Academy M10 GMC 1/35 Scale Build

[Sander69]

Hello there. This is a response from a thread entitled “Operable engine hatch hinges.” Jakko requested that I post some pictures of my work. The model is the U.S. Army M10 GMC (13288) offered by Academy.

I have the forward drivers compartment done and primed.
I have the bottom hull completed and half-primed.
And … I’m working on a repair.

I have been away from my hobby for far too long, I'm out of practice and I have a thick skin. So if you have suggestions, please feel free to post them.

 

[Sander69]

The carpet monster ate the spare optics box that is positioned on the right-hand side of the cabin in front of where the secondary driver would sit so, I had to build that from scratch.

 

[Sander69]

I’m not sure if the M10 had seat belts or not. I thought that it would have been a good idea to have had them. So I made some, anyway.

 

[Sander69]

And then disaster happened. I dropped my little chairs onto the floor and in the process of trying to find them, I managed to step on both of them. So, now I am getting a lesson in 2-part putty sculpting. The upper right chair was just finished this morning. I'm still waiting for the putty to set on the other. The chairs are not actually correct, to begin with. Both the M10 GMC and the M10 Achilles chairs mounted to the side of the hull - not to the floor as in this and in other kits. Maybe this would be a good time to play around with that idea. I see that Tamiya has a detail kit for the 1/48 scale M10 that has the correct chairs.
I found a link from M & M models that has a few good pictures of this kit at:

http://https:tongue-out3:/www.mmode...1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-2--102.aspx

 

[Jakko]

And then disaster happened. I dropped my little chairs onto the floor and in the process of trying to find them, I managed to step on both of them. So, now I am getting a lesson in 2-part putty sculpting.

Always fun

Both the M10 GMC and the M10 Achilles chairs mounted to the side of the hull - not to the floor as in this and in other kits. Maybe this would be a good time to play around with that idea. I see that Tamiya has a detail kit for the 1/48 scale M10 that has the correct chairs.

The AFV Club kit has that detail right. The seat pillar is correct for some other types of M4 medium tank and derivatives, though — perhaps that’s what got Academy confused?

I found a link from M & M models that has a few good pictures of this kit at:

http://https:tongue-out3:/www.mmode...1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-2--102.aspx

You meant:—

M&Models

www.mmodelstore.com

(the forum software mangles https:// into https:tongue-out3:/ because :/ is a shorthand for the smiley :/).

 

[Sander69]

I will look at the AFV kit. Thanks for the tip.

and I will pay attention to the smilie face / hyperlink issue!

 

[scottie3158]

Steven,
Looking good. Bummer about the seats but the repair will look good.

 

[Sander69]

I believe that I have done all that I can do for these little chairs. I sanded the last one too thin and it cracked again but a quick dousing of CA saved it. The CA clean up was not fun but the chair is in one piece. In this photo, the chair on the right is the one that had the most damage and is being held together with putty and CA. The chair on the left only had a single break but it was a nasty one.

 

[Sander69]

The next picture is the same thing but with a little different angle where you can see how bad the break on the left was. I did my best to hide it and it looks better than it does in the picture so I'm hoping in the dark interior of my M10 it is not too distracting.

 

[Sander69]

The front of the left chair (which is the one on the right in the pictures above) shows the nasty break. There once was putty in that nasty gap in the fold of the chair but that went away in the sanding problem mentioned two pictures up. The right chair looks ok but one of my seat belts has been obliterated by sanding. At this point I'm happy to have to "things" that sort of look like chairs and I can now paint them and move on.

 

[Sander69]

And I just broke the left one above removing it from the sticky Stix. Fixed by a piece of styrene melted into that ugly gap - at least I hope.

 

[Jakko]

Glue them in the hull quickly so they’re out of harm’s way

 

[Steve Jones]

Its been a tough build so hopefully things will get easier for you soon.

 

[Sander69]

Its been a tough build so hopefully things will get easier for you soon.

It's already starting to look better. I took Jakko's advice and got the chairs "out-of-the-way" and everything is progressing nicely. I'll post more pictures soon.