Tamiya M10 IIC Achilles

[Mr Bowcat]

Hi Guys,

I decided to break one of my Chrimbo pressies out of the stash over the weekend, I've been looking forward to this one.

The US provided M10's to the British army during WW2 on the lend lease program. The British, finding the 3" gun rather puny up-gunned them with the fearsome 17 pounder and up-armoured them with additional 17mm plates.



The build started with the lower hull and bogeys. These went together quickly enough, despite each bogey being made up of 10 parts. Still, they look good and are workable.




Last night I started on the inside of the upper hull and I'm now at the point where I need to paint and weather the interior. The instructions call out for white on the inside, though research leads me to believe it should be the exterior colour. However I am going with the white, mainly so that some of it should be visible when the turret is on. Call it artistic licence.

 

[Jack L]

One of my favorite models as a teenager. I really look forward to your take on it.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Bob
Looks a nice kit. A very recent kit from Tamiya so the fit should be good. Looks to have many, many parts.

each bogey being made up of 10 parts

60 parts in the bogies alone -
Nice neat start.
Jim

 

[Bortig the Viking]

Hi Guys,

I decided to break one of my Chrimbo pressies out of the stash over the weekend, I've been looking forward to this one.

The US provided M10's to the British army during WW2 on the lend lease program. The British, finding the 3" gun rather puny up-gunned them with the fearsome 17 pounder and up-armoured them with additional 17mm plates.

View attachment 373479View attachment 373480View attachment 373481View attachment 373482View attachment 373483View attachment 373484View attachment 373485View attachment 373486View attachment 373487

The build started with the lower hull and bogeys. These went together quickly enough, despite each bogey being made up of 10 parts. Still, they look good and are workable.


View attachment 373488View attachment 373489View attachment 373490View attachment 373491

Last night I started on the inside of the upper hull and I'm now at the point where I need to paint and weather the interior. The instructions call out for white on the inside, though research leads me to believe it should be the exterior colour. However I am going with the white, mainly so that some of it should be visible when the turret is on. Call it artistic licence.

Hi, hope you can explain, what's the difference between a 3 inch and a 17 pounder, I thought the 17 pounder was 3 inches.

 

[adt70hk]

Hi, hope you can explain, what's the difference between a 3 inch and a 17 pounder, I thought the 17 pounder was 3 inches.

Hi Mark

You are correct but the 3" gun in the M10 was based on the US 3" anti aircraft gun. The 17pdr whist 3" in diameter was a whole different British beast and much more powerful than the US gun.

HTH

Andrew

 

[Bortig the Viking]

Ahhhh, that's solves that, I've learnt something today, and my wife says I haven't a brain, how wrong she is.

 

[Road of Bones]

Love the Achilles - count me in Bob!
I did a dual-build on the old forum with Niho Richizumi (Nick Richardson), where I built the AFV Club one, and he built the Academy one side-by-side on the same thread. I'll dig up a pic of my effort later, if you're ok with that?

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Thanks guys.

Jim, I actually miscounted as the wheels were in 2 parts, make than 12 parts per bogey.

Mark, as Andrew said, although same calibre, it was a much more powerful round. For example compare the bullets from an AK47 and a Accuracy International sniper rifle. Both 7.62 calibre, but the longer 7.62 x 51 of the AI travels much further and faster.

Alistair, happy for you to post pics.

 

[scottie3158]

Bob,
Great work so far I will follow along.

 

[Road of Bones]

Yer ‘tis (apologies to those who saw this first time around):

 

[Jim R]

Jim, I actually miscounted as the wheels were in 2 parts, make than 12 parts per bogey.

Don't count them again Bob or you could end up with bogies made of 14 parts!!!
Like Mark I've learned something - Thanks Andrew
Jim

 

[Jakko]

The US provided M10's to the British army during WW2 on the lend lease program. The British, finding the 3" gun rather puny up-gunned them with the fearsome 17 pounder and up-armoured them with additional 17mm plates.

And because it’s one of my pet peeves, I’ll have to point out here that the name “Achilles” is usually misused these days Technically, in British service the name Achilles was applied to the entire M10-series: the original version of the M10 (with wedge-shaped counterweights) was the Achilles I, the M10 with “duckbill”-type counterweights was the Achilles II; with a C after the Roman numeral, it indicates a vehicle converted to carry a 17-pounder gun.

However, in practice the British Army called the vehicle the “M10” rather than “Achilles”, with the “C” variants being known as the “17-pounder M10” (or similar). The name “Achilles” has been misapplied as referring to the 17-pounder versions only, probably initially by influential authors of AFV-related books in the 1960s and 70s (my money is on Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis) and that mistake has crept into just about everything published since.

The build started with the lower hull and bogeys. These went together quickly enough, despite each bogey being made up of 10 parts. Still, they look good and are workable.

They look good, but purists may notice the articulation is simplified in the same way as the old Italeri Sherman kits (and their Dragon derivatives). But unless you want extreme movement, this won’t be obvious, and certainly not if you place the model on level ground.

Last night I started on the inside of the upper hull and I'm now at the point where I need to paint and weather the interior. The instructions call out for white on the inside, though research leads me to believe it should be the exterior colour. However I am going with the white, mainly so that some of it should be visible when the turret is on. Call it artistic licence.

Going by the American Tech Manual for the M10 that I have on my shelf, the hull interior is mostly white, except the floor, which should be olive drab. The inside of the turret should be the same colour as its exterior.

 

[AlanG]

Yer ‘tis (apologies to those who saw this first time around):

Pics removed

And the posting of the pictures was to show which issue/work around? Surely if it was just of a finished build then a LINK to the finished peice would have sufficed

 

[BattleshipBob]

I am in Bob, thinking of getting this for the stash myself. So will follow with much interest!

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Thanks guys.

Jim, I actually miscounted as the wheels were in 2 parts, make than 12 parts per bogey.

The ones I put together today only had 11, I feel short changed

 

[Jakko]

The ones I put together today only had 11, I feel short changed

Buy an Asuka Sherman kit — 15 parts, plus probably two or three more depending on which ride height you want, per bogie

 

[Road of Bones]

And the posting of the pictures was to show which issue/work around? Surely if it was just of a finished build then a LINK to the finished peice would have sufficed

Point taken Alan.

 

[Steve Jones]

A rare beast Bob - a model of a British piece of armour LOL. It will be a nice break from all the camouflage work. Looks like you are off to a flying start. Good luck

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheer gents.

Paul, Bob & Steve, good to have you along

Alistair, thanks for the pics. The shells in the turret look amazing, are they painted plastic or actual brass?

Alan, in Alistair's defence he did ask about posting the pics and I asked him to do so. From what I have seen of his work Alistair is an accomplished modeller and I was grateful for his pics as I thought I may learn something from them. If I had an issue with it I would have asked him to PM a link to me.

Jakko, strangely enough I had a look at the Tamiya page for this vehicle after posting yesterday and came to the same conclusion. As such the lower hull interior now looks like this.



I'm going to add some edge chipping and dry brush silver over some of the checker plate before glossing in prep for further weathering. I also started painting the shells with True Metal brass, will post pics when completed.

 

[Deleted member 7237]

Hi Bob it'll be interesting to see your take on this one, I have pen and paper ready to steel your ideas, l have this in my stash somewhere.
Very nice clean start to build keep it coming.
Pete .