Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Israeli Army M3 Half-track 1967 "Six Day War", Tamiya 1/35th scale conversion

  During the Six Day war,  the IDF was taxied around the battlefields in a variety of vehicles, but the most iconic was the M3 Halftrack and it's variants.  Israel purchased hundreds of these vehicles from numerous sources in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  These half-tracks were still serving into the 1980s Lebanon wars. 

The Tamiya 1/35th scale version is a pretty old kit, but still a good basis for higher detailing. I configured mine as an armored infantry carrier with a full squad (of course).  The soldier figures were converted from mostly Dragon and  Airfix multi-pose figures.  The half-track also has some minor scratch-built modifications.  The Israeli style pedestal mount for the .05 gun (this was changed to an FN 7.62 Mag).  I also scratch-built the ball mount for the Browning air-cooled .03 machinegun at the forward passenger position next to the driver.  The stowage (loads of it), Tarps and packs were created using Apoxie putty.  So to start, here are some photos of actual vehicles in combat during the 1967 & 1973 wars.   



 
 

 



 





 
The model



 










 


 

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