The conversion sets contains 29 parts in light cream resin and a further
40 etched parts although 21 of these are very small bolt heads to be used
as required.
There is some surgery required on the Tamiya kit to accept the new parts
and unfortunately this shows up the weak point of the set with confusing
instructions that adds some frustration here.
The instructions consist of text construction notes and some line drawings
but none of the resin parts are numbered in the drawings and there is no
part layout diagram as seen on many resin sets so you can’t identify
the parts easily, except for the larger cab parts which are straightforward.
You will need to study the construction notes carefully to work out the sequence
and it would also seem that some parts are missing from my set, but without
any part layout or numbering this is hard to determine?
The notes mention that there is a “tool provided” to get the correct angle of the windscreen and roll cage supports and to bend the etched head light guards to the correct shape but unfortunately no such tool was in my set.
Also there should be three roll cage supports for the inside of the cab
walls but only two are provided while there are five upper supports but only
four were in the set, but these should be easy to make from 2mm plastic rod
so all is not lost.
There are also two different style of supports as indicated in the text but
you have no idea which is which due to lack of part numbering.
There are also two other small bracket parts that I have no idea what or
where they go and I couldn’t
see them in any of my reference photos.
Thin styrene rod is also required to make the grills on the front radiator and it’s not clear if this is supposed to be in the set or not and the thickness of the rod is not given so it’s a matter of checking references to get the right size.
The etched parts are numbered but unfortunately the numbers on the etched
fret don’t match those mentioned in the instruction notes further confusing
matters.
The correct etched part numbers are shown here with the incorrect numbers
from the instructions in brackets;
I have included a separate guide here to show that main alterations needed on the Tamiya kit parts to hopefully help anyone building this set.
While the instructions leave a bit to be desired the same can’t be said for the fit of both the resin to resin and resin to plastic parts which in most cases is excellent.
The main cab is made up of the rounded front panel, the two side and the rear panel and these fit snugly together to make a perfectly square assembly.The windscreen frame has good details on both sides with indentations to take the etched screen frames that trap clear sheet between for the windscreen glass but this clear sheet isn’t included so you will have to provide this yourself. On the inside of the windscreen are smaller latches and wiper motors with etched wipers to add additional details. Unfortunately the etched frames are too large to fit into the indentations on the resin screen frame; the widths are okay but the height is out by a couple of millimetres and will require some modification to fit correctly.
The extended bumper is the early type with welded extensions on either end of the M26 bumper while later M26A1 bumpers were built in one piece.
Assembly of the roll cage will require a bit if trial and error providing
all the supports are available or after making any that are missing with the
three internal supports being attached to the raised ribs on the side and rear
walls
and the corresponding upper supports attaching to the top of the
inner supports while the other two are on each corner. You should be able to
get the right angle for the side supports by centring the roll cage above the
cab
and aligning the supports accordingly.
The large roll cage top includes the many small tie downs cleats but you may
want to replace these with wire tie downs for better detail definition?
You will have to add the four large grab handles on each side of the crew doors and again the instructions show some form of jig to bend the wire (not included) to shape but as this jig was not in my set you could easily make your own to ensure all four handles are the same size.
The two rear facing searchlights are moved from the armoured cab to mountings on top of the winch housings but only one of these mountings is included on the etched fret but you can use this as a guide to make the other one.
Some of the Tamiya kit parts are added to the resin soft cab such as the front searchlight mounting and top machine gun ring and the combination siren/flashing light that is mounted behind the radiator grill while there are minor modifications on the inside of the cab, some are noted in the instructions.
Conclusion:
In all a nice conversion set with well detailed and cast resin parts with the
very good fit of the parts reducing the amount of work needed but the lack
of part numbering and confusing instructions make the
job trickier than it need be.
There is still some work to be done and experience with resin update sets and etched parts would be very helpful with this conversion but with care a nice looking M26A1 will result and of course good references wouldn’t go astray either with the recent MMIR Dragon Wagon book having good images of the M26A1.
Recommended
References:
Dragon Wagon A Visual History of the US Army's Heavy Tank Transporter 1941-1955 Ampersand Publishing |
Dragon Wagon The Military Machine by Jochen Vollert ISBN 3-9805216-1-3 |
Page created 5 August 2004