review2

Okay, gang, partly because fellow club members believe that I don’t know how to build anything but WW
II German armor, and partly because it gave me the chance to do my first Korean War vignette, I have
constructed Tamiya’s M26. One of the things I do before building a kit is to look at available reviews of
the thing in order to get an idea of what I will be in for. I read a couple of reviews of this new Pershing,
and the reviewers’consensus seemed to be that this is an excellent kit. Having now built the tank,
however, I have to say that I won’t be jumping on that bandwagon.

I can’t say that this new M26 kit is poor. What I will say is that at $22.00 this would be an excellent
model, but for the asking price of $44.00 it could have and should have been better. All the main
ingredients are present in this kit, and well done to boot. The model also features that legendary Tamiya
fit, and parts cleanup is minimal. The Devil here is in the details, and there were many that Tamiya
neglected.

The most prominent feature of this new offering is the articulated suspension, for which Tamiya deserves
qualified kudos. One piece of advice I can give regarding this step of construction is to note that installing
the spring-loaded suspension arms is a push-and-twist operation. If this is not done right, those arms will
be a source of trouble. The fact that the road wheels and drive sprockets are installed with poly caps and
will turn will make painting much easier than on most new armor kits. I give the articulated suspension
qualified approval because of the fact that, since the center sets of suspension arms are not sprung, the
modeler will find that they rise up when it comes time to bolt the tank down (and unless the base the
Pershing is mounted on is very thin, the hardware supplied for the job may not do the trick; I used longer
screws, running from the vehicle’s hull down through the base). Another problem that becomes apparent
when the thing is bolted in place is that those rising center road wheels will actually touch the return
rollers above them unless about .045” worth of styrene shim is glued to each suspension arm’s damper.

As for the tracks, which are the early style suitable for Europe or Korea (despite what some reviewers
might lead one to believe), this is one of those things that is good, but could have been better. The tracks
are well molded, except for the guide teeth. Tamiya could easily have simulated the open teeth found on
this track, but on both the glue-together loop track and the injection-molded spares, the teeth are devoid
of detail. An indentation, which could have been blacked in, would have been nice. These tracks fit rather
loosely, no problem if the full mudguards are used, but if sections are to be missing, (as was very common
in the field) the tracks will have to be glued or pinned down, especially around the drive sprockets.

One of the most glaring omissions is that this kit features foundry-casting numbers in only two locations,
on the top of the turret, and on the radiator cover. How Tamiya decided to mold only these two sets of
numbers I do not know, because the M26 featured many cast parts, every one with a casting number. I
added numbers in the two very most prominent locations on the tank, i.e., the mantlet and the lower hull
front. I added these with numerals, painfully (and I do mean painfully) shaved from leftover sprues—too
big, especially on the mantlet, but better than doing nothing.

At the hull front I had to do some work on the towing shackles to more accurately reproduce the Korean
War machine I wanted to model, since the kit features molded-on shackles. To the headlight guards I
added the tubes for holding the plugs that filled the headlight mounts when the lamps were removed, and
the plugs’ retaining chains. I also added the brace running from the inboard sides of the headlamp guards
to the lamps’ bases, this being another area where Tamiya seems to have simplified things unnecessarily.
Another detail added in this area was wiring for the vehicle’s horn. When it came to the driver’s and
assistant driver’s hatches, I felt compelled to simulate the hooks that held these hatches open and some
other minor detail. Surely Tamiya could have done this. Further research has revealed that this kit’s
double opening for its rounded ventilator housing may be incorrect, but I did that further research too late
to help myself.

At the hull’s rear, I added an extra clip for holding the tow cable. I also added wiring for the intercom
phone. On the right rear fender, three pairs of small tie-down cleats need to be added, and these fittings
also should be added to the fender-mounted stowage boxes unless one opts (as I did) to conceal this
omission with stowage. I managed to cobble together the supports that were intended to keep the rear
fenders from drooping and fouling the tracks from Italeri M47 parts and styrene rod (and thank God these
were normally seen all bent to heck). Finishing up with the detailing of the hull, I added a rack on the port
side for holding extra machine gun ammo. These racks were common on Korean War Pershings, and were a
field modification made from steel rod or strips. I have seen at least one example where boxes of
ammunition were held in place with canvas straps threaded through the above-mentioned tie-down cleats.
The ammo boxes definitely did not stay on the fender courtesy of static electricity!

Now to the turret: I added pates and bolts for holding on the spare track sections on the port side. Those
other large brackets on that side, whose purpose remains a mystery to me, needed to have holes drilled in
them. I did my best to recreate the missing clips for holding the .50 cal. machine gun to their brackets on
the turret rear. I made these from foil strips, but mine look rather battle-damaged (yeah, that’s the
ticket, battle damage). Both of the turret’s hatches featured something rather disappointing—molded-on,
solid strips instead of proper grab irons. I substituted handles made from fine wire, the real things being
incongruously delicate-looking on this massive vehicle. I also added bolt heads to the hinge brackets for
these hatches, and there is no reason those couldn’t have been there already. I gave the mount for the .
50 cal. a locking handle, and since the mount is molded in one piece, some surgery is needed if one desires
to have the weapon pointing to the rear, as it was usually seen when not in use. The machine gun itself is
an old molding, adequate but not great. I did give it a barrel-changing handle from my store of spares.

Since I had good photos for the commander’s hatch, I added a couple of fine details and a periscope.
Tamiya gives the modeler only an empty periscope mount on this hatch, just as it has done on other kits of
U.S. armor for years. The antenna bases are well done. One may actually be too much to scale to be able
to add an antenna, and the other actually includes an opening for the aerial. Stowage for this tank will
include gas and water cans (not provided) and the .30 and .50 cal. ammo boxes supplied with the kit.

There you have it: A kit that is nice and much needed, which should have been much better detailed for
the price it bears. Strange that Tamiya seems to go all out when designing some kits, and then takes
some really silly short cuts when producing others.

Thanks to Steve Wilson for the Verlinden periscope and especially for the reference materials. Without
those books this would have been a much faster, but much less accurate build.

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1945 USA M26 Heavy Tank Pershing

Armament: 1 - 90mm gun
1 - 0.3" coaxial MG
1 - 0.3" hull mounted MG
1 - 0.5" AA MG
Engine: Ford GAF, V-8 gas, 500 hp
Speed: 30 mph
Range: 92 miles
Crew: 5
Weight: 42 tons
Entered service in 1945. Saw service in Korea in the 1950's. Ancestor of the Patton and a long line of
post-war tanks up to the M-60. With a 90 mm gun. it could meet the Tiger and Panther on equal terms.
With the long barreled gun, heavy armor and Ford V-8 engine, this was the best American tank of WWII.
The most significant deficiency noted was the poor power-to-weight ratio due to the Ford engine. Although
adequate for the 35 ton Sherman, it caused the M-26 to be grossly underpowered.