Tamiya 1:35 Super Pershing T26E4

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:04 pm

Hi all,

Bought this kit a couple of days ago. Since this is my first 1:35 scale tank I thought that I should start with something easy. Found this Super Pershing for 37€, happy days!

Had no idea if that where a good price or not but the kit is really nice so I believe it is worth the money. Lots of details, good fitting, movable suspension and 5 figures included.

(NB: pictures above are not showing all sprues and details)

The background for this vehicle is quite interesting and as a WoT player I was looking forward to options to build a cool tank with added armour plates around the hull and turret.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M26_Pershi ... Pershing_2

There are no such options in the kit, they have to be added extra

See this buildthread for details: http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... =29&t=8081

Nevermind, so instead of getting grumpy about this I started to build, since it is still a cool tank

Stay tuned!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:45 pm

Yesterday I ordered some metal link tracks and a metal gun barrel to the Pershing and I got the order confirmation and shipout notice today, so I might get it tomorrow or day after.

Friulmodel ATL-145
RB Model 90 mm M3 L/53
I realize now that the L/53 is for the standard Pershing, it should be L/73 for Super Pershing

Anyway, lower hull are built now and ready for primer. The suspension is quite cool but a little tricky to put together - the tension is quite high so I might have to do something about it to make the metal tracks look good.

I will probably coat the screwheads with some glue and paint them (if the roadwheels dont cover them).

So the running gear seems quite complete except for the linked tracks. I will assemble them and check the suspension before I make the final adjustments. Meanwhile I can paint the lower hull and start working on the upper hull.
I will give it a try to get the right gunbarrel, but if I can't find it I will go with the boxed plastic gun and proceed with the turret as well.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:29 pm

Good news: got the tracks and gun today.

Bad news: Well, I already knew that the gun was not the correct one but I didn't check the tracks of the Pershing properly so I ordered a version of the tracks for late Persing model or the M48 Patton.

.......but now I got an excuse to build the M48 Patton as well!

After some aid from folks on the ISM Facebook group I got some leads where to find the correct parts. I also double-checked if the webshop (ministuff.se) where I bought the item could help me - and he could but the leadtime would be something between 1-3 months.
I have not decided if I should buy the correct parts outside Sweden or go with the OOB-parts. Decisions decisions....

Anyway I saw some injection pinmarks on the wheel link-arms on the photos in my previous post (i didn't notice them until I saw the pictures) - so I fixed that and started to assemble the upper hull. No pictures, sorry about that.

I have decided to go with the suggested colors (Olive Drab) and light weathering of the tank.

Post by **Donkeywalloper** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:54 am

Great work so far Tommy.
The taking of photos does show you some imperfections missed and the times I have sat looking at a price I have spent working on something and thought brilliant, then taken photo and seen miriad of crap revealed

The joy of the hobby.
Push on mate.
John

Post by **Coen** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 10:19 am

I won't say I haven't done similar things Tommy. Once I ordered a set of really wonderful looking figures after planning an entire build around them. I bought the tank, some scenery, some aftermarket for the tank... then the figures arrived... they were 1/16. Grrrr.
I ended up using them, but it was 5 years later (waste not want not eh).
Love the Pershing myself, I've had my eye on this kit for awhile so I'm interested in seeing how she builds up for you.

Post by **AchtungPanzer** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:21 pm

Good start and good luck mate

Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:58 pm

Hey guys,

Thanks for the encouraging words, really need because this is my first "real" kit and I have no idea if I'm giong in the right direction...

Started to assemble the upper hull and this kit is really a joy to build. Almost everything can be glued from the inside and parts fits together like hand in glove. Tamiya have really thought through the placement of stems from the sprue and tool separation lines (so its easy to work the flash). Same goes for the ejection pins.

I'm getting more and more comfortable with my Swann-Morton knife using the curved blade #10; this is such a great tool to clear flash and work areas where a sanding stick or paper would mess up details. I used it to scrape off the eyecatching step of a recessed ejection pinmark on the fender support ribs (don't know if that is the correct name). If I would have filled and sanded the part the surface had been flat without any details.
The surface will not be perfectly flat afterwards, but the eye will not catch the irregularities as much as a perfectly round edge (atleast thats what I think).

How would an experienced modeller approached this?

(Part to the left had a workover with the knife and the parts to the right comes directly from the sprue showing the pin mark)

Anyway, the battle rages on... I hope to complete the upper hull today. There are 1-2 places where I need to use filler, but if everything goes well I can complete the assembly tomorrow and start priming it this weekend.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 5:00 pm

TommyKillander wrote: How would an experienced modeller approached this?

Haha.. In this specific case I think I can answer that question myself:

- "Check the rest of buildup so you know if the job is needed"

The sides of the fender support ribs cannot be seen since thay are covered by the toolboxes

Tamiya have placed the pins so they will not be exposed on the front and rear ribs on the outside.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:54 pm

Hi,

Did a beta-test of the running gear to check out the spring-loaded suspension and the DS-tracks.

The spring load on the idler/first roadwheel (they are interconnected with a link-arm) and the last roadwheel raises the lower hull so the rest of the roadwheels hangs in the air.

I think I can make the tracks look decient, but suspension will not work for me... I don't know Tamiya's thoughts on this but is seems to me that either you have to fill the tank with lead or use the screws to attach it into a diorama-base. I might do a dio later on, but not now. So for me the only option seems to be to release the springs and glue everything into position after setting the tracks.

I will contemplate on this while I put on the paint and do the weathering between the wheels of the lower hull....

However, the upper hull is almost completed and I'm quite pleased with it sofar. I did some chipping of the toolboxes - lets hope that I can do something useful out of that when I paint and weather the tank. There where only one Super Pershing that saw service in Europe in the end of WW2 and serving in 3rd Armoured Division (Belton Coopers unit), I read somewhere that it was involved in knocking out a Tiger I.
I'm thinking about putting a ricochet-mark on the turret and use light grey/concrete weathering instead of heavy mud.

Maybe I should read Belton Y Cooper's book "Death Traps" to see if I can get some intel on what happened (instead just of making up stuff....)

(Ha! Saw some flash on one of the photos.... gonna fix that quickly)

Meanwhile enjoy this little clip about the M26 Pershing:

Stay Tuned!

Post by **andreb87** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:44 pm

very nice and clean build! looking forward to the paint!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:59 pm

andreb87 wrote:very nice and clean build! looking forward to the paint!

Thanks andre,

The Tamiya kit is really nice to build. I have made a couple of bloopers, but that's me not reading instructions properly - kit is not to blame..

Got the hull and tracks primed today, will hopefullt complete the turret tomorrow and prime it.

After that I will sweat for a while trying to decide how to preshade and put on the base coat... I will use the suggested Olive Drab and use light washes like Concrete, Rust and Light Dust to get a contrast, so I think that I can keep the tank quite dark (or pristine - "out-of-factory" type).
In fact the way this tank looks in the Tamiya kit is almost how looked when it came off the boat. So the whole thing is a fairytale to be honest... When it arrived in Europe it had a different turret configuration and later it got reinforced armour (which is not included in the kit ofc).

Anyway, let's assume that our fairytale tank did actually get involved in some battle action and participated in the race towards Berlin at the end of the war.

That is what I will try to do.

Post by **wesleye18** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 2:43 am

really nice man! i have built this kit as well but went the crazy route and bought the Accurate Armor resin conversion set for it so i could build the super pershing with the added armor (like the one in world of tanks) and its a really good kit, except with some of the small photo etch parts that came with the conversion kit that i kept knocking and breaking off lol everything was really good, really love the suspension system on it as well and added a set of fruil tracks for it because why not eh lol, i still need to weather mine though but its on hold for now until i get a bit better at weathering

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:54 am

wesleye18 wrote:really nice man! i have built this kit as well but went the crazy route and bought the Accurate Armor resin conversion set for it so i could build the super pershing with the added armor (like the one in world of tanks) and its a really good kit, except with some of the small photo etch parts that came with the conversion kit that i kept knocking and breaking off lol everything was really good, really love the suspension system on it as well and added a set of fruil tracks for it because why not eh lol, i still need to weather mine though but its on hold for now until i get a bit better at weathering

I saw your buildtread and it looked really good! I my first thought where to go for the accurate model (I have that tank in WoT aswell

, but I changed my mind looking at the cost, delay of getting stuff and risk of messing up. This is my first AFV in 1/48 so I might have to follow the path of least resistance.

Ordered the wrong tracks, but I will use them for a M48 Patton in the future...

Did you get the fruil tracks to work with the suspension ?

I wasn't too impressed with the DS tracks, so maybe I need to get linked tracks after all....

Post by **wesleye18** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 1:33 pm

yeah the AA set was quite expensive but worth it for me as that was the way i wanted the tank to look and yeah the fruil tracks work really well with the suspension and look really good

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:37 pm

wesleye18 wrote:yeah the AA set was quite expensive but worth it for me as that was the way i wanted the tank to look and yeah the fruil tracks work really well with the suspension and look really good

Ahhh, what the heck... I'll order the tracks - they look just awesome on that tank

It's the model ATL-77, right ?

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:57 pm

Hey guys,

Starting to reach the end of the assembly line now and it's soon Prime Time(!)

Assembled the turret today and glued togheter the gunbarrel (will leave that to cure until tomorrow before I start to sand and polish it). It looks good I think - will probably not need to buy the metal barrel, but you never know; It's never too late to fail

I love this kit, it's really easy to build. Sofar everything has fitted perfectly and I only needed to use filler on the counterweight to hide a step (I assume that it is not supposed to be there) between the two halfes. The turret upper and lower halves where possible to join without any gap at all and the joint-line could be worked with a blade and polished so it disappeared completely(!).

I decided to take a shortcut and leave the joint-line behind the counterweight without any treatment (Yes, I'm lazy) the seam looked like that all around the turret before I scraped and polished it. This method will of course only work on irregular surfaces like rought molded parts. On the other hand, sanding the area would probably have destroyed the texture, if not done with great care.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:08 pm

Hi,

Short post today. Primed the hull and turret today and next step will be to make some minor preshading of the panellines and shaded areas I think. Let's hope I dont mess things up.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 10:28 pm

Where looking for footage of M26 Pershings to see if I could get some ideas on painting and interesting details of the tank.

Inside the Chieftain's Hatch: M26 Persing Part 1 & 2:

Enjoy!

Post by **PaulAyrey** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 6:50 am

Looking great, well done so far!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 9:17 pm

PaulAyrey wrote:Looking great, well done so far!

Thanks Paul,

Almost completed with the basecoat now, Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab. The colour looks good I think.

I'm thinking of applying some postshading to lighten up some areas slightly. If I muck it up completely I can always cover it with base coat and start all over again I hope.

I'm having really hard to make up my mind about using the DS tracks or not. I think that I'll put some paint on them and give it a try. This tank will probably not be a show-piece. However, I will try my best to make it look good of course.

More pictures tomorrow, it's a promise.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:27 pm

Hey guys,

Did some post-shading using the old XF-62 Olive Drab with a couple of drops XF-2 White in it to lighten up topside areas and to add some "life" to the model. Never done this before and I was quite nervous to ruin the job sofar - it should also be said that this was the first time I did some more "advanced" airbrushing with my new H&S Evo Cr+ . I have tried to do cammo-patterns with my old 30€ airbrush but it failed horribly...

Anyway, I'm happy with the result. It actually turned out exactly like I hoped for and my confidence in airbrushing have boosted

Next up is the finish the rest of the details (crew, machinegun, towcable etc) and brushpaint some details on the hull and turret. .... and paint the rubber on roadwheels and returnrollers

I have also painted the tracks with XF-69 Nato Black (my favorite black colour) and will drybrush them with Gun Metal tomorrow.

Peace out...

Post by **FishBowlMan** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 10:24 pm

Lovely work, Tommy. Really breaks up the monotony of the olive drab.

Website · Post by **Panzermeister36** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 4:12 am

Awesome work with the highlighting

That's really well done; I can see how it's boosted you confidence!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Feb 01, 2015 1:50 pm

Hi,

I have started to paint the details and I have made a first attempt to make chipping to the upper hull and turret. I kind of over-did it I think and also I didn't check resources properly. Bare metal chipping only isn't the way to go so I will probably rework that using dark and rust colours instead and maybe leave a small amount of bare metal where the wear and tear is more common (handles, hatches and parts of the hull).

I have ordered paints today so I will continue with the rest of the parts in the meantime...

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:20 pm

Covered up the large spots of bare metal chipping today on the turret and hull. It went OK I think, so now its only a waiting game until the new paints arrive. I'm pretty confident that I can make this work.

Painted the rubber parts of the roadwheels and return rollers yesterday and I'm almost finished with the tracks.

Will start to build and prime the commander and loader figure tomorrow I think.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 8:57 pm

Hey guys,

Got most of my rust color tones now and I have started to deal with the bare metal chipping on the turret. I've also put on the decals and will put on a final gloss coat before I put on wash. I had an idea to finish the all the steps for the turret first and then continue with the rest, but thinking some more about it I realise that it is better to do all wash in one go.

I will do dark rust tones on the hull and maybe some lighter rust tones on the fenders and toolboxes.

Also started to paint the commander and loader. I will detail paint and pin-wash them in parallell.

Post by **rustygunns** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 12:17 am

Nice start Tommy, I have just got this same kit within the last 2 weeks and ordered the metal tracks and gun barrel. I ordered Fruilmodel ATL-77 so I hope these are the right ones(diff # than yours) and I got a Jordi Rubio Barrel for the M26e3, doesn't say what the length is on the website so I hope its right. I'll let you know how these parts fit soon as they arrive, be watching your build closely.
Cheer's, Dave

Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 1:44 am

Great work so far, Tommy, looks really good!

Cheers,

Martin

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 7:41 am

rustygunns wrote:Nice start Tommy, I have just got this same kit within the last 2 weeks and ordered the metal tracks and gun barrel. I ordered Fruilmodel ATL-77 so I hope these are the right ones(diff # than yours) and I got a Jordi Rubio Barrel for the M26e3, doesn't say what the length is on the website so I hope its right. I'll let you know how these parts fit soon as they arrive, be watching your build closely.
Cheer's, Dave

Hey,

The ATL-77 are the right ones for the T26E4. The ones that I bought are for another kit

The Jordi Rubio Model #TG-34 looks like the short L/53 to me...
http://www.model-making.eu/products/90m ... shing.html

Compare it with the RB MODEL #35B119, which is the right length (that is L/73).
http://storymodels.com/en/armour-barrel ... hing-.html

Good luck with your build, mate!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 7:47 am

UKguyInUSA wrote:Great work so far, Tommy, looks really good!

Cheers,

Martin

Thanks UKguyInUSA,

Hopefully I can make a cool-looking tank... I know that the rust chipping is a bit over-the-top, but that's the way that it turned out and I have to go through with this appearance on the rest of the model as well.

I have learned a lot about cast metal parts, paint quality and chipping methods the last week

Anyway, stay tuned!
/Tommy

Post by **rustygunns** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 8:31 pm

Thanks for that info Tommy, guess I'll have to buy a regular pershing to use that barrel on. Or maybe try to find a pershing turret to put on one of my Shermans, now to go find that L/73 barrel
Cheer's, Dave

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:07 am

rustygunns wrote:Thanks for that info Tommy, guess I'll have to buy a regular pershing to use that barrel on. Or maybe try to find a pershing turret to put on one of my Shermans, now to go find that L/73 barrel
Cheer's, Dave

Hey rustygunns,

I bought the wrong gun myself, so I guess we can make buddy-build of M26 Pershing or M36 Jackson

Anyway, good luck with your build, the Tamiya kit is awesome and there is a really good thread of a guy (wesley18) that build a true Super Pershing, check it out!

Post by **PaulAyrey** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 8:01 am

Looks awesome!

Post by **rustygunns** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 2:18 pm

Hey Tommy, I found the L73 gun on evilbay so I ordered that. I'm waiting on fruilmetal tracks to come in and when the barrel shows up I'll get started on the Pershing. I looked at a bunch of regular pershings on there while I was looking for the gun but I'm not ready to pay 45.00 plus dollars for that kit. Thinking about a Sherman/Pershing hybrid http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... hassis.jpg

Kind of a paper panzer but might be fun
Your pershings looking really great, keep up the great work........Cheer's, Dave

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:19 pm

The guys are catching up as well...

Still waiting for some paints so I can continue with the hull of the Pershing...

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:35 pm

PaulAyrey wrote:Looks awesome!

Thanks, Paul !

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun May 10, 2015 9:58 pm

Hey guys,

Decided to drag the old Super Pershing out of the corner of shame.... the build have been going slow (to say the least), me being undecisive about the chipping and weathering. Anyway, now I have decided to make rusty and dusty Super Pershing. I might do a small dio of an urban landscape if I get the mojo to do it.

I will continue with the upper hull and turrent in the same manner, but make sure that the dust effect is more subtle on top.

Atleast that's my plan - let's see how that works out for me

Cheers

Post by **TheTroyster** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 5:52 pm

This was the last model I built, and I think it's one of those great models for any skill level! I just wish mine looked as good as this! Amazing work here!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 7:18 pm

TheTroyster wrote:This was the last model I built, and I think it's one of those great models for any skill level! I just wish mine looked as good as this! Amazing work here!

Yeah I agree completely, this kit is fantastic to build- I only used a small amount of filler on the turret counterweight everything fitted without a visible seam and most of the parts where glued from the inside.

Unfortunately not all Tamiya kits are like this, atleast not the old ones

Post by **Jack** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 7:04 pm

Looks great

Post by **mperegrinefalcon** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:38 am

Great work on the build mate! The weathering is just brilliant. Much more than I usually do.

Post by **sprebound** » Tue Feb 09, 2016 9:26 pm

Looks great, and I hope to build one of these myself. One thing I'd like to replicate is the spaced armor, like on the version in World of Tanks. I'm looking forward to see yours get finished up!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Tue Feb 09, 2016 9:53 pm

sprebound wrote:Looks great, and I hope to build one of these myself. One thing I'd like to replicate is the spaced armor, like on the version in World of Tanks. I'm looking forward to see yours get finished up!

Thank you!

I had an idea to scratchbuild the "riot-shields", which should be quite easy, but I found that the turret-counterweight is wrong and scratching the balance-springs are way over my skill-level, so I settled with an OOB build.... A little bit disappointed I must admit

The kit itself, however, is fantastic - it goes together like a dream and the fit is perfect. If you're not looking for a historically accurate Super-Pershing, this kit is a bargain...
There are resin-parts for the turret, so it is possible to convert it and Friulmodel tracks and a turned metal barrel is always nice

Tommy