FirstLook

The T26E3 Pershing was the first of the modern family of US main battle tanks that had its genesis in WWII.

As a result of the combat experience of the Zebra Mission examples fielded late in the war a number of Changes were recommended for the now standardised M26 Pershing. Not all of these recommendations were implemented and the M26A1 introduced a new gun and changes to the automotive systems and fire control. This still left the Pershing with its biggest problem identified back as far as 1944 – its engine was under powered as it was the same engine that powered the lighter M4A3 Sherman. The M46, now named after George Patton was introduced to service to overcome this deficiency and it introduced a whole new powerplant resulting in a redesigned rear deck with two distinctive fender mounted exhausts.

The M46 first saw active service with the US Army in Korea and was subsequently adopted by the USMC. As a result of combat experience the turret was replaced and the vehicle turned into the highly successful M47 Patton.

The Kit

The kit comes well packaged in a small uninspiring sturdy box with the one piece upper and lower hulls, 1 piece upper turret and detail parts enclosed in their own plastic bags with the Instruction booklet and decals. The instructions are clear, concise and follow usual Trumpeter layout with a view of sprue layout as is the norm these days.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Thumbnail panels:

This kit is based on the earlier M26 kits (like the real thing) and offers a new upper hull and detail parts including link and length tracks. It shares the Turret parts of the M26 kit.

The Parts

The kit parts are in the main flash free and quite crisp with most knockouts in out of the way places (well done Trumpeter). The lower hull is moulded as one piece but with separate positional suspension arms. Final drive assemblies are provided separately and the drive sprockets are very well detailed but on my kit the lightening holes were lightly flashed over but easily rectified with a No 11 scalpel blade. The road wheels are moulded in two parts and very well detailed for the scale.

The upper and lower hulls are one piece mouldings fine detail of the parts . The wide fenders are moulded integrally with the characteristic stowage bins and done well. The engine deck louvers are really well done.

The drivers and all but the commander’s hatches are in typical Trumpeter braille-scale fashion moulded shut. The tracks are now link and length T80 type of approx 60 parts. The links have knockout marks on the inside face.

The turret has a lot of the detail parts moulded on but has some detail parts such as the engine lift attachment points as separate pieces. The lifting rings are moulded as a solid piece and not a ring, this is repeated on the hull and these are better replaced by self made wire ones. The Kit supplies only the  M3A1 Barrel which is very well done with a hollow muzzle brake.

The markings are basic and in register for a single vehicle although no information as to what unit this vehicle belonged to is included. The markings are for C-25

This is a great kit of an important vehicle and is well detailed with the reservations outlined above.  It captures the M46 Well and will appeal to Cold War and Korean War Armour fans. It is let down by the closed hatches and some minor detailing but the standard of mould is very high. There are some fiddly little parts but not too many and this would be a great Father/Son/Daughter kit and not beyond the skills of a junior modeller. I’d recommend this kit for wargamers and modellers wanting a good small scale M46 Patton.

Thanks to J.B. Wholesalers for the kit review sample