1/35 M70A2 Krueger MBT, Desert Storm, 1991

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Impressive stuff. You seem to be well on the way with this conversion. Neatly done too. As for those suspension arms - guaranteed confusion.
Jim

 

[minitnkr]

Very good scratchery. PaulE

 

[Jakko]

Impressive stuff. You seem to be well on the way with this conversion. Neatly done too.

Thanks, and to Paul too

those suspension arms - guaranteed confusion.

I was about to just cut them all off the sprue and stick them on to random mounts, but took one more close look — only then did I spot the length difference. I doubt you’d notice it on the model at all if you did mix them up, though, as the difference seems to be only about half a millimetre.

 

[Jakko]

Basic turret conversion work is now done:



I attached the front plates I showed earlier, with some minor corrections before and after doing so, then filled in the large gaps with plastic card and smaller ones with both two-party epoxy putty (Magic Sculp) and filler from a tube in several stages, all followed by filing, carving and wet-sanding to get everything in shape. A little bit more is needed, but the main parts are done so I can finally start on the details soon.

The rear roof had four small rectangular, bolted-down plates and a smaller, higher thing on it that I all removed, and the locating square for the German aerial mount on the right side too. I then filled in the scars with more tube putty and sanded that flat too, in preparation for Abrams-style blowoff panels on the roof that I still need to make.

 

[Jakko]

Next, the blowoff panels and anti-slip coating.



The panels were simply cut from 0.75 mm plastic card, 37 mm long and 57 mm wide. The front-to-back length is based on the size of the autoloader magazine in technical drawings in the books I mentioned earlier, the width is simply pretty much the largest that will fit comfortably on the roof. I then cut that piece into three sections, the smaller ones 10 mm wide each, to mimic the early M1 Abrams style; the space between them is the thickness of my steel ruler

You can also see that I added plastic card in the hole for the remote turret, because Dragon doesn’t provide anything there at all, and you would be able to see straight into the main turret. I curved a 16 mm wide strip of 0.25 mm plastic card and glued it to the inside of the turret, with another piece of plastic card underneath to create a floor. It would have been smarter to do this before glueing the top and bottom halves of the turret together, though.

I then taped off the outlines of most of the areas that were to receive an anti-slip coating:



That just left finding a good way to actually make it I began by experimenting on an offcut of plastic card, painting the attempts to see what they would look like when done:



At the top is filler putty stippled with a cut-down brush, which looks OK, the smooth area below that is Mr. Surfacer 1000 stippled with the same brush (I would have used the thicker 500, but my pot of it had dried out), and below that is acrylic gel with sand sprinkled into it. That’s the option I went with:



Step by step, here’s the front turret with gel applied using a spatula, trying to get an even coat:



The coat doesn’t need to be perfectly flat, though, as the gel shrinks a bit as it dries and so the bumps tend to even themselves out.

Next, sand sprinkled on using the tea strainer to get rid of the large pieces, hairs, etc. that inevitably end up in an open box of sand sitting in your modelling room for decades I just shook the turret over the box again to get rid of the loose excess.



And finally the tape carefully removed to prevent lifting the gel:



More areas still need doing, but the tape for the others got in the way so it was just simpler to do it in multiple steps.

Note that I’m using beach (sea) sand here, not river (construction) sand. River sand is typically coarser, while beach sand is very fine and much more suitable as an almost-in-scale texture. I think fine sand can also be purchased from pet shops, for use in bird cages, but if you live near the sea you may be able to just go get some for free

 

[Jakko]

More work done on the engine deck and hull rear:



The engine deck is mostly complete, except for the anti-slip coating and some details (lifting eyes on the front deck, mainly), but the rear hull still needs a fair amount added to it. The taillights are from a Tamiya Bradley; I deliberately added these instead of the earlier style of taillights the real MBT-70 used (the same as on pretty much all American vehicles from the 1930s until the 1970s) because they were on the Bradley, which was developed in the 70s/80s. The lifting eyes on the rear are from some Dragon kit, but I don’t recall which one, while those on the engine deck are probably ancient Tamiya, both via my spares box. The bolt heads are from my recently purchased hex punch and die set.

Also bolt heads on the blowoff panels:



I also put together a crew, using this set from Masterbox:



Though it says it’s for Afghanistan, the uniforms they wear are the Nomex coveralls that were also issued for the ground part of the Gulf War — most modellers stick crews in BDUs (standard uniforms) into Gulf War tanks, but that’s really only correct for the phase before the actual ground war started. From photos, tank and Bradley crews at least appear to have been issued the Nomex coveralls, and tankers the slim body armour as well, before going into Kuwait and Iraq.



The figures are built per the box, except I’m going to replace the heads by Hornet ones, as shown. From left, it’s the driver, the gunner (who’ll be standing on the turret) and commander. I carved the holster straps off the latter two, because tankers don’t seem to have worn them much in 1991. It’s still on the driver because I had already built him before I noticed the lack of holsters on most crewmen

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Some very nice scratchery.

 

[Jakko]

Cheers It looks better in the photos than on the real model, though … My mistake was trying to scratchbuild the whole engine deck and hull rear instead of modifying the Dragon parts by replacing the detail and adding engine deck vertical sides. I would recommend the latter approach to anyone else wanting an American MBT-70 (whether as a real-world prototype or a “what-if” model like this).

 

[Jakko]

Hinges on the flap on the hull rear. There’s three of these, 3 mm wide each, and consisting of seven pieces per hinge: a square base plate, a tab going onto the lid from 1 mm plastic strip, a bit of 1 mm half-round rod to make the hinged end of that tab, a 1.25 mm punched disc of 1 mm plastic card (with one side cut flat) on each side, and an 0.85 mm punched hexagon of 0.5 mm card to make the bolt head and nut on either side.

Glad this bit is now on

 

[Jakko]

I figure a fictional M70 would have more extensive stowage baskets etc. on the turret than the prototypes did, given that the M1 also got extra bins as part of the IP M1 upgrade as early as the late 80s. So:




I built a turret side bin on the right, like that on the M1 prior to the M1A1, though it still needs latches. No bin on the left side, because there isn’t room with the remote turret there. Both sides will have a stowage rack like in the photo for the left side (not glued when I took the picture, hence the Blu-Tack to keep everything in place), but I haven’t built that for the right-hand side yet. This is just 1 mm brass rod bent into shape, and inserted into holes drilled in the turret side at the front and a piece of plastic card with holes at the back. I need to find a way to add vertical bars, but this is proving very tricky, because they need cutouts for the bars, and I don’t feel like having to make a dozen bars to get four that fit.

I originally wanted to bend the bars at both ends to fit into holes at the rear corner of the turret, but found it hard to get things right, because at the rear they needed to curve forward, so I gave up on that and just filled the holes I’d drilled again.

The smaller tan boxes are from an Esci M60 kit (later reissued by Italeri, but the colour of the plastic shows these to be original Esci), and on the real thing would hold smoke grenades for the launchers that I haven’t put onto the model yet for fear of breaking them off.

The tow cable is from a Dragon M1A2 kit, onto which I had only put one and built empty brackets on the other side about twenty years ago. Yes, it was still in one of my spares boxes after all that time

I also put lengths of plastic strip into the hole for the gunner’s sight, as bullet deflectors to keep enemy fire away from the optics. This has no precedent on American tanks, but then, none have had the gunner’s primary sight mounted like on this tank, so I felt it’s plausible to add this anyway.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Interesting updates. The turret looks great. The antislip method looks to have worked well. Should look nice under paint. Your research and attention to detail does you credit.
Jim

 

[Jakko]

Interesting updates. The turret looks great. The antislip method looks to have worked well. Should look nice under paint.

Thanks, and I do hope the antislip keeps looking good once there’s paint over it

Your research and attention to detail does you credit.

Thanks again My starting point is that it should be credible for this to be an upgraded MBT-70 as it might have evolved from the real-world prototypes. That requires looking at what the real thing was like, and then fitting in later (mainly American) ideas of real tank construction, mainly the M1 Abrams of course. Sure, it’s basically a fantasy model, but I want to make it realistic fantasy.

I still have some tricky bits ahead, mainly detailing the remote gun mount — Dragon’s is missing a lot of stuff that’s clearly visible through the open hatches on photos of German prototypes (though the surviving ones don’t have 100% the same mounting, and one even has the gun fitted back to front …). I’m also going to have to scratchbuild an entire M85 machine gun to replace the 20 mm cannon (I figure the Americans would have reverted to that rather than a 20 mm cannon, and an M2 HB doesn’t fit in the turret — I tried ) and the interiors of the optics, as Dragon has left these completely bare but does provide clear parts. Fun, fun, fun …

 

[Jakko]

The model that just keeps on giving — more work, that is.

I already knew the American MBT-70 had stowage bins on the front mudguards that the German version lacked. Here they are marked out on the kit’s hull:



While doing that, I noticed that the hull shape is noticeably different between the two tanks On the German version, the sponsons (the areas above the tracks) are basically wedge-shaped, tapering from very thin at the front to full thickness above the third roadwheel, with an ever narrower mudguard alongside. On the American tanks, the sponson doesn’t taper, but begins at full thickness above the second roadwheel, and the mudguard seems to be full-width but sits underneath the stowage bin until that point. Compare the hull to the drawing in this photo:



The drawing is from Hunnicutt’s book, by the way, enlarged to 1:35 scale.

After pondering on how to solve this, I decided to cut off the German mudguards:



I left the first few millimetres on, because it has nice hinges Next, I cut away the underside of the hull so I could put some plastic card underneath, extending out the side a little to the depth and width needed to build up the slope:




The plastic is 1.5 mm thick, and this works because for some reason, Dragon put the sponson floors higher than the actual sponson bottoms by that same 1.5 mm. It needed an 0.5 mm spacer at the front to keep everything level, though. I’ll now need to fill the gap and once that all sets, I can file and sand everything into shape.

 

[Jakko]

Anti-slip on the engine deck:



Applied in the same way as on the turret, so I’ll get on with the hull front instead Once the sides were done to my satisfaction, I added new side mudguards from 0.25 mm plastic card:



I put some scrap plastic just in front of the hullside fillets to get the rear end firmly in place, also a spacer about halfway down, and cut the front so part of it fits as a strengthening lip under the hull while the edge lines up with the remainder of the original mudguard. Then it was a matter of adding filler into the gap and shaping that once everything was dry:



All that remained was to add the lids. I first added a bit of 0.25 mm card at the front to form the end of the bins, then cut the lids from more of that same card. Using the drawings in Spielberger’s book, converting the measurements to those of the model, I then marked out where the reinforcements, hinges and clasps were to go:



And one in place on the model:



Finally, I glued all the detail on:



The ribs are from 1 mm half-round plastic rod, the hinges and clasps from assorted strip and rod.

Now to find a good way to make the curved front sections of these mudguards …

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
looking good some very nice modifications and additions.

 

[MikeC]

Jakko,
Starting to come together now and look other than oddities, which is pleasing to the eye.
As for the front mudguards, use the old method of wrapping card around a dowel, and then plunge it inot very ho water for a minute to reall soften it and from there into ice cold water to keep the rounded shape, you can then shape the mudguard to the drawing.
Be an interesting model when it is finished and a conversation piece.
Cheers, Mike.

 

[Jakko]

Starting to come together now and look other than oddities, which is pleasing to the eye.

Thanks, and yes, I’m finally getting there I thought this would be a quick job to replace the engine deck and add the turret armour, but it’s turning out quite a bit more complicated.

As for the front mudguards, use the old method of wrapping card around a dowel, and then plunge it inot very ho water for a minute to reall soften it and from there into ice cold water to keep the rounded shape, you can then shape the mudguard to the drawing.

I was first thinking of pulling plastic sheet under a ruler a couple of times, but that doesn’t give all that consistent results. I think I’ll try your method, or use the kit’s front mudguards. The thing is that the kit represents what amounts to a second-generation German prototype. The first generation was very similar to the American ones, so you can argue that a lot of the differences (like the mudguards) would have made it into the actual production version.

Be an interesting model when it is finished and a conversation piece.

Thanks, and I hope so

 

[Jakko]

The kit, of course, provides German headlights; I had decided on M2/M3 Bradley headlights for this model, partly because I had some spares (the Tamiya Bradley kits provide two sets, and in the M2A2 kit you don’t even need any) and partly because it fits with the mid-70s development this tank would have seen. Whether you go for the headlights of the real thing (taken from an M48A5, M60, M107 or M110 kit, for example) or do like I did, you’ll have to build your own brush guards, though. The real things were made from metal tube (I think — could be rod, but that amounts to the same thing for a model) so I settled on 0.8 mm copper wire. After measuring up the width of the headlight clusters, I soldered three pieces of this wire together, twice:



One is wider than the other because the Bradley’s front light clusters consist of a front light and a turn indicator on the right-hand side, but a front light, a horn and a turn indicator on the left. They’re just three lengths of copper wide, with the ends trimmed straight rather than leaving the points left by the cutter I used, with flux applied, then tinned and finally soldered together. All I did was tape the two parallel legs onto a ceramic kitchen tile, and held the crossbar against them with tweezers before applying the soldering iron. (One has solder on both ends of the legs because of a first attempt that didn’t work well, so I just used the other side of the wire for the next try.)

That done, the fun part began … First, I had to carefully file the excess solder away, which is not an easy a task with parts this small, bendy and (probably) fragile. Even more fun was bending the things into shape.



This is the narrow (right-hand side) one, untrimmed. The crossbar goes at the top, and is bent backwards just outside the two uprights; it then runs horizontally back a bit before bending down towards the glacis plate. The front legs are much the same: vertical and then bent back to meet the glacis plate. The dimensions are very difficult to figure out, because the length of the wire gets in the way and you can’t just go and make a couple of bends to see if it fits, then straighten it and try again if it doesn’t — well, not without an awful lot of effort straightening everything properly first again, anyway. It wasn’t helped by my brilliant decision to glue the front mudguards in place before trying to build the brush guards … I had to resort to drawing the lights’ outer dimensions on the outside of the mudguard — that is, the side away from the lights, where the idler wheel would sit next to — so I could at least compare the brush guard to something for test-fitting.

The ends of all four legs are then bent outward like on the real thing. I still need to trim them to length and flatten them, as they also are on the real tank.

Even better is that I made the crossbar of the wide brush guard too short … after bending the narrow one, I discovered the other one is not long enough to reach the glacis, so I’ll have to make a new one from a longer length of wire. On the positive side, I wasn’t all that happy with the way the wide one turned out anyway, as at least one of the legs didn’t quite attach right to it.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Some very nice work on the brush guards.

 

[JR]

Most impressive work Jakko.
I esp like the plastic rod frame over the mesh. What size it made from please.