Fsttanks

The DKLM M60A2 "Starship" turret arrived. This will be a photo build log of the turret and tank. Lots of parts as expected so it will not be an overnight assembly.

Below is a photo of the A2 turret fresh out of the shipping box. Note:

DKLM A2 "Starship" turret on TongDe M60 lower hull.
the commanders copula is not attached and just sitting on the turret.

tiger rampage

How is the quality of the turret?

tankme

Did you order the full detail kit with it or only the turret?

Fsttanks

Initial inspection shows the quality to be typical DKLM resin printing which is actually rather good. Test fitting on parts indicates they should all go together well with little to no extra fitment needed.

Fsttanks

Yes I did order the full kit. Lots of parts with no printed instructions but where everything goes is easy enough to figure out by looking at A2 reference photos.

tankme

I went ahead and ordered the Sabot M60A2 books for my build so if you are stuck on anything, I have those as reference. I'm liking the

MERDC Winter Verdant Camouflage Color Profile:

Fsttanks

MERDC was my first choice, but I am to impatient these days to put in the time to paint it. Besides RichJohnson kinda set the MERDC paint bar really high with his DKLM M60 in MERDC. Talk about nearly perfect paint job. I could never park mine next to his for fear of mine looking amateur by comparison.

Rich has offered to paint my M60A2 in MERDC. He really wants to see it in that scheme too. I think though that I will be doing something similar to MERDC or just boring OD with lots of decals for now.

Panther F

Looks great Frank. The MERDC camo sounds good.

RichJohnson

It only took one pound of silly putty to mask off the 3 individual assemblies at a time.
MERDC is my favorite scheme. Way under utilized

bowlman

I kind of did that with a what if M41 a few years ago .
Thanks
Jimmy

Fsttanks

Mantle work has begun.



Removed mantle and installed IR bulb.



Use a brass 6.35mm diameter barrel support rod in place of the nylon rod provided with the turret kit. I also added a barrel flash LED bulb.


This is the mantle opening I used for the IR bulb. The opening is 10mm deep and the bulb is set back inside the tank just slightly further. It has been given a heavy black base painted coat to ensure no IR "energy" side bleed through that white resin is know for.


Matting barrel to recoil until. The barrel is held to the recoil unit by two VERY SMALL screws that only fit if you use the supplied nylon barrel support. The brass support I used required me to glue the barrel into the recoil units barrel mounting slot.

Fsttanks

Finished installing flash and IR bulb and moved on to testing turret function. Then installed the mantle cover. The one thing I was truly dreading. It ended up not being so bad just TIME consuming.

Video of test firing of main gun was posted to my Instagram @ Fsttanks if you would like to see it.


Testing flash LED.

Installing mantle cover.

Installing mantle cover. A little trick I figured out was to slightly enlarge the screw hole and depth. Made it much easier to work with the tiny screws.

Almost done. About two hours work at this point.

Finished and excess material has been removed.

Front view.

Dry fitted to lower hull.

afv aficionado

Hi Fsttanks
Nice work on the cover.
What material was it?
Almost looks like the Pertex I use.

Mal

Fsttanks

It is some type of textured plastic (possibly nylon) bag DKLM included with the kit. I am keeping my fingers crossed it holds paint because the color is totally wrong for any paint scheme ever used on the A2.

afv aficionado

Cool. One of the problems with Pertex that I use is the edges fray, though if you use a heated wire to cut the pieces, that problem disappears.

Re colouring, give acrylic a try first, found it works pretty well on HZH cam nets which are a type of nylon.

Mal

Fsttanks

Turret storage racks going on.



Storage rack being installed. Overall they fit without to much fuss.


Shown here dry fitted to lower hull

afv aficionado

Nice

Have you had a look at Louis's build on RCTankwarfare - https://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/foru...340258#p340258 -

Mal

Fsttanks

I have seen it. He is putting in a lot of work on details, but will need to completely replace the suspension and gearboxes with the metal versions and add bearings to all the wheels. Would be a waist of all his work if he didn't because the plastic M60s are very weak mechanically. RichJohnson has a M60A1 (round turret) build started now too. Give it a look I believe he has started posting progress photos. It good to see others jumping in and turning a mediocre looking stock tank into something special.

I don't go into heavy amounts of small details as both he and Rich do because my tanks see rough handing abused and often driven in brush that just loves to rip detail parts off. Cost of living in a desert I environment ......🙁🙁

Fsttanks

Spotlight build and installed.

Note: It had been asked. What are the dark colored areas? Some parts have dark primer painted on them simply to make the overall process of painting those areas easier.



Spotlight parts painted and ready for final assembly.

Testing the LED before closing adding the lens cover.

Lens cover on and ready for mount on the tank.

Mount on A2 turret

Fsttanks

DKLM A2 lower hull accessories being installed. Overall these parts are my only complaint. The resin used is very brittle and many of them need a lot of fitting.

Fsttanks

This will be the last post on building the turret. It is done and heading to paint. Will not bore you the painting or final look. Photos of the finished A2 will be posted on my Instagram @ fsttanks. Feel free to take a loo.



Primed and heading over to the paint shop.

tiger rampage

Looks great 👍

Fsttanks

A few members who do not have Instagram ask if I could post a few photos of the finished A2.


M60A2 on left.

During IR battle testing.

M60A2 behind M551

M60A2 on left top view.


Business end....

tankme

Looks great. Mine finally arrived the other day.

afv aficionado

Looks really good, now just needs a pic with Rich's slick M60 - family group

Mal