Dragon Models M48A3 Model B Smart Kit, 1/35-Scale

This model is not as complete as the Smart kit, which is the same tank but with the searchlight, but is an excellent kit.This is the third kit I have built, 2-Smart kits and this one. All of our tanks were equipped with a searchlight in the 1/69th Armor. I was on this type of tank in Vietnam in the 1960’s so I have first hand experience on how we modified them to suit how we operated in the field. I have bought various other additional kits to add to this kit to have it resemble our tanks there. This kit accepts the additions well.

Very nice kit of an important US tank that saw service for many years. 1/35th scale M48s have only been issued twice since this vehicles actual introduction, a very old and slightly out of scale Monogram kit and a Tamiya kit from the 80's. Both sat very high and in Tamiya's case it is rumored that when measuring an actual tank, they measured a vehicle that was totally unloaded including no power pack...so the vehicle sat high. It was always a case of surgery to get the model to sit right.The Dragon kit is the first in many years and in almost every way is a superior kit.The only glaring omission is the lack of mantlet cover for the gun tube and no searchlight. For this specific version, that is really a huge thing to leave out. There ARE plenty of aftermarket sources for those two items and a good modeler could probably build the cover on their own and find an old searchlight in the parts box...but still.All in all though, highly recommended.

It is a better kit then the 30 year old Tamiya offering. I haven't built it yet. Dragon left out critical parts though, no mantle cover and no searchlight. Now some pictures can be found of tanks without those items but most M48A3s had searchlights and covers. They were released in a later kit but I feel like I was some what cheated. I knew this when I bought the kit since I'm planning to use it in a conversion but if you want to model a tank in Nam you are limited by whats in the box.

great kit and what I was looking for

M48A3戦車ですが、1950年代に開発が進められ、クライスラー社の技術が登載されたメジャーな戦車のキットです。ドラゴン/サイバーホビーのキットでは4号模型戦車でみられる繊細さで、他社のディテールアップパーツを使えば、とてもリアルな模型になります。車体上部と下部分を接着した後にフェンダー中に大部分隙間ができ、パテ埋めで処理する必要があります。防楯カバーと投光機付きのキットも後で買いましたが、ボイジャーの別売のレジンキットでも、随分とリアルに作れます。ただし、ノコや超音波カッターなどで切り離すのに手間が要り、超音波カッターがとても高額で手が届きませんでした。器用にレジンパーツの切り出しはしないと、後で後悔することになるので、注意してください。