I just ordered this kit for a project I have in mind. I’m curious as to the downfalls of the kit, any good references, particularily for interior painting, and if the kit comes with an engine. If not, where would I be able to get one, or if someone has good references on the engine bay, I’d be willing to scratchbuild one.
Nice kit. The stowage rails are fiddley,other than that I liked it. No engine. Squadron’s TD walk around is real nice.I’m going away for the weekend, but I’ll send you picts when I get back.
Great kit. I have it in my to-do stack. Looking foward to seeing your result; it might give me the inspiration I need to start my own!
Gip Winecoff
Thanks a bunch STUG61.
If you want to do an accurate one, neither Academy or AFV Club’s are correct. Head to head, they both come out even; they both have differing faults and a lot of them.
The Academy one needs this work:
- the road wheel axles sit too far down, making the vehicle too high in profile.
- The transmission is simple, that would be forgivable if it was supposed to represent the cover sometimes fitted.
- The driver/co-driver area lacks heaps of detail, the floor is too narrow and too short. The narrowness means that the seat posts are incorrectly offset too close to the tranny, so the driver and co-driver would have to lean to the side to look out the episcopes and when seated their heads are under the edge of the hatchway, not centered under the hatches.
- The rear is too short, therefore the rear grillwork has been narrowed to compensate. The grills on the real vehicle are VERY see through, and the exhaust pipework is visible, but the kit is solid with just a meagre representation of mesh.
- The rear hull sponsons are squared off not rounded like the real thing, and the rear engine hatch area is all out of shape - again due to the too short hull.
- The turret fittings are either not present, or are just hunks of plastic. The ammo stowage on the sponson tops is just 4 half rounds not even close to right shape moulded directly into the sponson top, not the correct 2 layers in racks.
- My rubber tracks were warped and twisted, the link and length ones didn’t appear to be worth the trouble -replacements needed.
- From memory the idlers may not be right either.
Most of these can be fixed with Verlinden’s interior and exterior sets, but with replacement tracks it makes for a very expensive model in the end.
Osprey’s Modelling US Tank Destroyers has a good article by Steve Zaloga about fixing the M18 kit. Allied-Axis #4 has some good reference pics as well.
Internet sites - 2 gallery’s at http://www.tanxheaven.com/referencepictures.htm and an AFV Club correction job (series of pics) http://tanxheaven.com/m18/m18pic.htm
some here: http://www.cybermodeler.com/armor/m18/m18.shtml
and here: http://www.svsm.org/gallery/M18
Engine pics:
Not a bad kit. No engine. No major problems.
CFR
Thanks a million for the info. I don’t know if I’ll be up to making many corrections, as I’m not too interested in getting too accurate of a model, it’s more for an exercise for a dio I wish to use it in.