U.S. M10 Ammo Trailer
Kit No.353002
1/35th Scale
First Look Review
by Terry Ashley
Following on from their M8 ammo trailer TMD have now released the larger M10 Ammo Trailer which was typically seen being towed behind 105mm Shermans, M7 Priests and M8 HMCs as well as 6x6 GMCs and M3/5 half tracks.
The set consists of 87 resin parts in a light grey resin, a thin lead sheet,
lengths of fine wire and solder, a short length of chain and a comprehensive
instructions sheet.
Also included is a jig and template for bending some of the wire to shape,
a nice inclusion.
The quality of the resin pieces is first class without any blemishes in the
way of air holes or deformities although a few of the larger parts had some
warpage but this can easily be fixed using warm water.
The only cleanup required is the removal of the casting blocks and as the resin
is of a soft compound makes it easy to work with but also means you can easily
cut off too much when trimming the parts so care is needed here. While the
resin is softer than in other sets the detail is still as crisp and allows
for some very fine parts to be cast without damage.
The large trailer box is cast with the floor and three walls with separate tail gate and features nice details on both sides of the walls; this includes indentations for the tie downs on the walls and floor with nice bolt head and weld seam details and separate fold down rails along the side tops.
The two side walls were slightly bowed inwards at the rear but as mentioned can easily be straightened by dipping in warm water and the rear tail gate also required some minor straightening. Along the sides of the walls are numerous tie down hooks which are provided as very small resin parts or you may wish to drill a small hole and add these from the thin wire?
For the tie downs cleats there are small discs included in the trailer recesses and you can add small lengths of stretched sprue or thin rod to form the cleats, this will give nice definition to the tie downs with the finished effect well worth the extra time it takes.
The casting block on the bottom of the trailer also serves as the locating tab when fitting the lower trailer frame so you don’t have to remove the entire casting block from the trailer just sand it flat so it fits nicely into the lower frame.
The rigid axle is attached to the bottom of the trailer along with its protective
cover and the wheels and brake drums are attached to the axles. The wheels
have nice tread pattern and hub details although the lightening holes around
the rims will need to be hollowed out as they are not well defined as they
come.
On the rear is the separate bumper bar with towing hitch and the side brackets
for the separate tail lights and there is the fine chain provided for the tail
gate chain.
The front goose neck hitch is nicely cast with weld details included on the
undersides so take care when removing from the casting block so this detail
is preserved. The goose neck hitch itself has many additional details with
the two hand break levers with four parts each and an intricate jack stand
which can be assembled in the lowered or raised position.
The jack stand locking lever is fashioned from the wire provided and for this
there is a resin jig which you use to bend the wire to the correct shape, a
separate template is also provided to show the correct shape of the lever.
The front towing hitch can be rotated through 180° for a high or low position depending on the towing vehicle so it could be an idea not to attach this until you have decided on this. There are other details added such as the front lifting handles and large storage case and underside protective plate.
While there are no markings provided in the kit all that is needed are some white stars and the ‘USA’ and registration number on the rear bumper, these should be readily available from your spares box or from the many available aftermarket sheets such as the Eduard Express Mask sets or the excellent Archer Dry Transfer sheets (Sheets AR35181 and AR35185 have specific registration codes for US trailers).
The Instructions:
These have four double sided ‘letter’ sized pages with a brief
description and technical data for the trailer as well as many well detailed
assembly drawings with text notes which clearly show the construction sequences
and would have to be some of the better instructions I’ve seen with a
resin set.
In all a very well detailed little kit with assembly that while intricate
in parts shouldn’t pose any problems with the excellent instruction sheet
making the job easier.
This trailer will be a welcome addition for allied fans, I know I have an M8HMC
just waiting to hitch up.
Highly recommended
| TM 9-333 (US Technical Manual) |
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US WWII Field Camp Excellent detail coverage of many items of US gear from WWII including 8 pages of detailed colour photos of the M10 trailer. |
Page Created 14 October 2003