Post by Beekster on Dec 1, 2022 10:48:25 GMT -6
This one is breaking cover for the first time. When I started the Desert Rat Achilles, I knew that the late hull and turret would be used for a standard M10. I mentioned on the Desert Rat thread the roof mods that had to be done to both sets of parts to allow for the gun swap, and that I did both roofs at the same time for efficiency's sake. That required that the M10's 3" gun be partially built up to help hold the turret halves together while I modified the roof parts. After that operation, I put the M10 aside until I recently started up on the Achilles again. This photo is copied for discussion purposes only and comes from David Doyle's very nice M10/Achilles Visual History book.
This field-expedient overhead cover was created by the 536th Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company of 7th Army in late 1944. The cover used 5/8" plate, which works out to .179" in scale. For strength, I'll use .020 stock. The 813th TD battalion was one of the units that got their TDs fitted and photos show the unit's vehicles with it in January & February of 1945. A nearly identical cover can be seen from March onwards on M36s and M36B1s of that unit, so clearly the big-gun TDs got fitted before the unit converted to them in March.
This image shows a turret with armor bosses, but I won't fit those. The overhead cover would fit just the same. If I want a stowage rail, I will just bend some brass and drill a couple of mounting holes. Note that the way the roof armor has been designed at the back, there's no way to mount the M2 .50cal MG in the pintle. There's no evidence of a mount being fitted to the roof or turret side, so the unit must have discarded the heavy machineguns from the TDs and probably fitted them to some other vehicles in the unit.
So in recent days I've been working on the turret. As with the Achilles, it's mostly a matter of filling in all the attachment holes on the turret sides (British pattern stowage) and fitting the US pattern parts using reference photos as a guide.
Things are mostly together now. The nice little Thompson that should sit on the rectangular small arms ammo rack didn't survive adding all the bolt heads that Tamiya missed on the back walls; the tiny barrel snapped off and vanished. Yeah, I ought to have left it off until later in the process. I'll rob it from my other M10 kit since that one will be a Commonwealth tank in Italy (eventually), and they didn't usually have Thompsons as the crew weapons. There's one more brace to be added inside from strip stock, and then I can start planning the overhead cover.
The hull also needs quite a bit of work, which has barely begun. The British pattern tool attachment holes all need to be filled. On the Achilles thread I mentioned the strange way that Tamiya represented the spare track holders on the transmission cover. Getting rid of those required a lot of grinding and filling, which obliterated the subtle cast texture. A grinding bit in the Dremel followed by liquid glue to soften things has gotten the texture job started. I'll stipple on some Mr. Surfacer when I get a new bottle to tone things down a bit more.
Also seen here is a crude rendition of the SCR-610 radio set, made from the Academy M10 radio which is actually a Sherman set. With the driver's hatches closed, it might not be seen. But I do intend to have the roof armor hatches opened, so a rudimentary front compartment will be added.
The underside of the Tamiya transmission cover is missing any casting marks. Again it's Academy kit parts to the rescue; these are sliced from the accessory sprues and glued on. Yeah, they represent a factory that made transmissions and have the correct part number.
This field-expedient overhead cover was created by the 536th Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company of 7th Army in late 1944. The cover used 5/8" plate, which works out to .179" in scale. For strength, I'll use .020 stock. The 813th TD battalion was one of the units that got their TDs fitted and photos show the unit's vehicles with it in January & February of 1945. A nearly identical cover can be seen from March onwards on M36s and M36B1s of that unit, so clearly the big-gun TDs got fitted before the unit converted to them in March.
This image shows a turret with armor bosses, but I won't fit those. The overhead cover would fit just the same. If I want a stowage rail, I will just bend some brass and drill a couple of mounting holes. Note that the way the roof armor has been designed at the back, there's no way to mount the M2 .50cal MG in the pintle. There's no evidence of a mount being fitted to the roof or turret side, so the unit must have discarded the heavy machineguns from the TDs and probably fitted them to some other vehicles in the unit.
So in recent days I've been working on the turret. As with the Achilles, it's mostly a matter of filling in all the attachment holes on the turret sides (British pattern stowage) and fitting the US pattern parts using reference photos as a guide.
Things are mostly together now. The nice little Thompson that should sit on the rectangular small arms ammo rack didn't survive adding all the bolt heads that Tamiya missed on the back walls; the tiny barrel snapped off and vanished. Yeah, I ought to have left it off until later in the process. I'll rob it from my other M10 kit since that one will be a Commonwealth tank in Italy (eventually), and they didn't usually have Thompsons as the crew weapons. There's one more brace to be added inside from strip stock, and then I can start planning the overhead cover.
The hull also needs quite a bit of work, which has barely begun. The British pattern tool attachment holes all need to be filled. On the Achilles thread I mentioned the strange way that Tamiya represented the spare track holders on the transmission cover. Getting rid of those required a lot of grinding and filling, which obliterated the subtle cast texture. A grinding bit in the Dremel followed by liquid glue to soften things has gotten the texture job started. I'll stipple on some Mr. Surfacer when I get a new bottle to tone things down a bit more.
Also seen here is a crude rendition of the SCR-610 radio set, made from the Academy M10 radio which is actually a Sherman set. With the driver's hatches closed, it might not be seen. But I do intend to have the roof armor hatches opened, so a rudimentary front compartment will be added.
The underside of the Tamiya transmission cover is missing any casting marks. Again it's Academy kit parts to the rescue; these are sliced from the accessory sprues and glued on. Yeah, they represent a factory that made transmissions and have the correct part number.
