So, inspired by Old Wombat's M-41 in Australian Marines service, I picked up Tamiya's 1/35 kit (40% off @ Hobby Lobby) with the intention of making an upgraded/upgunned alternative to the M1 for use with the US Marine Corps MEUs (Marine Expeditionary Unit). At about half the weight and much smaller than the M1, I thought this would make it possible to 1) embark more tanks without a great increase in space used/weight taken up. So, instead of a single platoon of 4 tanks a MEU could take 2 platoons/8 tanks, 2) lighter vehicles can be brought to shore faster (2 per LCAC instead of the 1 M1) and 3) more tanks mean more taskings for fire support of the infantry companies.
To that end, I've upgraded the main gun from 76mm to 105mm - placing it in a completely new turret and deleting the coax MG in this instance. I'm moving the driver from the left side to center, the gas engine is theoretically replaced by a multi-fuel turbine and I'll add some armor side skirts as well.
With that, here are the early stages of work so far:
Starting point:
Size comparison to an M-60 on the bench:
Front hull modification:
New turret:
Main gun (scratched from brass tube):
**Edited to add** Here's a profile view of the turret: