Tamiya’s M10 is the first all-new 1/35 scale kit of the U.S. tank destroyer in 15 years. The crisp parts feature great touches, such as a one-piece slide-molded barrel and three figures to crew the open-topped vehicle. Posable hatches have detail molded on the inner faces, and the gun rotates and elevates (unless you glue the crew in place).
The straightforward build starts with the lower hull, which includes more interior detail then I expected, even on an open-topped vehicle. Most omitted details are in spots that won’t be visible.
For ease of painting, I skipped ahead and attached the sponson plates (parts A5) to the lower rather than upper hull as shown in Step 14. The upper hull aided alignment as the glue set.
The vertical volute spring suspension (VVSS) goes together easily, but pay attention and be careful when removing parts from the sprue. I left the bogies and tracks off for painting.
I painted and assembled all of the turret’s interior components before joining the turret halves. A few ejector-pin marks mar the interior and will be visible on the finished model. They were difficult to get at, so I glued a bit of sandpaper to a pencil’s eraser. The flexible eraser keeps the pressure even.
I airbrushed the M10 with Tamiya acrylics, starting with a base coat of olive drab followed by post-shading panels with a mix of dark yellow and olive drab.
Hand-painted Vallejo acrylics finished details and the excellent figures. I was impressed with the figures’ poses and sculpting, and the crew fit the fighting compartment perfectly.
I had little trouble with the decals except for the bow’s large star, which wanted to silver even after a couple of coats of Microscale Micro Sol. Pin pricks and more solvent settled it properly.
I spent 30 enjoyable hours building and painting Tamiya’s M10. It’s a great kit with nice features, and I recommend it.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the November 2016 issue.