N548 M46 Patton (1:285)

This pack contains five M46 Patton tanks.

The Americans designed the M46 to replace the M26 Pershing and M4 Sherman. The M26 was considered a heavy tank but the M46 was definitely a medium style of tank (perhaps excessively so). It was, in essence, a set of modifications to the unsatisfactory Pershing and as such was inferior to the advances made in the British Centurion.

The M46 was equipped with a 90mm gun, as was the Pershing. There were 1,160 M46s were built. It only saw combat in the Korean War where it proved superior to the T34/85 which it came up against. The M46 was replaced by the more coherently designed M47, also designated the Patton, after the famously hard charging American Second World War General.

The M46 was operated by Belgium, France, Italy and the United States.