pattoncommander

Hi Mario...yeah, the nice turret as Tamiya has it works very well for an A1 hull as is but only a very few ititial M-51s were made from the 105mm model which required extensive mods to the turret including a large box for the mantlet, similar to some of the M-50s. Those moldels suffered from restricted gun elevation/depression and working space, so the T-23 was used for most mods for the HV 105mm gun. The Tammy turret can work very well for an M-50 by simply replacing the gun.

Agreed, Tamiya's total disregard for accurate details is frustrating....failure to remove the gun travel lock mount hinges from the bow and absolute disregard for the huge travel lock on the rear, spare track location and sponson boxes is bad. The issue of the engine deck is debatable, depending on what era the M-51 is to represent. By 1973, most all M-50-51s had the Cummins diesel, but a couple reserve units still had them with the old radial engine, so the back deck is OK for those hundred or so tanks, when you mark and designate the tank as one from a particular unit. Somehow, the M-51 looks so much better with the deck modified for the diesel, but only the later models as of 1971-72 had the external rear deck exhaust installed...and there were differences between the A-1 and A3 back decks.

As you have seen yourself, IDF armor history is a difficult and confusing subject and veterans from 7th Brigade units in the Golan Hts may well have served on tanks with totally different mods than those in the 27th reserve or 14th Brigade in the Sinai . Nice thing is, we can build a model and someone else does the same with different mods (within reason) and they are both "kosher". Your last model really looks great.