1/35 M70A2 Krueger MBT, Desert Storm, 1991

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Glad you got the tracks sorted ok. Probably better to have them glued anyway
That hatch issue is odd. Just maybe the hatch couldn't be fully opened when the MG was used??? Can't imagine Dragon getting it so obviously wrong but you never know
Jim

[Tim Marlow]

Good work on the tracks. Strange issue with the hatches though Jakko. Do actual images of the tank show this as well?

[Guest]

I don’t know if it was like that on the real tank, but if Dragon put the driver’s hatch too far back by even half a millimetre, it ends up like this. I suspect that on the real thing, they just clear each other. Or maybe I glued the driver’s hatch at slightly too big an angle rearward.

Another minor problem I noticed was my own fault: I had built a new mine plough mount on the hull, because the M1 Abrams type of course wouldn’t fit. The original has two big eyes on the top corners, which I omitted because I didn’t see what their function was. Yesterday, trying to figure out where the various bits of chain go that are on these ploughs, I worked it out: a chain attaches to each of them. So that meant adding these bits after all:

[ATTACH]440802[/ATTACH]

I drilled a hole in a bit of 1 mm thick plastic card, cut and filed the half-round shape around it, then cut it off and glued the eye to the model (after scraping the paint off, of course). Still to be painted to match the rest of the model, naturally.

[stillp]

Would the driver's hatch be open when the gun was in use?
Pete

[Guest]

It would probably not be the intention, no. But that’s no reason to not have both open on a model

[stillp]

I'm just wondering if the same issue would exist on the 1:1.
Pete

[minitnkr]

The concussion from the 50 would seriously ruin the drivers week if hatch left open.

[Guest]

I'm just wondering if the same issue would exist on the 1:1.

So do I I think it probably didn’t, for various reasons.

The concussion from the 50 would seriously ruin the drivers week if hatch left open.

On the real MBT 70, of course, this was a 20 mm cannon with a much longer barrel, that projected a fair amount beyond the driver’s hatch, so that particular problem probably wouldn’t have been as severe:

[Guest]

After a quick paint job for the new eyes (sand colour, wash, then drybrush) they look like they have always been on the model:

[ATTACH]440898[/ATTACH]

Then the fun with the chains began. Tamiya’s M1A1 instructions say to tie the chain to the model with copper wire, but on the real tank, they were attached with D-clasps. Unfortunately, I don’t have ten such clasps that are small enough, and even if I did, the holes in the plough are too small for them. So, I decided to bend copper wire into an approximation of their shape. First up were the chains on the new eyes, because they would be hardest of all to reach with the plough on the tank:

[ATTACH]440899[/ATTACH][ATTACH]440900[/ATTACH]

And everything in place:

[ATTACH]440901[/ATTACH][ATTACH]440902[/ATTACH][ATTACH]440903[/ATTACH]

The “dog bone” is loose, I may or may not glue it to the model approximately where it is in the photos — on the real tank it was normally put there when not actively ploughing for mines. Now to find a way to paint these chains without making a mess … they are to be sand colour like the rest of the model.

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Some nice neat work going on there.

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Chains look good. Fiddly stuff.
Jim

[Guest]

Thanks, fiddly indeed but not quite as neat as I had in mind

[Guest]

The plough is now finished, with the chains painted (same base colour and drybrush as the tank), and cables added from copper wire, the Tamiya handle and a bit of thread to tie the handle to the brush guard:

[ATTACH]441241[/ATTACH]

Those cables still need to be painted here, of course. (On the M1, the handle was usually tied to some fixture on the left rear of the glacis plate with a cable or strap of some sort. This seems a likely alternative for an MBT 70-type vehicle.)

Here’s the whole vehicle with those bits painted, finished as far as I’m concerned other than crew and stowage:

[ATTACH]441242[/ATTACH]

And said crew and stowage:

[ATTACH]441243[/ATTACH][ATTACH]441244[/ATTACH]

The crew is from Master Box, a set of Afghanistan figures, but I put Hornet heads onto them. Most people seem to build Gulf War tanks with crews in standard BDU uniforms, which is generally correct for Desert Shield, but not the ground phase of Desert Storm — tank crews were given nomex (fire-resistant) coveralls and slim tankers’ body armour just before the ground war started. Those are still in use today, so modern figures can be used for Desert Storm as well.

The stowage is from various sources, mainly Tamiya. The roadwheel is from an Italeri Leopard 2 with the bolts cut off and holes drilled to match MBT 70 wheels (ten bolts vs. eight). The style of the wheel isn’t quite the same but the diameter is, so it looks right, I think.

[adt70hk]

Great work Jakko. That really has turned out beautifully.

ATB

Andrew

[Guest]

Thanks, I’m quite happy with it myself