Egyptian Thutmose III:
The latest project that I have been working on has been inspired by an idea from a friend over on a thread I run on AH.Com. To cut a very long story short his story postulates that the Soviet IS-2 tank stayed in production much longer than it did and in favour of the IS-3. Some of these IS-2s find their way into service with the Egyptian Army (renamed Thutmose III) and over time go through a series of upgrades eventually leading to AFV in question. In his mind's eye, he saw this final conversion being something similar to the real-life Ramses upgrade of the T-55 but with extras.
Basically, what he was after was an IS-2 with M48/60 Patton running gear, a Continental diesel engine, British L11 120mm gun and various other bells and whistles.
Parking the why and wherefores of the concept aside, the basic idea struck a chord. With that I laid down the challenge and after only the briefest of arguments accepted!
I had this old IS-2 in my stash but soon realised that it was too far gone (running gear solidly glues in place) to make a suitable donor - so on went the computer and after a quick email to Mr Hannants a cheap Svezda IS-2 was winging its way to Chateau Claymore. I settled on the Svesda model for no other reason than its relatively low price and the knowledge that a good deal of it was going to get chopped up and thrown away.
So, first things first... new running gear and tracks donated from an old Italeri M60 and removal of the old engine deck. Note some addition plastic card required to fill in the enormous gaps where the upper and lower hulls meet...
New engine deck in place and boxed in and fenders widened to cover new tracks. Starting to look interesting...
In tackling the turret, I soon realised that there was just no way the big 120mm L11 gun would fit into the basic turret, but I really wanted to keep the feel of the original IS-2. This required some major surgery to lengthen the turret whilst also swapping the crew positions around to match the Western gun. After several failed attempts to do something with the M60 turret I had, I gave it ups as a lost cause and delved deeper into the pit-of-despair that is/are my spares box/es. What I ended up with was an old Centurion turret (so old I have no idea who made it). I used the rear end, heavily hacked and modified but, in the end, a perfect fit and giving me the exact look I was after. All hail Milliput putty for blending the whole thing together.
Gun in place, fenders extended and all the usual extra goodies added, the Thutmose is looking like a believable MBT. My mate wanted a late US IR searchlight mounted over the gun - this is the only major attachment still to be fitted. Unfortunately, I didn't have one in stock and therefore one is on order from South Korea (it may arrive by next Christmas).
This is perhaps the most heavily modified whiff I have undertaken without going into the realms of scratch building - great fun. The next stage will be the undercoat which should help pull it all together and then the paint job...
