Manufacturer: AFV Club

Type of armored vehicles: self-propelled

Model of WWII era: 1939-1945

Country of origin: United States

Model scale: 1:35

My next self-propelled model into the treasury of American ones.

This is a scale self-propelled model of Carriage M36 assembled from AFV Club kit. Assembly of this gun motor model took a lot of time and efforts, as the kit didn”€™t provide all the necessary detail of good quality.

Shortly about the self-propelled gun models prototype

90 mm Gun Motor Carriage M36, Slugger, Jackson

Self-propelled artillery unit of tank destroyers class, of average weight. It was developed in 1942-1943 on the chassis of M4 «Sherman» tank. It was serially produced from November 1943 to September 1945, there were produced 2324 units. This self-propelled artillery unit was actively used in the fights in Northwestern Europe from August 1944 until the end of the war. In these fights M36, thanks to a powerful long-barreled 90mm gun, were the only overland means of Americans able to effectively deal with the heavy tanks of the Wehrmacht like “€œTigers”€ and “€œPanthers”€ as M26 Pershing, armed with the same gun, entered the army much later than M36 – almost to the very end of the war. Subsequently, M36 were used in the Korean War, and sold to other countries, some remained on arms until the mid-1990s.

About the self-propelled model

Overview and photos of the molding trees can be viewed here:

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/afvclub/afv35058.htm

But shortly, I didn’€™t like the model.

The hull back was invalid. There was a lot of problems with the jointing, both the housing and the tower. Some strange inflated rollers. Slightly blurred carts. Let’s just say “€“ Tasca spoiled me.)

Materials I used

For the model I bought small additions:

Barrel for the gun: RBModel,

Resin bags: PanzerArt,

Stuff for the body kit: BlackDog, Tamiya, Legend, JSWork,

Lights: AK interactive,

Etching: Aber (originally intended for Sherman, and almost not used on it).

The assembly was standard, almost from the kit. I haven”€™t remodeled the hull back, this would require the acquisition of another Sherman, amputation of the given hull back and combination of old housing and new hull back.

Assembly process of Carriage M36 self-propelled model

The halves of the housing touch each other only on the front and rear edges, leaving hefty gaps, it is good that they aren”€™t visible at any angle. In my variant the top half shifted considerably, I had to straighten it.

I took the rollers from AsukaModels, from there I also took a number of parts required to improve the appearance of the trucks that after being upgraded with etching significantly improved their look.

Antenna outputs, fasteners for machine guns were taken from AsukaModels as well, because in its kits some items are given with a noticeable margin.

The tower was jointing very badly, gaps, especially in the aft, were about 2 millimeters. Yes, and I had to simulate the effect of casting. Molded letters on the tower are volume decals by Archer.

Resin bags, though they were sharpened for this housing, absolutely didn”€™t want to get up on the allotted space (tabs on the housing didn”€™t fall into the slots intended for them in the resin), as a result, somewhere I had to cut the bags, somewhere to enlarge them, vice versa.

But some bags and bedrolls, though they were sharpened for other models, fit as if everything had to be so.

Decals acted in the best traditions of the ICM, they crumbled into small pieces, so where I could I replaced them, and in other cases I was collecting the pieces together.

Painting

Painting was standard – Valejo, Tamiya, AK, Mig, Walder.