Tamiya

1/48 US Medium Tank M26 Pershing

Kit Number: 32537

Reviewed by  Dennis Tennant, IPMS# 41582

MSRP: $29.95 USD Tamiya website: www.tamiyausa.com . Looking back on all the fun I had building Tamiya's 1/48 Tiger I Afrika Korps, I jumped at the chance to build and review their 1/48 M26 Pershing tank. This kit follows earlier releases of Sherman, Firefly and M-10 Allied AFVs and confirms Tamiya's growing support of quarter scale armor. This kit contains 170 injection-molded parts with a die-cast metal lower hull, self-tapping screws (to attach the hull to the top), poly caps (for the drive sprockets) and a decal sheet with markings for three M26 versions - two late WWII (U.S. Army) and one Korean War (U.S. Marines). The instructions break assembly down into 14 steps which, with a couple minor exceptions, I followed to the letter. The olive drab sprues contain sharply molded, flash-free parts needing little, if any, clean up. There are a few visible mold marks on some parts but they are easily cleaned up with a swipe or two of a hobby knife. Spare tools are also included on the same sprue containing the 50 cal. machine gun but aren't used on this kit. I added them to my spares box since I couldn't find any photos showing tools attached to Pershings in combat. The tracks are of the link and length variety and have small ejector pin marks that are too deep for simple sanding to cure. I filled the divots with Mr. Surfacer 500 and, after drying, sanded them flush with minimal effort. Despite the extra work involved, I'll take this type of track over rubber band tracks any day! Building the rest of the kit is pretty straightforward and, thanks to clearly-written instructions, is quickly accomplished. Assembly starts with attaching the plastic parts to the metal hull, adding the road wheels and lower hull details. As with all of Tamiya's 1/48 armor to date, the metal hull makes it almost impossible to model the suspension in any way other than flat against the ground. With the Pershing, the first step calls for attaching the two side pieces to the hull with superglue. Since all the arms of the suspension are contained on these pieces, lining up the road wheels is easy. I used a metal straight edge to ensure the outer edge of the road wheels was parallel to the side of the tank. Once the rear hull and gear cases are attached, you can put the cyano glue away - you'll need only plastic glue from this point on. Instead of gluing the track to the wheels and making painting more difficult later, I chose to glue the tracks together and drape them over the road wheels and around the sprockets (being careful to glue only the tracks). After waiting till the glue had time to set, I removed the tracks and set them aside for painting and weathering later. The deck of the tank is molded in one piece with holes for the screws securing the top to the metal hull hidden under the gunner's hatch and a rear engine deck grille. The fit between the top deck and the die-cast bottom is great with very, very little filler needed to close things up. The turret consists of top and bottom pieces that, when fiddled with, join up for an almost perfect fit. The join lines follow the side contour, needing just a little sanding across the joint to finish things nicely. The turret can be assembled with hatches open or closed but since the turret has minimal interior details, I opted to build my tank with them closed. Extra tracks and storage racks were added along a stubby radio aerial base (I plan to add an antenna of proper length at a later time.) The texture on the turret matches that of the tank in my reference photos, so no additional roughening up with Mr. Surfacer 500 was necessary. The main gun barrel is molded in one piece with half of the muzzle brake molded with the gun and half as a separate piece. The barrel was ready to prime after a light sanding. Since the 50 cal. machine gun is a prominent feature on the turret, I took the time to drill out the barrel and carve separate handles from the solid block of plastic at the rear of the gun, creating a more accurate profile. I also covered an opening on the bottom of the ammo box with some spare sheet styrene. With the turret, lower hull and tracks assembled and primed, I painted the turret and hull with a base coat of Vallejo dark olive drab. I sprayed the tracks with a coat of Model Master Acryl gun metal and added a wash of MM Acryl dark earth. I then dry brushed the tracks with steel and used a silver art pencil to add a metallic sheen to the machine guns. A soft graphite pencil added some wear to the rear grille access handles and the tow cable. Since I had intentionally left the side skirts off till after adding the finished tracks to the road wheels, I carefully added the side skirts and touched up the paint, where needed, as the last steps in my assembly process. Adding a coat or three of Future gave the decals a nice, shiny surface to cling to. I modeled this as a tank from B Co., 1st Tank Battalion, U.S. Marines (1950, Inchon. Korea). The decals were a bit thick but settled down with the help of Micro-Sol. After drying overnight, I covered the decals with more Future and then a coat of Model Master Acryl flat. Be sure to allow at least 24 hours drying time before spraying the flat coat for pain-free results. After the flat coat was dry, I added two coats of heavily-thinned MM Acryl dark earth (thinned to a ratio of 1:15 or so) as "filters" to tone down the base coat and decals. I then carefully added pin washes of Windsor Newton black and burnt umber oils to add some contrast to the rear deck and road wheels. A final coat of clear flat brought this project to a close. Assembly took the better part of a day with painting and weathering a day and a bit longer. This kit was a nice diversion from a couple of complex 1/35 scale projects I had been struggling with and gave me a chance to experiment with some weathering techniques I had been anxious to try. I recommend this as a great kit for a newbie armor modeler or as a weekend project for an experienced modeler looking for a quick, effortless build. Thanks to Tamiya-USA for providing IPMS with a review copy of this kit.

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