Reference No: 82425
Review By: Bill Curtis
Initial Assessment
The kit comes in a sturdy box which is full. The contents comprises ten sprues, a hull top and bottom, a turret top, a small photo etch fret, decal sheet, rubber band type tracks, instruction booklet and a single sheet in colour of the painting guide which is referenced to five manufacture of paint.
Accuracy
I have no plans of this vehicle, but when comparing with photographs it looks highly accurate.
Quality
The kit has good detail and some finely moulded parts which have been wrapped to protect them. Where armour plate has been cast, the reproduction of this is well done as is the cast on numbers on the hull top in front of the turret. There are some mould parting lines on some of the parts such as the wheels but these will be no trouble to clean up.
Although the tracks are of the band type, the detail is quite good and should paint up very nicely, being as they only have to be joined in one place they will be quick and easy to fit to the model.
One very nice feature is the Ford V8 engine and you may consider showing this off, as it’s a pity to hide it away. The upper-hull detail is very good, especially the light-guards which are very finely moulded and when painted and weathered should stand out well.
The kit has no internal detail, for either the driving compartment or the turret, not even a breech as the gun stops at the mantlet.
Instructions
The instructions come in a sixteen page booklet which is formed by two pieces of paper folded to give eight pages each. They have to be taken apart to follow the fifteen sequences of the build. The exploded views are clear and well laid out being easy to follow with a logical build sequence.
Decals
The decal sheet consists of stars, a number 3 (6 of) and a tactical number for the glacis plate printed in white and covered with a protective paper. This is enclosed in a plastic envelope for safe keeping, but all the images are in good register and well printed.
Conclusions
This is a very good kit of an important vehicle, which was the first MBT of the US Army. Even if it was not a great success in the field, it gave the designers information for the next generation of tank. As I touched on, the mouldings are good and with some care and attention to detail a really great model can be made.
The kit is not perfect as there are no periscopes, the decal sheet is very limited and no crew figures are supplied but having said that this will build into a great kit (have I mentioned that?!) and with a few additions could be turned into a competition winner.
Highly Recommended.
Bill C.
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