M46 Tank in HO Scale

Paul Heiser has released his first Post-WWII tank with the release of the M46 Patton.

Paul says this means all American medium tanks or main battle tanks that were fielded by the US Army between the Sherman in 1941 and the Abrams are now available in HO scale, by either him or by Minitanks.

The M46 was an improvement on the M26 of World War Two with the first production run of 100 tanks at the end of 1948.  Eventually the US produced 1,160 M46 tanks compared to 2,200 of the M26 tank.

The man differences between the M46 tank and the M26 tanks are a new engine and transmission, and a new main gun.  This resulted in a very different rear hull and a different looking main gun.

Both the US Army and USMC used hundreds of M46 tanks in the Korean War, replacing the M26 in Korea by the end of 1951.

 France, Italy used small numbers of the M46 and Belgium used eight of them.  All US M46 tanks were out of service by 1960 having been replaced by the M47 and later M48 tanks.