Small Scale Military Headquarters

My new Pershing arrived today from George at MinutemanTS. The model is pretty decent. It sits well and has the porportions that make the Pershing a stand out. Not too many add on details other than the .50 cal machine gun, tow cable and the aerial. All attached easily. There are four hatches:Commander, gunner on the turret and the driver and radioman hatches on the hull. There is a spent round hatch on the side of the turret that was painted shut, but it appears it was designed to work even though it wasnt mentioned on the instruction sheet. The tracks are ok but not exceptional. The suspension looks very articulate but the rolling qualities are poor. It seems the design of the front idler wheel causes it to flex back from track tension and touch the forward roadwheel when rolling forward. It seems delicate and prone to breakage with too much rolling. There are four engine deck hatches that open to reveal decent engine and transmission details. The paint was pretty well done and the weathering was just right. The commander figure is sculpted to stand on the engine deck firing the .50 cal. I will probably go with a guy standing in the commanders hatch instead though. Over all a great tank except for the running gear.

TJ

Yes, it's great to have a Pershing in 1:32 at long last! I like the overall "feel" and level of detail (hey, if I want "perfect" I'll build one of the Tamiya ones on my shelf!). I think the boys at Unimax got a little carried away with the wear and tear. Most of these tanks were pretty low-mileage. FoV have the fenders all beat to heck and the top surfaces are depicted as dented very badly. I can use stowage to hide some of the top dents, and the fenders can probably be used as is. If I build a Korean War M26 someday it will be tempting to take the tank apart and grind off the dust guards.

I like the working travel lock. The gun on the Pershing was long that for non-combat (rear area) moves it is common to see the turret traversed to the rear and the gun clamped in its support.

I agree that the rolling qualities aren't great, but that doesn't matter much to me 'cause I display them. I do appreciate that FoV modeled the WW2 steel track.

Not a bad toy overall.