Award Winner Built Academy 1/35 IDF M-51 Super Sherman M4 Medium Tank +Detail

  

Six-Day War Israeli IDF M51 Super Sherman Medium Tank. Built To Order / Pre-Order.

Award winner built and painted Israeli Tank M51 with realistic weathering. Superb DS tracks with HVSS suspension and road wheel detail.

Rotating turret and French CN75-50 gun elevation. Adding on vehicle tools and more add-on details. Top building quality with very high standard molding with sublime details over all.

Superb accurate on each small parts. Rotating turret features some nice details including more weld seams, casting texture panels and other surface details. All hatches and commander copula with great details both side such as latch, handle and more. Front and turret M2 machine gun is better detailed.

The superbly detailed gun mantlet. French CN 75-50 gun with sharp gun barrel details. Periscope and more on vehicle equipment with detail. Additional bustle on the back of the turret. The hull with plenty of fine detail including weld marks and more. Finely detailed deck surface and engine grille reproducing.

The lower hull realistically reproduced features some nice details such as axles, rollers. The road/idler wheels and drive sprockets have detail on both sides with great tooth ring details.

Special on HVSS suspension with great details. Lifelike tracks with crisply details and right sagging finish. Antenna, on-vehicle tools and jerrycan with sharp details.

Adding on-vehicle tools, tow cable and more accessories. Buffing and polishing to remove mold seam. Base color with primer and putty for better surface detail. Airbrushed and painted with multicolor.

Add clear paint for good finishing on decal applying. Washing to enhance the surface detail increase the appearance of depth including panels, doors, hatches, rivets, bolt head and more. Dry brushing to emphasize and highlight texture with edge for good wear, tear and fading. Multi-color filters for blend color effects.

Add nonglossy paint for better finishing. Great detail paint job on rust and paint chips off with scratches, worn and bare metal realistic simulating, flow rust and rain streaks effects, grease with staining appearing. Also smear and dirt with dust and real mud and more on real-life weathering. Final protective layer for long-term collection.

In the late 50's the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) realized, with their neighboring countries acquiring newer more modern tanks, their own need to improve their tank force. The answer came in the form of the up gunned Sherman M51.

For those of you familiar with the name "Isherman", I would like to note the IDF never referred to the tank by that name. It was a creation of the media. The M51 was a result of the addition of a French 105mm gun into the T-23 Sherman turret. This in turn required an extension to the rear of the turret, which housed the radio and balanced the weight of the gun. All of the tanks were also rebuilt with the HVSS suspension. The first production batches retained the Continental radial engines, but by the mid'60's they were all upgraded with Cummins diesels. Other modifications included stowage bins and jerrycan holders on the sides and rear of the tank, a searchlight mounted on the gun mantlet, smoke grenade launchers mounted on the sides of the turret, and on some M51's spare track racks on the side of the turret. Still the most significant mod, and the one most people remember, was the long gun with the very distinctive muzzle brake.

The tanks for the most part were based on the cast hull late large hatch M4A1, but there were a few 47 degree welded hull M4A3's. The M51 was first introduced to the public in 1962.

During it's time in service with the IDF the M51 saw action in 1967 in the Six-day War and again in 1973 in the Yom Kippur War. In both conflicts the M51 and it's crews proved themselves a very worthy adversary to the newer more modern Soviet designed T-54's, T-55's, and T-62's being used against them.

The M51 was not officially retired until the late'80's - early'90's, and it is believed to have been used in reserve units up to 1995 or there about. It was also exported as early as 1979 with about 120 (possibly more) going to Chili, where it was still in service until early in the 21st century.