PMMS
Trakz
M26 Pershing
Mantlets and Muzzle brake set

#TX 0022
Review by Terry Ashley

Newly released from Trakz is this set of Mantlets and Muzzle break cover for the Tamiya M26 Pershing.

Consisting of just three cleanly cast cream resin pieces you get two full mantlets designed to simply replace the Tamiya parts. One has the canvas cover between the mantlet and turret as commonly see in WWII as well in Korea while the other is the fully covered mantlet seen on many M26s in Korea. Lastly there is the covered muzzle break for the pointy end.

All three parts feature nice folds and sewn seams plus the retaining bracing on the turret face. Both mantlets fit well to the Tamiya turret but if you were thinking of using these on the Dragon M26 the news is all bad as they don’t fit at all and some work would be needed to get them to fit.

To attach the muzzle break cover all that needs be done is cut off the kit muzzle break and attach the new resin piece. When fitting this sort of extra I prefer to drill a hole in each part and insert a pin from plastic rod, this allows for a secure and precise fit.

To fit the kit barrel into the new WWII style mantlet you just fit the barrel the same way as to the kit mantlet, nothing could be easier.

With the fully covered mantlet there is a problem however in that the canvas covering extends a further 11mm down the barrel from the mantlet collar and you must cut off this extra length from the kit barrel to maintain the correct barrel length. The canvas covering should fit snugly around the barrel, but if you cut the barrel as above there is a pronounced ‘step’ of about 1mm all around between the barrel and canvas covering due to the tapering of the barrel. If you cut the barrel of at the same point it exits the kit mantlet collar the extra barrel width here sees it match nicely with the resin cover but you end up with a barrel some 11mm too long.

It seems Trakz didn’t allow for the tapering of the barrel and the extra length you have to cut off to maintain the correct barrel length.
The solution is to carefully reduce the width of the resin canvas cover neck to maintain the folds until it is a nice fit to the width of the reduced barrel length.
I also added a pin between the barrel and cover as with the muzzle break for a secure fit, this also allows you to fit the parts together without gluing to test for any problems.

Resin pieces
Trakz

Notwithstanding the above this is a nice update set for the Pershing and solves the problem of adding the mantlet covers yourself. The minor surgery needed on the full cover should be easy to achieve and allows a choice of final appearances of your Pershing.

Alterations done to canvas collar extension as per text
Trakz Trakz
Pins added to secure resin parts
TrakzTrakz
Assembled barrels and mantlets
Trakz
Trakz


Page created 15 January 2003

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