I've just completed Accurate Armor's 1/35th scale Super Pershing and thought I'd share a couple of observations.

I've always had a soft spot for the M26 Pershing, as it finally gave U.S. tankers a vehicle that was on somewhat of an equal footing with Germany's Tiger 1's and 2's, so I swallowed hard, got out the credit card and purchased Accurate Armor’s Super Pershing to add to the M26 and M46 models I already have.

Based on what I've read, in order to match Germany's Tigers, the U.S. mounted a longer and more powerful 90mm gun on an M26 and called it Super Pershing. Because this gun was so heavy, it was necessary to attach two large coil springs on top of the vehicle's turret to help balance the gun. Also, the 90mm gun used split ammunition, i.e. separate propellant casing and projectile, which slowed down the rate of fire. In addition, in order to increase the existing armor protection of the only Super Pershing to reach Europe before the war ended, U.S troops cut off the frontal armor plate from a captured Panther tank and attached it to the front of the M26, (data source: "Tiger Tanks" by Michael Green---nice photo in here too!). Accurate Armor’s Super Pershing includes this add on Panther armor.

Building Accurate Armor's Super Pershing was quite an experience, and unfortunately not always a pleasant one. This was my first resin/metal/etched brass kit, and to be frank, I struggled. Accurate Armor kits are pretty pricey, and I assumed, (which is always dangerous), that the model would pretty much fall together on its own. Well, I was wrong.

The resin castings for the upper and lower hull casting had pretty good detail, but the fit was poor. The lower hull casting had an awful lot of resin flash and resin blobs that had to be cleaned up and sanded off, plus quite a bit of putty work. In addition, the all-metal suspension required a ton, (and I mean a ton), of filing, sanding, and clean up before the pieces were presentable for assembly. The directions were austere, and often referred to the box art, (the directions also included several photo views). Unfortunately the photos lacked the clarity to really assist in placing parts appropriately. In addition the kit was well short of the required numbers of track links. A quick email to Accurate Armor resulted in a small packet of additional links arriving in the mail about a week later at no charge, (good customer service!). I confess I may have been out of my league in tackling this model, but it's a vehicle I've always wanted, plus I now know what to expect with these types of kits. I love this hobby.

This is my first post to the forum and I've tried to add a couple images of the Super Pershing for your reference (hope I did this properly). I borrowed my daughter's digital camera for the attached shots. As you can see, I'm no master modeler, or photographer for that matter, but I sure love building them.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my modeling experience with you.

:-) :-)

Sounds like a typical resin build experience! It's a kit that I too would love to build one day, so, thanks for the insights.
Did you try to put a pic here in this post? Are they somewhere else? I'd love to see it.

WeWillHold,

Are you going to compare this kit to Tamiya and DML's Pershing in the future? I just got the Tamiya one and yet to build it.

Image links modified :-)

I wonder if you could get just the parts to convert a DML or the new Tamiya kit?

What a beautiful American monster! :-) I just love that...beast! Great job there WeWill!
I was just wondering the same thing Steve. It would not be too difficult to scratch the additions for either the Tamiya or DML kit.

Nice looking beasty!

Wasn't the add on armor on the Super Pershing made from cut up German armor? I recall reading that somewhere, but I'm not sure.

The difficult part for me would be the addition of those massive external recoil/recuperator housings.

And how is the gun different from the regular Pershing 90mm?

Andy

Panther front hull slope. There is a little coverage in the Hunnicutte book "Pershing".

Thanks Steve.

That's what I thought.

Andy

The standard gun for the T26E3 Pershing was the M3(T7) 90mm gun which fired at a velocity of 792-853 meters per second. The Super Pershing's (T26E4) used the T17 90mm gun, which fired at a velocity of 975-1,128 meters per second.

The following is from Osprey's M26/M46 Pershing Tank, (thought you might be interested).

"The sole example of the so called Super Pershing to see combat - an original T26E1 pilot tank which had been re-armed with a new long barreled T15E1 90mm gun that was designed to offer performance comparable to the German 88mm KwK 43 on the King Tiger. The T15E1 gun could penetrate 220mm of armor at 1,000 yards at 30 degrees using the new T30E16 tungsten carbide HVAP round, On arrival at the 3rd Armored Division, the ordnance battalion decided to enhance the Super Pershing with additional armor plate to bring it closer to the armor on the King Tiger. The 5 tons of applique armor were designed and fabricated using layers of 40mm boiler plate on the hull and a plate of 80mm armor taken from a German Panther on the gun mantlet. This tank got to fire its gun in anger on only one occasion on April 4, 1945 when it engaged and destroyed a German armored vehicle, probably a Tiger or Panther, at a range of 1,500 yards, during the fighting on the Weser River."

I recall reading somewhere else (can't remember which source however), that troops were reluctant to see exactly what the Super Pershing had knocked out, because of snipers in the area. Speculation was a Panther had been destroyed.

Yes, WeWillHold, that was wriiten in the book:
"Death Traps:
The Survival of an American Armored Division
in World War II
by Belton Y. Cooper

Here's the excerpt:
"He (Belton Y. Cooper) also provides the only known description of what he calls the "M26A1E2" or Super Pershing, better known formally as the T26E4. This tank, the only guaranteed Tiger II killer to ever be shipped to Europe, did actually fight one engagement, vaporizing an unknown German vehicle at 1500 meters (due to snipers, nobody wanted to go find out what it killed!) "


Terrific book by the way!