COBI M24 Chaffee Set 2543

COBI's M24 Chaffee is built from 588 blocks, with working tracks, a rotating turret, a movable barrel, an opening service hatch over two brick-built engines, and an opening turret hatch with a machine gun. Two American figures are included — a commander with an M3 submachine gun and binoculars, and a mechanic with a wrench.

The gun came off a bomber

The problem with putting a 75 mm gun in a light tank is that a 75 mm gun weighs about as much as the turret you want to put it in. The Americans solved it by taking one that had already been made light for a different reason.

The M6 was a lightweight 75 mm designed for the nose of the B-25 Mitchell, where every kilogram had to be justified twice over. It used a thinner barrel and a shorter recoil than a tank gun of the same calibre and was never intended to be shot at armour. Dropped into the Chaffee's turret, it gave a 18-tonne tank the same shell as a Sherman.

There was a cost that had nothing to do with engineering. The Chaffee's low hull and interleaved-looking running gear resembled German designs enough that Allied troops repeatedly fired on their own, and crews took to painting recognition markings much larger than regulations called for.

Specifications

Pieces: 588 · Figures: 2 with accessories
Model dimensions: 20 × 10.5 × 11.5 cm (7.9 × 4.1 × 4.5 in)