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M50A1 ONTOS

iambrb

Well-known member
OK so I am going to go for a USMC ribbon to compliment my NAVY ribbon for my A-7 with one of the strangest weapons ever fielded.... The ONTOS M50A1 by Academy!

SDo this is my placeholder only, it just delivered last night but was spending time with da' fam., will post pics (And perhaps start!) by Saturday!

 
Strange but not ineffective! See the Wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M50_Ontos

To quote: In the Battle of Hue, Regimental Commander Colonel Stanley S. Hughes felt the Ontos was the most effective of all Marine supporting arms. Its mobility made it less vulnerable than tanks, which suffered heavy losses, while at ranges of 300 to 500 yards (270 to 460 m), its recoilless rifles could knock holes in or completely knock down walls. The appearance of an Ontos was sometimes enough to make the enemy break and run, and anecdotal accounts describe the enemy fleeing occupied buildings when an Ontos's spotting round entered a window.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0t-0l0Zv0I

and one in civvie life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wtHDje7i-E
 
mW3eSOd.jpg
 
Totally forgot about this kit.... so, I'm looking forward to what you do with it, Bruce. Talking of forgotten kits, does anyone wanna sell me an Academy M551 Sheridan ?? ;)



Ian.
 
Crap have you seen the cost of that thing!?! I was not aware that it and the Tamiya were OOP. I saw what they actually sell for on Ebay and thought CRAP!

I used to work with a guy that commanded a section of those in the 80's while deployed in Europe
 
bona fide "Ain't Started Yet" Pics





and a few reference pisc. Must say that in researching trf. pics there sure are some variations! Must seem centered around the .30 cal MG mount, note that in one pic the 1919 30 cal MG has the long cone trype flashider







This one is a model, but I admit a very nice one and this, perhaps less the figures is aprox. of where I wanna go with this.

 
I was thinking of building mine also :D

Crap Dave, hope I didn't goof up your plan to build this! :bang head

Lemme know, I think your version of this would likely better mine, going to be curious as to your interpretation of it!
 
I was thinking of building mine also :D

Crap Dave, hope I didn't goof up your plan to build this! :bang head

Lemme know, I think your version of this would likely better mine, going to be curious as to your interpretation of it!
More than one of the same is allowed here and its always fun to see something build. Just wish I had some time to model at the moment. I do have an AFV guntruck to do before I get to this one anyway :geek
 
I have one of these on the shelf. Perhaps after seeing you build yours I might decide to build mine.

Looking forward to watching your progress.

Cheers,
James
 
OK So I cracked open da' box and got started today! There are for the model about 5 sets of sprues, plus some PE and a seperate set of sprues that have some MG's on them...they appear to be the wrong type? They look like M2's that were not used on the Ontos, have to wait and see, perhaps I am really looking at the 50cal spotting rifles and just don't realize it yet, but could have sworn those were on the other sprues.
Depite the sprues being PACKED with parts, she builds up really fast. what you see here is only about 3 hours work. There are some really small parts that build into small sub assy's. though, so keep your tweezers handy!





Right here I just have the muffler setup fitted/not glued. Instructions show screening for all the sections of it, but I do not see that when researching pics on line. I think I am going to leave this off until a final assembly, as I want to paint this with the muffler darker or somehow give it 'depth,' just not sure how to do that yet, any help appreciated!



What a cute little guy! I should have gotten a pic of this tiny thing sitting in my average size hands, but instead I got a shot of him beside the KT I am also working on.



Here is one beside the turret alone, again showing how small and compact this thing was!



OK so IRON MIKE is always saying "enjoy the buld Padawan...enjoy the build", :zen or elements to that effect, and I have to say that I am, to the point that it was a bit dissapointing that I had to stop! Oh well, hope the rest of it goes as well...'till then!
 
This is cool! I seriesly thought about getting this kit when it came out. Seems I missed the boat and now they are OOP.

Nice build of a very unique vehicle.

Mike
 
This is cool! I seriesly thought about getting this kit when it came out. Seems I missed the boat and now they are OOP.

Nice build of a very unique vehicle.

Mike

Hey Mike, I got mone on Flea-bay for $25USD dee-livered

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Academy-1-35-Plastic-Kit-U-S-M-C-M50A1-ONTOS-Tank-13218-/322522992118?hash=item4b17de4df6:g:t0kAAOSwxu5ZIDPx
 
OK so I logged some more time today with it, here is where is stands/sits. I am going to put some build notes in here as a few peeps have expressed intrest in this.
- I noticed that at least one reviewer says that the model can only be built with the tubes fixed forward, but this is not so. In building it, I got to this part, that holds the tubes, and it appears to have an extra locating 'nub' on the back. This forces the gun tubes, if built this way, to be pointing with a distinct down attitude. Plus, the darn part will not build up correctly:



So I obviously removed it to fix the part as it should look. this pic shows how the part holding the gun tubes fits to the turret. What I tried to show here is there is alot of slop in the fit, so you can install it and rake it back slightly for a few degrees of upward elevation. I am thinking that with six tubes, it will be exaggerated. More elevation could be built in if you were to whittle a bit and increase the slop in attachment point



attachment from underneath:



if you do this or not, there is a lot of slop in the fit of these parts to the turret, so care must be taken to make sure that these two racks are correct or it will be very hard to have both sets of tubes pointing correctly. I used a file and held it like that until the adhesive had done it's part



Lastly, here are two of the 106mm tubes built up and press-fit to see if I have positive elevation, which I do have, plus I turned the turret to show some rotation in there. I may actually build it up like this, as all the shots I see of builds show the turret fixed forward.

On a last note, 4 of the 6 tubes have spotting rifles, and this means 10 total parts for the tube plus the spotting rifle, 9 for the two minus the spotter. Again there is slop in these parts so take your time and go slow, as it is tough to get everything in a straight line. This could have been much better engineered. Take your time and use high magnification, those parts are tiny!



So that little bit that you saw there wa another 2 hours! Still 4 more tubed to build too! Oh well, for such small parts it stil ranks as an easy build, just can't go fast on this one. Thanks fer-lookin'!!!
 
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