Achilles Tank Destroyer

Manufacturer: HäT Industries(Armourfast) (Kit #99008)

It was a simple modification toconvert the HäT M10 kit into the British 17pdr-armed Achilles.This kit is basically the same as the earlier M10, but with a newcannon, new turret with revised rear wall and late versioncounter-weights, and a couple of jerry cans. The wheels are verydetailed, although not molded all the way to the back. There is alip at the front face of the wheels that will be visible on thecompleted model. The tracks are fairly well detailed on the outersurfaces, and have the outer row of track guide teeth molded ontothe inner surface, which is a definite improvement over theearlier Sherman kit.

The detail on the upper hull isreally quite well done with recessed panel lines around theengine access hatches, bolt detail, engine grates, and fuelfiller caps all very well done. The crew hatches are moldedclosed. The armor bosses on the front hull look pretty good, buton the hull sides, they are more like locator marks for more3-dimensional bosses to be added. This is probably as best ascould be done, considering the sloped surface of the hull. Notethat most Achilles were based on late version M10s and lacked thearmor bosses on the turret and hull sides (but not the hullfront), so most likely you will want to remove these bumps. Theengine access door on the rear of the lower hull is molded ingreater relief than on the M4 kit, although no exhaust parts areincluded.

The inclusion of the new turretand counter-weights will allow for kitbashing with the earlierM10 kit to make a late model M10.

The turret looks really nice,and captures well the unique faceted shape for this vehicle. Asyou can see in the scan, the bottom of the turret, as well as thehull turret ring, are molded closed, which is not accurate forthis vehicle, but it does hide the lack of interior this way. Forthose industrious modelers who want to add a full interior,you'll have to open up the bottom of the turret, and the top ofthe hull. No gun breach is included, but the gun barrel is onceagain molded perfectly round and straight. There are twomachineguns included: a .50cal and .30cal.

According to my references, thedimensions of the kit are perfect. The instructions are printedon the back of the box, and no decals are included. Each box soldin stores includes two complete kits.

All in all, I am quite impressedwith this new kit. It improves upon the molding quality of theearlier Sherman kit, and although it is designed specificallywith wargamers in mind, with a little extra work, it will buildinto a really nice example of this oft-overlooked armoredvehicle.

Thank you very much to HäT for providing the review sample.

References:

• British and American Tanks of World War Two . Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis. Cassell & Co., Great Britain. 1969.
• M10/M36 . Wojciech Gawrych. Wydawnictwo Militaria #115, Warsaw 2000.
• Sherman - A History of the American Medium Tank . 2nd ed. Richard P. Hunnicutt. Presidio Press, California, USA. 1978.
• U.S. Tank Destroyers in Action . Jim Mesko. Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, TX. 1998.