1/76 & 1/72 scale AFV museum:
POST WWII TANKS: 1940s and '50s

The Iosef Stalin III entered production in 1945. Based on the IS II, it had the same engine, but redesigned hull and low turret, with extremely sloped sides to increase projectile deflection. It shocked Western observers during its first public appearance, and it strongly influenced post-war tank designs. This is RODEN's first small scale AFV kit, an improvement over the outdated Airfix Stalin III. The kit comes with decals for Soviet, Polish, Chinese, and Egyptian armies, but I opted for a simple three-digit ID number from my spare decals.

Kit quality is a bit better than PST, except for the one-piece rubber type tracks. Removing parts from the sprues was easier (not so many thick attachment points) and fit was overall better (the axels needed a bit of filing to fit onto the wheels, and the hull top and bottom needed some filing to make the front glacis fit).

Some modeling notes: Instructions are well illustrated; one mistake though, part # 9 on sprue "A" is mislabelled as part#10 in the instructions (and part 10 is misidentified as part 9). And be careful not to glue part 23B to the turret (I almost did), this part is a coverplate that moves up as the gun elevates. The grab-handles are molded quite nicely, and I decided to use them as is (instead of replacing them with pieces of wire).

This is the 1/76 resin kit of the Russian T54 made by CRUSADER MODELS. The casting was nice and clean (just a few pinholes), but the proportions seemed a bit high, i.e. the profile is not as low as photos of actual vehicles indicate. This tank was mass produced and sold to dozens of countries; the color scheme of this model is that of a vehicle in Egyptian service in 1973.

I filed open the spaces between the wheels, added the antennae, cable, and 12.7mm AA MG (I didn't really scratchbuild the MG, I just added a piece with the proper dimensions and covered it with plastic wrap to simulate a raincover). The kit can also be used to make the Chinese type 59, which was a copy of the T54.

In production from 1952 to the late 80s, the AMX 13 served as the standard light tank in the French Army. The turret consists of two parts, the gun mounted rigid in the upper part, which raises and lowers as a single unit. It has seen service in a wide array of armies, seeing extensive action in the Middle East wars.

HELLER produced this model in the 70s; it is out of print and hard to find. A model of the rocket launching variant was also produced. The company has recently re-released some of its earlier kits, so we may see this one again soon!

Liberation Miniatures makes this model (part of their RH Models line) of the American "Walker Bulldog" light tank. The kit is easy to assemble, consisting of four resin parts plus a metal gun. Casting is clean and crisp; no problems with air bubbles or flash. I just had to remove some molding blocks off the track bottoms. I added some stowage (tarps and tools), the MG and antennae, and a few decals.

The M41 replaced the Chaffee in the 50s, but never saw action with US forces (aside from brief patrol duty in the Korean War). Most of us are familiar with photos of M41s in the streets of Saigon serving with ARVN forces, or as US tanks in the WWII movie "Patton". The M41 was exported to a number of foreign armies, and has had a long service record.

US CASTS produces this 1/76 resin wargaming model of the US M46 Patton main battle tank. With a little work this kit can serve as a decent display model. The casting is at times a bit rough with little air holes that need filling and some soft detail, but the kit includes four hatches that can be modelled in the closed or open position. I added a metal figure, antennae, spare tracks on the turret, wire hand rails on the hull, small headlights, and tin foil over the gun mantlet to simulate the cover that these tanks often carried.

The tracks are one piece parts, separate bow MG, mufflers, and gun travel lock parts were also included. I scrounged decals from the spares box. The "camo" scheme is that seen on vehicles that saw action during the Korean War. The glacis and front fenders shows the "Tiger" motif with claws and a sharply-toothed jaw. The manlet cover has the "eyes", and the stripes are visible on the turret sides and main gun.

I still need to find a nice 50 cal MG to mount on the turret! And I'm looking forward to IMEX's Korean war figures that are scheduled to be produced.

Note: The hull can be used with the M47 turret from Federation Models to make a more accurate M47 (see below).

LIBERATION MINIATURES (RH Models) also makes this M47 US medium tank in resin/metal in 1/76 scale. The tank was rushed into production (but not soon enough to see service in Korea), and served more as an interim design, soon being replaced by the M48. The M47 was armed with a 90mm gun, carried up to 115mm of armor, and reached a top speed of 30mph (48kph). It never saw combat action with US forces, but was exported to over a dozen countries. This kit was finished as a vehicle in the Jordanian Army, as it appeard in 1967.

The model comes in 7 parts (tracks x 2, hull, turret, gun, and tension roller x 2). I did perform quite a bit of modification: the tracks, as molded, were too thick and had a convex curve over the return rollers. So I removed the tracks from the road wheels and rollers, and filed down the thickness. One glaring error is that the tread pattern is backwards! I also extended the front lower glacis plate forward, because I felt it was located too far to the rear (it left the front idlers totally exposed, without allowing any possibility of the idlers attaching to axels). Finally, I added a bow MG and antenna (I may still add a turret MG). Decals were hand painted or spares. The kit had no instructions, but was easy enough to assemble.

An example of a "bashed" kit. This is an american M60 main battle tank. The M60 was a development of the M48 series, being ordered into production in 1959. Further development led to the M60A1.

The model is a composite of two models manufactured by ESCI. I used the turret and tracks from an M48, and the main gun, commander's cupola, and chassis from an M60A1 kit. The parts went together rather well (I'm surprised ESCI did not market this themselves) resulting in a pretty straightfoward model. A similar bash could produce M60s used by the Israelis.

Questions? You can e-mail me at Contact the Curator.
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