tony
SETTLING IN
Posts: 329
Likes: 787
|
Post by tony on Feb 27, 2018 21:26:19 GMT -6
 Since it was nasty rain blowin day I just had to get a start on this one.   I hear it's the most accurate M10 on the market,looks like an M10 to me. Tony lee  |
|
|
|
Post by Beekster on Feb 27, 2018 21:38:56 GMT -6
It is the most accurate M10 out there. I've cut out the lower hull parts for one of mine, and have discovered a couple of irritants. For one thing, the firewall is only half-height and is attached under the upper hull. That's awkward for detailing. I will have to add material to extend the firewall down towards the floor, to help deal with another irritant. That one is that the raised fighting compartment floor is located by two raised discs on the bottom plate, which I removed. Why? Because I'm working with the innards from an Academy M10 to make master patterns for resin copies of the driver's compartment. The extended firewall will be required to locate the fighting compartment floor. Also, it appears that when the raised floor is in place that the flange that extends from the front of the part at the bottom partially obscures the depression for the escape hatch in the floor. Needless to say, the round bosses with hex-head depressions, a clear indication that this kit was pantographed from Tamiya's earlier 1/48 scale release, have to go in order to fit a proper interior.
|
|
|
|
Post by BUCKY on Feb 27, 2018 21:43:33 GMT -6
Nice start on this rainy day project!!
|
|
tony
SETTLING IN
Posts: 329
Likes: 787
|
Post by tony on Feb 27, 2018 22:02:35 GMT -6
I notice that floor plate covered up something,I didn't know what the depression was for.I'm going to put the figures in it so you won't be able to see the driver compartment anyway, i'm not going to fool with it. Did those shell tubes have a colored stripe around them? Tony lee |
|
|
|
Post by JCON on Feb 27, 2018 23:14:27 GMT -6
Nice start Unk T!!! Looks like an M10 to me too!!!
|
|
feldgrau23
SETTLING IN
Posts: 336 
Likes: 717
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"","color":"131414"}
Mini-Profile Name Color: 6fedf2
Mini-Profile Text Color: c7cfd0
|
Post by feldgrau23 on Feb 28, 2018 5:48:52 GMT -6
Looking good Tony,, looking good.
|
|
|
|
Post by Beekster on Feb 28, 2018 8:25:25 GMT -6
I need to do some sleuthing to see if the cardboard storage tubes had bands to indicate what was in them, and what colors, but they probably did. Yes, that depression is a rudimentary representation of the escape hatch. The Academy floor has a good one, but it is larger than the available space in the Tamiya floor. It could be trimmed to fit with little effort.
|
|
|
|
Post by Beekster on Feb 28, 2018 11:01:14 GMT -6
Well, I haven't found anything definitive on the ammo tubes. But I have found an issue with fitting the interior, which for my first M10 will eventually be a wee bit challenging to fix. The Academy transmission face isn't a drop-fit in the assembled Tamiya hull because of the thickened areas with the beveled edge on the inside of Tamiya's side plates. The smart guy will grind those down before hand if an interior is planned. I didn't, because I had to glue the lower hull together simply to check the fit of the transmission and floor parts. So grinding that area down will be delicate work with the differential cover and bolt strip right there. By the way, Tamiya's texture on the diff cover is superb.
And as Tony confirmed, the kit floor for the fighting compartment obscures part of the escape hatch. Now, if you fit all the figures that Tamiya gives you and keep the drivers' hatches closed you won't see that problem. But it has to go if an interior is what you have in mind. Cut off the whole front of that part from the bottom of the floor and make a couple of side pieces the same height as the round standoffs, and you have a secure floor.
|
|
|
|
Post by JCON on Feb 28, 2018 12:20:14 GMT -6
Hate when that happens!!! I glued some radars on my chopper the other day then found out they aren't on the version I am making... off they came today... lol!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Beekster on Feb 28, 2018 12:53:48 GMT -6
Hate when that happens!!! I glued some radars on my chopper the other day then found out they aren't on the version I am making... off they came today... lol!!! Yeah, but what you gonna do? Tamiya's engineering for how the lower hull goes together really can't be faulted, as everything fits fine. They do things a little differently than Asuka does, which in this case makes it impossible to dry-fit the lower hull together...Asuka's full-depth firewall and rear plate really help hold the sides on, and an assembled diff cover ties it together...well enough to test fit stuff like transmissions when you are figuring out how to make things work together when combining kits. The way Tamiya did things makes that operation impossible because the hull won't stay together without gluing it as the instructions tell you to do. I suppose I could have used my calipers to measure the available space in a dry-fit, but that's not terribly accurate when you are holding things together with one hand and trying to measure with the other. Little surprises like this are simply what you have to put up with when you are kit-bashing interiors. Tony won't worry about that on this one; he'll shoot some black into the void forward of the fighting compartment and with the crew in place there's nothing much to see anyway. |
|
|
|
Post by BUCKY on Feb 28, 2018 12:59:12 GMT -6
I have fitment problems trying to cross-match parts on civvy builds, too. Revell doesn't fit AMT...MPC doesn't fit Jo-Han....Monogram doesn't fit Lindberg....You'd think they could come up with closer tolerances for the money.
|
|
tony
SETTLING IN
Posts: 329
Likes: 787
|
Post by tony on Feb 28, 2018 13:46:04 GMT -6
This is as far as I can go without doing some painting:    I think i'll start an M36 next. Oh yeah, Tamiya has really step up and raised the bar with their figures. Tony lee |
|
|
|
Post by Beekster on Feb 28, 2018 14:35:59 GMT -6
Tony, I must say I'm surprised at how well those figures fit in there. With the forward compartment sprayed black no one will miss the lack of a driver's compartment. I wonder what this would look like with the tarp hangers in the up position and an epoxy-putty tarp draped over them, tied down to the armor bosses on the side of the turret. It would obscure the view inside, but with a glossy wet look to the model it could capture the mood of a crew somewhere in the Huertgen Forest in November of '44, providing fire support while a chilling rain comes down.
|
|
|
|
Post by JCON on Feb 28, 2018 14:58:27 GMT -6
Looks excellent Unk T!!!  |
|
|
|
Post by JEFF on Feb 28, 2018 15:38:22 GMT -6
You never cease to amaze me, Tony.  |
|
|
|
Post by BUCKY on Feb 28, 2018 19:46:53 GMT -6
Cool bit of business, Uncle Tony!!!
|
|
feldgrau23
SETTLING IN
Posts: 336
Likes: 717
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"","color":"131414"}
Mini-Profile Name Color: 6fedf2
Mini-Profile Text Color: c7cfd0
|
Post by feldgrau23 on Mar 1, 2018 5:29:31 GMT -6
Nice Work Tony,, It looks great so far. Cant wait to see it with paint.
|
|
|
|
Post by Beekster on Mar 1, 2018 14:57:55 GMT -6
Something else I just noticed about this kit, looking at the sprue layout. The turret side parts are on a sprue almost all by themselves, connected to the main sprue by a single runner. That implies that Tamiya could produce a late duckbill turret variant by simply changing out that mold section for a new one with the duckbill parts. If I allow myself to hope, I would hope that they release an M10C Achilles variant with that turret and the 17pdr gun.
|
|
