Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC 99% (Update 01/01/2011)

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PanzerArm
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Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC 99% (Update 01/01/2011)

Post by PanzerArm » Tue May 25, 2010 12:21 am

Hello everyone, just thought I'd fill you all in on the latest custom project I'm working on in my 1/32 workshop. Since I completed my 1/32 desert Tiger I, I've been keeping my customization down to a minimum, and I think I've really only done some minor tinkering with a 21st panzer IV D trying to make it an F1. Anyway, I've recently been motivated to make a vehicle I have wanted for quite some time; The British Achilles IIC Tank Destroyer.

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My customization skills are fairly limited, so typically I think of customs I can do with what is out there already, or that will involve minimal fabrication. That being said, one might not think that a 1/32 Achilles would be on my list because of the simple fact that no one has made a 1/32 scale M10 TD, the basis from which the Achilles IIC originated. That's what I thought at first too. Then one day, while reading one of my modelling/painting/diorama book, I came across a review Cookie Sewell wrote for a 1/35 M10/M36 build. In the review he mentioned throwing out your vintage Tamiya M10 kits because they were out of scale, and he even said how exactly they were out of scale. They were 1/31.5 scale! I immediately did a little more research on the web and found that this was indeed true. I found a couple of the kits and purchased them; both the M10 and M36 that Tamiya made. I even bought a built/painted vintage M10 off ebay for like $16 + shipping. So once I received my kits I got to thinking I wanted to do something interesting with one of my M10 kits. I wanted an Achilles IIC.

I had also recently won several Airfix 1/32 17 pdr's off ebay from Great Britain, and I immediately knew that I had everything I needed to make it happen. So before I show you the pics of the progress so far, here is a list of the stuff I'm using in this custom.

-1/32 FOV action grade Sherman (Lower hull and bow armor and running gear)

-1/35 (1/31.5) Tamiya M10 --the vintage motorized kit

-1/32 Airfix 17 pdr --also a vintage kit, hard to find and quite often, expense to buy

-21st Sherman Firefly (Barrel)

-Various fabricated styrene pieces (they're white, they stand out :wink: )

So first off we've got the work on the hull and running gear. As you can see I took the lower hull, along with the bow plate and running gear from an FOV sherman, and mated it to the hull of the tamiya M10. The fit together pretty damn easy, which goes to show you how out of scale Tamiya's TD was.

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And here you can see a comparison between that one I bought on ebay already built (straight out of the box), and my hybrid. Note the added height. The Tamiya one seemed to "slouch" a little when adjacent to 21st and FOV vehicles, so I wanted to fix that.

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Next we move on to the work on the gun breech.

The gun was where the Airfix 17 pdr was to play its part. In the pictures you can clearly see how i took the breech from the 17 pdr AT gun and attached it to the formerly 3 inch gun mount. The walkarounds I'd been referencing had shown that nothing was really different between the 3 in. and 17 pdr in the m10, save for the breech and other minor things (many yet to be done :( )

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Breech open:

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Breech closed:

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And finally we move onto the gun and gun mantlet.

As you might have noticed, the 17 pdr was quite a bit longer than the standard 3 in. gun, and that's why i "borrowed" one of my extra firefly's barrel :twisted:

I also fabricated the additional pieces on the mantlet. They aren't complete yet, but you get the idea.

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Gun length comparisons:

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I am concerned that the achilles barrel may be too long, but I'm awaiting my copy of British Armored Fighting Vehicles of WWII to arrive in the mail so i can do some more precise measurements.

And here is the mantlet to good effect, showing the work on the added pieces, and the hole drilled for the coax .30 cal mg the British added.

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I hope to get more work done on it tomorrow so I'll keep you posted!


-Kevin
Last edited by PanzerArm on Sat Jan 01, 2011 8:52 pm, edited 6 times in total.

Der Kommandant
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Post by Der Kommandant » Tue May 25, 2010 8:50 pm

Good stuff, looks great!

MG-42
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* Achilles IIC custom

Post by MG-42 » Tue May 25, 2010 9:21 pm

* I like what I see and what's goin' on here. 8)

........ Keep up the good work Kevin ! * :wink:


- Mitch v MG
" I love it , God help me ,.. I do love it so". * * * * PATTON * * * *



* In memory of ram04 - 7/15/12 *

PanzerArm
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Progress!

Post by PanzerArm » Sat May 29, 2010 12:42 am

Ok, so it may be a bit later than I said, but here are some pictures of the work I've gotten done in the past two days (Not much :? )


First are some shots of the weights on the back of the turret. I wanted the "duckbill" ones and unfortunately for me, the Tamiya kit only came with the mid version (triangle ones). I think I recall that Pickel had quite a time making these for his 1/18 M10, and now I understand why, what a pain in the butt!

As you can see in this pic, I did end up shortening that barrel. Thanks George Bradford!
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And finally I have a picture of the completed gun mantlet addition.

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Next up is the counterweight for the barrel, which is actually giving me some trouble, and then I will resume my work on the gun breech area. After wrapping that up I'll finish the kit build and hopefully get to attempt painting it by next week.


-Kevin

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Post by pickelhaube » Sat May 29, 2010 8:43 pm

I liked the extra long barrel.

Yeah you are right those counter weights were a pain in the keester.

This is looking great !!
Kirk Douglas : Mine hit the ground first
John Wayne : Mine was taller



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PanzerArm
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Update: 7-7-10

Post by PanzerArm » Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:55 pm

Hello folks, did a little more work finally on the Achilles. Here are some pics of the progress.

First off a shot of the overall job, nearly finished!
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Here is a profile shot:
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Here is a shot of the turret, now that I think of it I probably should have left the figs out of there for this shot so you could see what I did, but oh well.
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Barrel Counterweight:
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Close up of the barrel counterweight.
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I've only had one SNAFU (knock on wood) and that was the breach no longer opens and closes due to an unfortunate super glue incident, but I don't think that really mattered all that much anyway.

Sorry for the delay in the update, the Army's kind of been putting me through the ringer lately, and I just haven't had the time to work on it.


-Kevin

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 7/07/2010)

Post by PanzerArm » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:07 pm

Well, it's finally time for another update. I just received an excellent gift from the wife in the form of an awesome hobby desk, and I thought I'd break it in with a little custom work that needed catching up on.

So I have actually had to do quite a bit to the Achilles since you saw it last. For one, i realized that I had made a glaring error in the turret. Now I am NOT an expert on allied armor by any means. So, by the virtue of being a novice at allied armor, my understanding of the Achilles turret was that it was the same as the M10s, and that they had the duckbill weights in the back. Well, as I learned later, it was not that simple. Thanks to an excellent publication by Wojciech J. Gawrych called British Tank Destroyer Achilles 17-Pdr M10 S.P. I was able to pick up on some things that I had not noticed before. The turret was one of those things, and by far the most important. Basically, the late model M10s, the Achilles variants included, had a different turret than the earlier versions. They were made larger in the rear of the turret for better mobility for the crew and room to stow more gear. So I had to redo the turret and the weights. after that I went ahead and put in the main gun ammo racks and some other interior turret details. I also stripped off the molded pioneer tools on the back and added some rare Cal-Scale 1/32 Combat Series brass pioneer tools.

I was able to get most of the details done and get it primed this afternoon.

Enough jabbering already, here are the pics:

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That's it for the Achilles for now. I need to go paint shopping for it before I can have a go at painting it, but that is probably going to have to wait until after Christmas. I worked on another custom, turning a 21st pz IV ausf. D to an ausf. F1, and I'll be posting some stuff on it in a different thread.

Merry Christmas Everyone!



-Kevin

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/23/2010)

Post by Der Kommandant » Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:02 pm

8) 8) 8)

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/23/2010)

Post by flyboy_fx » Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:09 am

Nice!!!!
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/23/2010)

Post by snake » Fri Dec 24, 2010 3:08 am

Great job, PanzerArm.

Love seeing what some of you guys can do with your customs. :D

pickelhaube
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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/23/2010)

Post by pickelhaube » Fri Dec 24, 2010 7:00 am

I have a few guys who would want this in 1/18 scale.

You should have made it bigger :shock:

IT LOOKS GREAT !!!
Kirk Douglas : Mine hit the ground first
John Wayne : Mine was taller



Image

PanzerArm
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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/23/2010)

Post by PanzerArm » Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:44 pm

pickelhaube wrote:I have a few guys who would want this in 1/18 scale.

You should have made it bigger :shock:

IT LOOKS GREAT !!!

I'll never go over to the Dark Side!!!!


:lol: :lol: :lol:

You shouldn't have too difficult a time making an Achilles conversion from your existing M10. Basically you'll have to make or modify your existing turret and make it bigger in the back with new duckbill weights, then a new interior complete with 17-pdr, and then modify the mantlet. You already have the 17-pdr barrel, all you need to do is make the weight for the end of it and that would pretty much do it.



-Kevin

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/23/2010)

Post by NHoggard12 » Fri Dec 24, 2010 3:50 pm

Really great.
NIce to see some 1/32 tweaks, especially for such a nice looking tank

PanzerArm
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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/23/2010)

Post by PanzerArm » Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:15 pm

Ok, I put a couple coats of OD Green #1 on it today. Not even close to a finished product, but I figured it was a good time to give everyone another update. Plus, with the deadline for our little friendly contest coming up this may be as far as I am able to get for a while. Unfortunately I still have to figure out my decal situation and I have to wait for some detail parts (M2 .50 and radio aerials) to be delivered. So without further adieu I give you the updated pics:

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In the next shots I rigged it up with some of the details so that your could get a better idea as to what the finished TD will eventually look like.

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-Kevin

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/29/2010)

Post by digimatt » Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:48 am

Hi Kevin,

Looks great!

Regarding the markings; have you looked at the various Archer 1/35 dry transfer sheets? They have a pretty extensive selection of markings available. Although the troop leader one may be tough.

Regards,

Matt

PanzerArm
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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC (Update 12/29/2010)

Post by PanzerArm » Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:08 am

I have looked at some online stores that sell Archer decals, but I hadn't actually looked through the Archer catologue. I just downloaded and went through it and although there were some common things I could find that would be useful, like identification stars, there wasn't anything for the 62nd AT regiment, not to mention this particular vehicle. I think I am going to have to just give it a shot myself. Flyboy recommended the do-it-yourslef testors decal kit, and I am going to run over to my local hobby lobby this afternoon and take a look at it. I've read some internet traffic on the topic of doing this and it appears that if you have form of decal solvent and decal adhesive you should be fine. Also having an inkjet printer is a must as the decal paper made by testors only works with inkjet systems.

-Kevin

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC 99% (Update 01/01/2011)

Post by PanzerArm » Sat Jan 01, 2011 8:51 pm

Hey everyone, time for another update.

I wanted to get this thing presentable so that I could enter the informal contest Ram04 wanted to run. It was a good bit of motivation to get me to work on this a little more diligently than I typically do. As you can see I figured the decal issue out. Made most myself, but took the numbers from Archer U.S. Registration numbers. Couldn;t get the "Juke Girl" thing to work out as my printer does not print white and using white decal paper was too tire some to cut out each letter. Anyway, I really like how it turned out. Eventually I want to add the MG and radio aerials (when they get here), and also weather it a bit.

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Happy New Year Everyone!


-Kevin
Last edited by PanzerArm on Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC 99% (Update 01/01/2011)

Post by pickelhaube » Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:33 pm

Fine job.

Happy New year to you !!
Kirk Douglas : Mine hit the ground first
John Wayne : Mine was taller



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PanzerArm
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Re: Custom 1/32 Achilles IIC 99% (Update 01/01/2011)

Post by PanzerArm » Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:47 am

Thanks for the compliment PH, means a lot coming from someone of your skill level.

-Kevin

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