M-10 Tank Destroyer
Update Set
No. 1584

For AFV Club Kit 35024
Review by Terry Ashley

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Verlinden has taken advantage of the separate engine bay doors on the AFV Club kit and provided a basic engine compartment in a single large casting. This is a fairly shallow casting, which sits on top of the lower hull kit parts. The details on the casting are quite good with well-defined upper halves of the cooling fans and an additional seven parts for the engine. The engine casting is large enough that you may decide to remove the entire engine deck from the kit (not just the doors) to show the whole bay?

The interior is extensively detailed with new front transmission and gearbox housings with the extra small fittings missing from the kit including the steering arms. A new floor plate for the driver's side and escape hatch for the co-driver's side (the correct side for a change). Other parts include a new instrument panel, radio, tie-downs for the ammo storage racks and some etched panels for the sidewalls and a new resin main gun sight. Additional personal equipment is also provided in the form of water bottles and small pouches.
You also get 10 ammo rounds of different types which appear to have the correct bottleneck on the cases?

The exterior has the front fenders and side grouser racks replaced with etched parts and new resin pioneer tools. Only some of the brackets for the tools are provided, while the rest have to be fashioned from scrap etched fret frame. (The instructions actually say to do this). Included are a couple of blocks containing numerous sizes of boltheads for use where ever around the vehicle, a nice touch.

Three fuel filler caps are in resin and designed to be shown open with the interior detail fitted from below after drilling out holes in the rear deck.

There is also included the excellent resin M2 50.cal MG first introduced with the M8 Greyhound detail set. As stated before this is a superb casting and produces a stunning 50.cal. It's a pity Verlinden hasn't released this as a separate kit as yet, it would sell in truckloads.

The instructions are on double sided US letter paper with construction diagrams and additional text instructions for added the parts. I found some of the text instructions confusing; illustrations for all parts would be better, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. One thing missing is the head light guards, they are shown on the box top illustration, but not mentioned in the instructions and I couldn't find them on the etched fret?

Overall this is good comprehensive detail set for the M10. The resin parts are excellent and will add much to the finished kit. Quite frankly thought the etched parts simple don't cut it. The Eduard set (#35 300) for the M10 is far superior both in etching quality and has more useful parts, but the resin driver controls and 50.cal in the Verlinden set are better than the Eduard metal bits.

The best option, although adding to the money outlay, would be to use the best from both sets if you really want to go to town on your M10. But if you are on a budget and have to make a choice, the Verlinden set would be the go as it has the advantage of the excellent resin bits.

The Resin Bits



Instruction Sheets