Thanks it was a quick fun build, and so was painting the stowage!

Don't destroy what you have done just to swap them out. It is such a little thing, and only someone that has studied the Achilles would know. I built the Academy 1/35th one years back. A lot of scratch building to fix its issues which is why I picked up on the FE on yours.

The quality of your work is very good and you are trying different things which is fantastic to see.

Thanks! It Probably wont be much of a problem, I could most likely cut them of and reglue them with out any paint touch ups.

Jumping in with Tamiya's Achilles. Photos of yesterdays work, this is gonna be fast....

Looking good i just finished the Tamiya 1/48 M10 17pdr. Cant waiit to see what you do with it!

Thanks Ezra

Today's progress

Cool! Itll be a nice change from all the OD M-10s

Nice. Hard to believe it's 1/48

More progress

Great job! Love the turret inside and camo!

Today's marathon. Next series of photos will be when complete

Looking really good Mike.

Finished...

Nicely done. Like the camo. Where is the stowage from?

Spares box, so...everywhere

That looks really good mike!

Wow, almost 6 months to the day since I enlisted. Finally getting some work done on Meng's JP.







Seems most everyone else is wrapping things up and I'm just getting started! Time to hustle!

Cheers,
Johanan

Cool! cant wait to see it finished!

Update on my Academy Achilles:
The turret interior is a mess. It's got lots of huge knockout pin marks and all the stowage boxes are on the wrong side and there are not enough of them.

The straps for the counter weights are incorrect and needed to be replaced. I also made the interior lift ring and replaced the MG mount.

The gun shield provided with the kit is for an American M10 and not the correct one for the 17PDR. I scratch built one from brass wire and plastic card. Not totally accurate but a lot closer than what Academy give you.

The barrel is totally off. Too small and it doesn't even look like a 17 prd barrel. I took one from an old Dragon Firefly kit and cut it down a little. Still a little undersized, but I think it will work.

The hatches for the driver and radio operator are good, but the hinges are too small and at the wrong angle. I corrected these and thought "what the heck" and added pins to them so that they work. I added British fire extinguishers to the rear, repositioned the fuel and water covers and sanded off all the raised locating marks on the rear for the tool placement. I also added the first aide box on the left rear side.

On the boogies, I thinned out the track skids, added bolt heads (taken from the alternate ones provided) and drilled the mounting holes for the return roller assembly on the blank side.


The interior looks pretty good, but the ammunition racks are again for the M10 (stored in fiber tubes) and not for the Achilles. I am working on making those now. The floor sections are a little off, but once the top is on, you won't really be able to see it so I'm not going to bother with it.

As soon as I can get the ammunition racks finished, I will start throwing some paint on it.

Jesse

Mike,
That looks great. hope my 1/35 turns out half as good!

Jesse

Looks good Jesse! I love that your fixing all the inaccuracies, cant wait to see it finished!

" but the ammunition racks are again for the M10 (stored in fiber tubes) and not for the Achilles. I am working on making those now. The floor sections are a little off, but once the top is on, you won't really be able to see it so I'm not going to bother with it."

That's where I was when the Tamiya came out and I said "screw this"

Been there done that Jesse. I feel the pain. I built mine way back when brass ammunition was not available and I had to make all mine from turning styrene rod in a drill!

If I recall correctly, there are a few missing items for the turret and inside it like the canvas support struts, binoculars case, signal flag brackets and flags, etc.

Good luck on the rest of the build

Hi Pete,
I just made resin copies of the 5 extra shells Academy provides. I've got most of the items for the turret interior from the scrap box. Still trying to figure the ammo racks out though. Now a question for everyone: I know the Americans painted the interior of their M10's in olive drab (except for the drivers area) but it appears that the British painted the vertical surfaces white and the tops of the bins and firewall in green. Is this correct? I'm having a hard time finding good reference photos.
Jesse

Do these help? From Armor Phot Gallery book on the Achilles.




Beware of contemporary pictures, as the vehicles have often been repainted or modifications made, but these racks are original.

These pics come from an ex-Danish army vehicle and I read somewhere that the Danes painted their vertical surfaces white post war. This book references to the fact that all OD/SCC15 would be normal.