66 and 111) after a washing with a mix of black and red brown, things started to look really good – esp. after the decals had been applied. The latter primarily came from the OOB ESCI sheet, complemented with the markings “TEST” and “T110E3”, created with single white 3mm letters from TL Modellbau and seen on contemporary American test vehicles in a similar fashion.
Further weathering was done through more dry-brushing with Humbrol 72 (Khaki Drill), then the model received a coat of matt acrylic varnish. Once the tracks (painted with a mix of acrylic black, brown and iron beforehand) had been mounted and finishing touches had been made, the lower areas were dusted with a reddish-brown mix of mineral pigments, reflecting the red-brownish washing all over the hull.
Not a very complex project, the most tedious aspect of this build was the M48 running gear. However, the latter went together well with little resistance, and the T110 hull from ModellTrans/Silesian Models was easy to integrate, too. I am actually very impressed by the good fit, the details and the molding quality of the resin parts. Even thin and delicate parts and areas like the mudguards have been crisply molded and they are not distinguishable from the IP counterparts from the ESCI kit! And I like the result: the T110E3 looks very retro, a design fallen out of time, and a worthy post-WWII what-if model.
20th Annual All-Academy Wrestling Championships.
Roland Hall, United States Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT.
February 1, 2014.
Match 48 - 149 - Jack Walsh (Merchant Marine) Technical Fall (16-0) over Joe Jarrells (VMI)
Der M48 Patton ist ein Kampfpanzer der Zeit des Kalten Krieges aus US-amerikanischer Produktion. In verschiedenen Versionen wird er noch heute in einigen Staaten des westlichen Einflussbereiches verwendet. Die offizielle Bezeichnung des Army Department war: „M48 Medium Tank – 90 mm Gun“. Benannt ist das Fahrzeug nach General George S. Patton, dem Kommandeur der Third United States Army während des Zweiten Weltkriegs und auf alliierter Seite einem der ersten Befürworter von massiven Panzereinsätzen.
In der US Army wurden die M48A5 als letzte Ausführung dieses Modells durch den M60 ersetzt; seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre sind die M48 in den Vereinigten Staaten nicht mehr im Dienst. Die zuletzt bei der Heimatschutztruppe der Bundeswehr eingesetzten M48A2C wurden ersatzlos ausgemustert, die M48A2GA2 durch den Leopard 2 ersetzt.
Bereits im Jahre 1947 forderte das US-Militär eine längerfristige Lösung für die Beschaffung eines Kampfpanzers der 30-Tonnen-Klasse mit einer 90-mm-Kanone. Die seit 1944/45 im Einsatz stehenden Kampfpanzer M26 Pershing sowie das Nachfolgemodell M46 entsprachen wegen ihrer geringen Motorleistung und ihrer sonstigen Schwächen nicht mehr den Anforderungen. Die seit 1951 hergestellten Kampfpanzer vom Typ M47 waren von Anfang an nur als Zwischenlösung betrachtet worden. Unmittelbar nach dem Produktionsbeginn für den M47 begannen bereits im Oktober 1951 im Arsenal von Detroit die Entwicklungsarbeiten für einen Nachfolger. Im Dezember des gleichen Jahres erhielt Chrysler den Auftrag zum Bau von sechs Prototypen mit der Bezeichnung T48. Noch bevor Chrysler die Prototypen fertig hatte, erging bereits der Auftrag für die ersten Baulose (zunächst ebenfalls an Chrysler), dem im Jahr darauf weitere Aufträge an die Firmen Ford Motor Company und Fisher Body Division (eine Tochter von General Motors) folgten. Die Auslieferung des nunmehr M48 genannten Fahrzeugs begann im Jahre 1952.
1954 erfolgte die Vergabe eines weiteren Bauloses an Chrysler.
Den Bauauftrag für den M48A2 erhielt im Jahre 1955 das Unternehmen „Alco Products“ in Schenectady (New York). Der Stückpreis betrug zu diesem Zeitpunkt 250.000 US-Dollar, womit er um 35.000 US-Dollar teurer war als sein Nachfolger M60 fünfzehn Jahre später.
1960 bemängelte eine Kontrollkommission inzwischen festgestellte gravierende Fehler an dem Fahrzeug, die nicht erkannt worden waren, da kein Truppenversuch stattgefunden hatte.
1975 wurde mit der Kampfwertsteigerung von 500 M48A3 zu M48A5 begonnen. Diese Fahrzeuge waren ausschließlich für die Nationalgarde bestimmt und wurden auch nur dort eingesetzt. Insgesamt wurden 2067 Panzer zur Version A5 umgerüstet. Diese Aktion war 1980 beendet.
Von 1952 bis 1959 (nach anderen Angaben in den Jahren 1952 bis 1960) wurden fast 12.000 Stück aller Varianten gebaut. Die Modelle M48 / M48A1 / M48C / M48A2 / M48A2C verwendeten einen Benzinmotor, dessen ausgesprochen hoher Kraftstoffverbrauch (im günstigsten Fall 6 Liter pro Kilometer) für einen nicht zufriedenstellenden Fahrbereich sorgte. Bereits 1959 begann die Entwicklung eines Dieselmotors, der ab 1963 in die M48A3-Modelle (Umbauten verschiedener älterer M48-Typen) eingebaut wurde.
Eine Vielzahl von Staaten bestellten die Fahrzeuge für ihre Panzertruppen, darunter auch Deutschland (ab 1956), Israel, Pakistan, Spanien, Taiwan und die Türkei.
Quelle: Wikipedia
I restored this old model recently for a friend. It was built in the 70s by his childhood friend, who died in a private plane crash in the eighties. It was missing half of it's parts, so I had to improvise with paper clips, bits of styrene, and even a plastic spoon to replace the missing parts. I think it turned out OK. I've included the before, in progress, and after photos.
Yacht making its way down the River Severn at Chepstow about to pass under the original Severn Bridge. 9 October 2021
Heading to Katum at the Cambodian border through 12 miles of dense triple canopy jungle ahead, to set up a forward combat base camp where the Ho Chi Minh trails entered Vietnam. The convoy was halted near the air strip at Prek Klok when a M48 tank up ahead hit a road mine. Photo by Frank Thomas Goins (Tom).
Army Industrial shunter 01549 drags withdrawn 4 VEP unit 3583 over the M48 motorway whilst on the branch line between Chepstow and Caerwent. The unit was heading to the scrapyard of J.T Landscapes at the former MOD base on 13th July 2005. The former South East Trains unit had been dragged by 47150 earlier in the day as far as the exchange siding at Chepstow with fellow units (out of sight behind 3583) 3475 & 3585 running as 5Z45, the 09:15 Ramsgate to Caerwent. The Angel owned and BREL York built unit was the third from last to enter service in 1974 as 7892 and spent all its years based at Ramsgate By the end of the month it had been broken up.
As for the shunter it was built in 1981 by Thomas Hill as MOD 258 and is currently at Matchwood Military Port. 01583 (422) was also helping that day, out of sight pushing from the rear.
Mamiya 645 Slide Scan
Marksman is a British anti-aircraft weapon system developed by Marconi, consisting of a turret, a Marconi Series 400 radar and two Swiss 35mm Oerlikon automatic cannons. It is similar to the German Gepard system in terms of engine performance, ammunition carried and effective range of the ammunition.
The turret could be adapted to many basic tank chassis, creating a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG). It is seen here on display at the Farnborough Air Show in 1988, mounted atop an M48 tank chassis.
The only known major operator of the system to date is the Finnish Army, which ordered seven units in 1990. The turrets were fitted on Polish T-55AM tank chassis. The system is known as the ItPsv 90 in Finnish service (Ilmatorjuntapanssarivaunu 90, Anti-Aircraft tank 90, the number being the year the tank entered service). It is considered a very accurate anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) system, having a documented hit percentage of 52.44%.
In 2010, the Marksman systems in service in Finland were moved to wartime reserve storage. In 2015 work began to install the system on the Leopard 2A4 chassis in order to make up for the loss of mobile anti-aircraft coverage when the Marksman was originally retired. The new Leopard 2 Marksman is to enter service in 2016.
The M48 Patton is a main battle tank (MBT) designed in the USA and was a further development of the M47 Patton tank. Some 12,000 were built between 1952 and 1959. The M48 Patton was in US service until replaced by the M60 and served as the US Army and USMC's primary battle tank in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Some 1,800 M48s still remain in active service with a variant of militaries. Multiple variants have resulted in bridgelayers, flamethrowers, bulldozers and armoured recovery vehicles, as well as SPAAGs.
The M60 Main Battle tank was developed in the late 1950s to counteract superior Soviet tanks. It entered service in 1960 as a replacement for the M48 medium tank, and was then upgraded or retrofitted almost continuously until 1987 when production ceased. The M60A3 was usually equipped with laser range finders, computerized fire-control systems, and thermal night sights. The crew of four could fire six to eight rounds a minute. The main armament was 105mm main gun and two mounted machine guns.
An old MAN with plenty of life left receiving a bit of tlc in Caldicot before redeployment on the M48 Severn Crossing scheme