Empress M48A3 Patton MBT - Work In (glacial) Progress

 So it has been a while, but "what with one thing and the other", the effect of gravity on resin structures, and other things getting in the way, not much much progress.

There is a good photograph of a Vietnam era M48A3 in the Osprey New Vanguard book showing rows of machine gun ammo boxes on the mud guards.

I found some of Crooked Dice's small ammo boxes - they are a bit big, but they are all I had to hand.

They are tucked in behind the Empress small crate (ration packs?). Some additional jerry cans are to be added to the rear mud guard. One of the ACAV jerry cans will be borrowed to fit a jerry can in a holder to the turret side.

This is one of those really embarrassing shots (not that type). I spent all of yesterday trying to work out what that hole in the roof was for. The structure to the right is one of the aerial bases, so it is not the hole to fit an aerial.

And then I re-read a post about detailing the Empress M48, and it mentions the searchlight power cable.

The hole in the top of the searchlight a) should have been a hit, and b) is in the wrong place... The power cable goes into the back of the searchlight (I suspect the drawing of the M48A5 in Cold War Armoured Fighting Vehicles by George Bradford confused me - there is a rib that runs along the top of the searchlight that is in line with the power cable).

A couple of shots of the railing on the turret sides.

The railing is brass rod, bent to fit. The supports are plastic rod inserted into quite long holes in the turret side. The railing is glued in place, and the the plastic rods are teased back out until they contact the main railing then liquid poly is flooded over them, bonding them to the holes in the turret and the rail.

Three quarters view.