T50 review

Austarmycrest.gif (8966 bytes) Australian Military Vehicles

1/35 scale T50 Turrets Currently Available.
Research by John Myszka.

There are a number of Cadillac Gage T50 turrets available on the market. This review proposes to compare each of the available kits to the measurements of the real thing.

What do you get

Company	Summary of parts of the kit
Accurate Armour	Semi solid two part turret, jerry can, hatch and 2 sprues of smaller parts including 4 trafficators. Correct turret hatch hinge arrangement.
Verlinden	Comes in a box together with the M74 turret also used by the Australian Army in Vietnam. The T50 comes as a solid turret with two .30 cal barrels and a hatch. Incorrect hatch hinge arrangement for Australian T50. Casting is very nice.
Academy	Comes as part of an M113A1 kit. The parts are injected plastic but the turret is badly misshapen - not worth using even as a start point.
Aussie Armour	Hollow cast two part turret. Correct hinge arrangement for hatch. Provides a mounting ring and correctly off set turret ring. Additional parts provided such as new rear hatch with filtration box etc.

How do the T50 turrets measure up?
The turret is basically fabricated from 8 panels - 5 identical panels (inclined at 60 degrees) plus one left and 2 right side individually shaped panels (when facing forward).

all measurements in millimetres	1:1	1/35 scale	Accurate Armour	Verlinden	Academy	Aussie Armour
turret widest diameter	1250	35.7	33	34.5	34.2	33
widest point on turret top (just forward of the hatch)	825	23.6	22	23	22.5	24
Vertical height of turret	356	10.1	9	9	10	9
panel width - top	260	7.4	7	8.5	7	7.2
panel width - bottom	390	11.1	10	10.2	10.5	10
panel height	360	10.3	10	10.2	11	9.7
mantlet width	340	9.7	9	8.6	8.5	9.5

The Aussie Armour conversion is most accurate with most measurements and very close with the others.

The least accurate is the Academy one which originally had the greatest hope of being correct and in plastic would have sold like hotcakes. This version did not include the basic "Aussie" conversion/additions and the three forward individual panels are a pure fantasy. It simply looks wrong.

Except for Aussie Armour (and to some extent Accurate Armour) all kits have the hole through the hull top (read turret ring) centrally mounted in the turret. this is not correct - the hole into the turret is forward of centre which leaves a small rear overhang.

None of the review kits have a turret basket which is integral to the T50 turret as used by the Australian Army. To make a current (2001) serving Australian M113A1 with T50 turret with all the "Aussie" additions check this article out.

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