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Italeri Kit Number 7015 1/72 M-48 A2/A3 |
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Reviewed By Jim Pearsall, #2209 |
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MSRP - $9.50 USD The M-48 was an important armor system from Korea in the early 50s and even into Vietnam in the early 70s. The Israeli Army used it in the 1967 war. Not as glamorous as the M-60, but definitely a nice addition to the US Army Armor collection. My first impression of this kit was déjà vu. And sure enough, I found an Esci M-48 A3 in my stash. OK, here’s my motivation to build an M-48. |
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The Italeri M-48 is part-for-part interchangeable with the
Esci, they’re from the same mold. The Italeri kit has an added sprue for
the A2, and far superior decals. Otherwise it’s exactly the kit I bought
back in the 80s. The mold has been well taken care of, there’s no flash
or blobbing on the Italeri kit. The only area I found where I would improve the kit is where Italeri didn’t correct the road wheels. The M-47/48 had a double road wheel set up, with a slot between them for the track guide. Not there on the kit. In fact the inside of the track doesn’t have a guide. OK, I could spend a lot of time manufacturing new wheels and fixing the track, but if I wanted that level of accuracy and detail I’d be building 1/35. Also, factor in the cost of the extra mold parts for a 1/72 kit. The build is fairly straightforward. Paint everything 34087 Olive Drab, for the US version, sand for the Israeli, then do the detail work. Get the running gear assembled and get all the wheels to sit on the table, add the two extra return rollers per side found on the A3, not on the A2, and put on the “link and length” track. It’s fine enough to actually be flexible if you need to raise a road wheel or 2 in a diorama. Assemble the hull, with all the extra boxes and stuff. A2/A3 difference here is the headlights. I found one sink mark in one of the stowage boxes. A bit of putty and a few swipes of the sanding stick fixed it. The turret goes together nicely. Two main guns, A2 and A3. the A3 has an extra .50 cal MG. I wish I had a better system for cleaning up the seam inside the muzzle brake. Otherwise it’s great fun. Add decals, and you have a nice addition to the display shelf. All in all, this is a fun to build kit. It’s dimensionally pretty close, and the shape fits the drawings I downloaded from the web, and looks like the photos. If there are any errors, they’ve escaped my eye. |
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