Achilles IIC

Manufacturer: ExtraTECH (EXM72028)

This vehicle has been on the top of the most wanted list for many years, and we now have a plastic version of it available from a company that is best known for their high-grade resin kits. Produced in cooperation with Eduard, Extratech brings us the first of their new series of M10 Tank Destroyers, the British Achilles IIC.

For those of you familiar with the high quality of Eduard's plastic aircraft kits, you will know what to expect with this tank model. The plastic is very high quality, with excellent detail, no flash, and very few sink marks. It is a fairly complex kit, with the turret being composed of multiple parts, including separate parts for each turret facet. The hull is also composed of many parts. This design allows for the molding of detail on all surfaces, including the sides.

This is a very nice kit. The only qualifier I am putting on it, is that I don't feel it is quite as good as Revell or Hasegawa kits, because I think that Eduard's plastic molding technology is closer to limited-run. Some specifics: there are a lot of very small parts, such as the lift rings, and hatch periscopes, which is fairly impressive to be molded in plastic. But it seems that the detail could be just a *little bit* sharper; the plastic is kind of shiny, and some of the corners and edges seem to be just a tad bit soft.

The wheel assemblies are very complex, though they should be easy to put together. Each wheel is separate; so is each "rocker arm" or whatever they are called, the VVS spring assembly above the wheels, and the front and back face of the bogie trucks (which are highly detailed). The top part of the bogie truck, which has the springs on it, also has the top track return skid (that curved loop of sheet metal) molded onto it, but it's molded SOLID. There is a recess under the lip of the skid, and if painted black, may look pretty good for a quick glance, but it needs to be replaced (the old Eduard brass set designed for the Revell M4A1 Sherman had replacement skids, which look really good when assembled, but I think that set is OOP). This is really the only bad thing about the kit.

The hull hatches are open, there is some pretty good, though basic interior detail for the driving and fighting compartments (but no engine compartment), and the turret interior also has some basic detail. Not enough to get by for super-detailers, but enough for now. Pioneer tools are separate, but there are no mounting brackets. None molded onto them (which is good) but also none provided in brass (which is not good). The AA machinegun is quite detailed for a plastic piece, but the barrel is molded bent. Being plastic, this should be fairly easy to correct.

The two hulls are almost identical, but one has faint circles molded onto the hull sides and front, indicating where the armor bosses should be glued for the early/mid versions of the M10. For this kit, we use the one that is clean (although some Achilles had the earlier hull - I'm not sure about the specific vehicles included with the markings). A mistake they made is that they tell us that the armor bosses on the front hull are optional along with the hull sides, but as far as I know, all versions kept the bosses on the hull front.

The turret is multi-part, with each wall being a separate piece. The gun breech is basic. There are no stowage items or figures. The brass fret is very basic, giving only the headlight guards, the caps to the armor bosses, machinegun details, the floor of the driver's compartment, and some controls for him. Milan Vins tells us that soon there will be a "profi-pack" version released, which will include a more extensive fret of etched brass, as well as cast resin detail parts for the interior (and likely other details too).

One flaw that I've found:  the gun barrel is too wide at the base. I thought it was my imagination, but measurements bear me out. You know how the 17 pdr looks very long and thin? Not this one. It is similar to the cannon problem on the PST T-55: too much taper. The base of the barrel is a little too fat, and I also think that the muzzle brake might be too small, so it makes the barrel look slightly OFF. I think the muzzle brake will be OK when painted, but I will definitely sand the base of the barrel down to a more accurate diameter.

The tracks are gorgeous; steel chevron style, and extremely well molded. These could very well be the best tracks I've seen in plastic.

The decals are the typical high quality of Extratech, with six different options (three British, one Canadian, one Polish and one Egyptian vehicle from the 1948 Middle East war).

On a final note:  the obligatory scale measurements show it to be PRECISELY 1/72nd scale. (And the box is HUGE.)

This is a fantastic model. When Mirage releases their planned M10 series (2004?), there will likely be some competition between the two, but until then, this is all we have, and it's great.

I would very much like to thank Rafal Niedzielski for making this kit donation.

References:

• British and American Tanks of World War Two. Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis. Cassell & Co., Great Britain. 1969.
• M10/M36. Wojciech Gawrych. Wydawnictwo Militaria #115, Warsaw 2000.
• Sherman - A History of the American Medium Tank. 2nd ed. Richard P. Hunnicutt. Presidio Press, California, USA. 1978.
• U.S. Tank Destroyers in Action. Jim Mesko. Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, TX. 1998.