Eric. I used Humbrol #54 brass. I have an old tin that is not quite as dark as the latest pigment they use (I have that too). Then a wash of burnt umber in the join between shell and case and case and cap. I then dry brushed it with Humbrol #16 Gold. It tones down the brass. Then spray over with the dullcoat to kill the out of scale shine. Simple but effective.
Not sure if you mean a comparison of the 2 Brit Achilles or 2 US M10’s. I have not built the AFV Club M10 but a friend has. We compared progress builds at our last club meeting. The AFV club has a nice turned barrel but has hollow backed and over sized road wheels and no ready rounds for the turret. It also does not have full detail for the driver’s position. Conjecture is the turret shape is not quite correct and neither is the rear of the hull. The Academy is better in proportion and has a better equiped interior and lots of spares so I would go that way.
As to the Achilles: Academy …well you read it above. AFV Club have a better shaped mantlet, more accurately proportioned 17 pounder breech and barrel and most of the correct interior Turret and tool stowage. However, it does not have any internal detail for the fighting compartment. It comes with a better set of decals, but the older type of tracks. Best bet would be to buy both and kit bash. Out of a choice of either, my choice would be Academy its faults not withstanding. Personal preferences here, others will probably disagree.
Jimq and phroosh. My Pledge was new off the shelf but is a bit milky. Tried 2 different bottles and got same result. Must be me 'cause a good tradesman doesn’t blame his tools[:p]
ShermanFirefly. Stripped back to bare plastic on the outside. That was fun - making sure the oven cleaner didn’t penetrate inside. I have built an interior for a LVTP7A through the rear hatch, but I don’t fancy trying to paint the Achilles when it is all closed in.
Ausf. Very fine chain made by Tiger Model Design. One pack had enough to do all the fillers on the Achilles, plus do all the securing pins for tools and tracks on my Panther D. It was fairly cheap too. Made of copper wire, so It is easy to cut links to size. Recommend it to anyone.
Just another pic for anyone interested. Colour is a bit off on this, so I didn’t post it originally. This shows how the breach spent case shield rails were shortened and the corrected shield was added. Now the breach section can go up and down without hitting the seats!
