For their first kit in the 1/35 scale Retrokit decided to tackle the M75, so may this company be thanked here!
In fact, to my knowledge, this is the very first 1/35 scale kit of this vehicle which is iconic of the early stages of modern mechanized infantry.
Technical data
Based on the tractor T43E1, the M75 was chosen by the US Army to replace its fleet of M3 halftracks.
The development of the T18 officially started in September 1946 and International Haverster Company was chosen to build the first 4 prototypes.
The M75 uses the M41 Walker Bulldog running gear. The steel hull is 2.5 to 3.8 cm thick and already features the standard design of the personnel carriers. The driver is seated at the front left with the engine compartment to his right. In the center of the hull the vehicle commander serves the M13 cupola armed with a .50 M2 machine gun. In the back 10 infantrymen can be seated.
The construction of the 1780 vehicles was made by IHC and Food Machinery and Chemical Company (FMC)
The M75 was deployed at the end of the war in Korea and participated in many battles among which Pork Chop Hill battle in 1953.
The use in Korea helped validate the concept, but the M75, complex to build, heavy and too expensive for the time did not serve long within the US Army.
In the frame of the military assistance, starting from 1957, the Belgian army received 771 M75 to equip the mechanized infantry of the 1st Belgian corps, the tank battalions, the field artillery battalions, the reconnaissance battalions and the combat engineers units.
The M75 were delivered in the personnel carrier version only. All the other versions were realized in Belgium to meet the various requirements: command post, maintenance, engineer, mortar carrier.
It is only in the early 1980s that all the M75 were phased out and replaced by the AIFV and the M113.
Characteristics :
Weight: 19050 Kg
Speed:
- Low: 17,7 Kph
- High: 71,2 Kph
- Cruise: 57,28 Kph
Crossing:
- Ford: 1,25 m
- Slope: 60%
- Gap: 1,68 m
Dimensions:
- Total length: 5,35 m
- Total width: 2,85 m
- Total height: 2,75 m
Engine: Continental AO 895
Autonomy:
- Tank capacity: 568 l
- Consumption: from 300 to 350 l/100 Km
- Range: from 90 Km (cross country) to 160 Km (road)
Crew:
- 1 vehicle commander
- 1 driver
- Transport capacity: 10 soldiers
Armament:
- 1 .50 caliber MG.
The kit
The RetroTracks M75 depicts an early M75 built by FMC.
The molding is clean and the kit pretty well designed. Some parts like the machine gun could be replaced by finer ones.
The instructions give useful tips to convert the model into a Belgian vehicle.
The bravest modelers could replace the running gear with one of a M41 tank kit (AFV Club for example) and put link by link tracks either plastic (AFV Club) or metal (Friul or Spade Ace). However the kit running gear is very fine and well molded and will perfectly do the trick.
Now I just have to build but this is another story…
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