I have been working on this on and off for several months now, I posted some pictures before 'in-progress' now the beast is more or less finished. Before anyone mentions it, yes there is some silvering on the Decals...Yuk!

Not a bad kit, but really needs some work to get it to a high level - the shell racks are the most obvious idiocy on the part of Academy - why they couldn't have replaced the 90mm ones with the correct 17 pounder ones is beyond me.... Nice kit though - well worth the effort. As ever, any constructive suggestions/comments/insults post them here...Jim

Wawee!!! Very nice! I like the way you do the fading on of the OD. what did you use to achieve that effect?

except the decals everything else is very nice, i like the look of this beast!

are you gonna place this on diorama?

Jim your Achilles is looking excellent! The weathering is right on the mark to. About them shells on the interior rack, they fooled us both! They are realy 76mm shells. I am building the M36 Jackson by Academy right now , either an oversite or a short cut. To bad, the rest of the kit is a gem! Well done on yours there Jim!

Cheers,

Garry

I was looking at my M10 17pdr only this morning, thinking it was time to get on and finish it. Nice work.

Another annoying shortcut Academy took was to ignore the changes in tool stowage on British M10s. I spent quite a while removing the outlines on the rear plate so I could get the tools stowed properly. Then when I tried to install the track tension spanner in the correct place on the hull roof, I discovered the Academy upper hull seems to have dimensional issues

A note on the stowage - as the M10 is NOT the easiest vehicle in the world to stow things on, I used a few boxes and stuff frrom Italeri's accessory set, soaked some tissue in white glue and (while it was still wet) draped it over the stowage. I then added the ropes. Today when it was nice and hard, I painted it....simple, but quite effective....Jim

The stowed rounds in the turret rear look like 17pdr rounds, and are stowed correctly too, the 3" rounds in Academy's M10 Late are a different shape and stowed differently. Pity about the ejection pin marks though, fun to fill.

17pdr rounds are big!

good job, i really like the fading as previously said. but man that is a huge machine gun in the back!!! good job and keep em coming.
ian

What's the story on the Achilles? Tank Destroyer? It looks like it has a Sherman transmission case. That's a mean looking bastard! Great looking build too.

Looks good Jim.

Nice one Jim. You've made a good job of one of my favourite AFVs, even from the Academy kit! .

Quick & dirty:

The vehicle was more commonly referred to as the M10/17 pounder. There seems to be some question as to how widespread the name 'Achilles' was during the war.
Basically, it was an M10 (late pattern) that the Brits modified by swapping the 17 pounder in for the 3" naval gun standard to the M10. The 17 pounder was considerably superior ballistically (anti-armor performance) to the US 3" or even 76mm guns. So like the other M10s, the vehicle was a tank destroyer on a modified Sherman chassis. Biggest drawbacks were of course the lack of armor and the open top. Plus, because of its manual traverse and rather poor balance, the turret was on the slow side. This was even more problematic when the vehicle was astride a slope. Traversing the turret up the slope was quite a bear, apparently. One final bit: The collar near the muzzle brake was installed to offset the counterweights at the rear of the turret which were themselves necessary to balance out the immense weight of the original 3" gun. As I said, balance was an issue with the M10 turret, in all incarnations.

And Jim, nice build. At first glance, I thought I detected a faint black camo overspray. Upon closer inspection, I'm not sure if that is the case, or if you have just varied the coloration of the hull. Either way, I like it. One of these days I'm gonna have to build the kit I have in the closet.

To anyone who is thinking of building this kit, a few words of warning...

1) The radio suppllied is an American type and should (nitpickingly ) be replaced...

2) The fit of some of the parts is not all it should be - the turret is truly frustrating (bearing in mind it has to be painted before it is assembled... The easiest way is the assembly of everything pertaining to the gun (and mantlet) and then try to fit the turret sides it... (people with 5 hands should find this part relatively easy )

3) The instructions are vague, vague and even vaguer - some good reference material is recommended...

Still in fairness, how many British TDs are available?...Jim

Looks great Jim, i saw this kit reviewed in a few mags recently, think it was model art and fine scale, and i straight away wrote it down on my "to buy when im ritcher than oprah" list :-)
strapped on cash as always!
cheers

great looking Achilles.
i like the sand bags it.
gives it a nice touch

A tip for getting rid of that dreaded silvering (Before applying the decal. sorry )

Use clear gloss around the areas where you are applying the decal, when the gloss is about 95% dry apply the decal and make sure all the air is out (use some decal softener )

Once all is dry clear matt the area and weather as normal