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
)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.
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.
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:
Breech closed:
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
I also fabricated the additional pieces on the mantlet. They aren't complete yet, but you get the idea.
Gun length comparisons:
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.
I hope to get more work done on it tomorrow so I'll keep you posted!
-Kevin
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