Combat Models release M-48.

[Centaur_Seducer]

http://combatmodels.blogspot.se/2013/12/new-m48-patton-combat-models-avaliable.html?m=1

[sandsmodels]

it looks very nice

[Centaur_Seducer]

The tank, yes. The gunner, well no

[carlos marighela]

To be honest, it looks a bit so-so to me. The detail doesn't look very sharp and I think they've made a rather odd choice in terms of the cupola. The vast majority of photos of US M48A3s that I've seen show the M1 machine gun cupola. Sometimes the .50 cal was removed and mounted externally but this seems to have been the standard fit. At any rate it wouldn't have been too hard to have given the modeller a choice of cupola or hatch.

The commander figure is pretty meh too. It's a pity as the photos of their PT-76 look very nice.

Fortunately John at FoF makes a superb range of  super detailed M48 variants in this scale, so it's no real heartbreaker.

[Centaur_Seducer]

The big issue with gaming 28mm moderns is the vehicles. If now all the manufacturers could get along and decide a scale, I would be rather glad to be honest. After all, a vehicle sets you back 20-30 quid, and that's quiet an investment in the end.

[Arlequín]

If now all the manufacturers could get along and decide a scale, I would be rather glad to be honest. After all, a vehicle sets you back 20-30 quid, and that's quiet an investment in the end.

Well we know that is not going to happen and if it did, you'd have to convince a significant proportion of wargamers that whatever they chose was the right scale. As it is there is a significant portion that believe that the 28mm 'average soldier' is 160cm or 5'2" tall (1/65) and not 177cm or 5'10" tall (1/55-1/56) and that real people measure themselves from foot to eye, so that a 'heroic' 28mm (foot to eye) figure is actually likely to be 30-32mm tall, with 'true 28s' being around 25mm foot to eye (about 1/63).

At least with manufacturers working to different scales there's a sort of lottery effect were you have a chance of matching a specific scale of vehicle to a specific size of figure. Of course if they went for 1/60 scale vehicles, then everyone could be equally unhappy, which is about as good a consensus as you will ever get.

The vast majority of photos of US M48A3s that I've seen show the M1 machine gun cupola. Sometimes the .50 cal was removed and mounted externally but this seems to have been the standard fit. At any rate it wouldn't have been too hard to have given the modeller a choice of cupola or hatch.

Indeed you won't find an M-48A3 in Vietnam or in the US Army without an M1 cupola and it was retro-fitted to the earlier designs, barring a few training vehicles... seeing as it features on the box art, you have to wonder why they left it off the kit.

[carlos marighela]

Maybe they had something West German or Israeli in mind, although IiRC the Israelis mostly used M48A2 models.

Poor research and pretty ordinary execution would be my verdict.

As for scale, well.... I use a mix. The majority of what exists for the Post War/ Cold War era happens to be around the 1/56 mark, with companies like FoF, Sloppy Jalopy and Company B. Many of the useable die casts happen to be around that scale too. So leaving aside the occasional plastic or resin kit, for that period it's the scale I've settled on purely on the basis of availability.

It's when you look at current kit that 1/48 and 1/50 start to predominate.