M41 Light Tank Wheels and Suspension
AFV Club
S
u m m a r y
|
Stock No. |
35045 |
Contents and Media: |
106 parts (102 in light olive styrene and 4 in
olive resin) |
Price: |
RRP USD$17.98 |
Scale: |
1/35 |
Review Type: |
First Look |
Advantages: |
Very nicely done set includes parts to fix
Tamiya's M41 (and M42 as well) |
Disadvantages: |
Where was this level of detail on the M10
suspension? |
Recommendation: |
Highly Recommended an essential item to fix or
upgrade any Tamiya M41 kit, and also applicable to the M42 Duster as well |
HyperScale is proudly sponsored by
Squadron.com
Reviewed by
Cookie Sewell
Many manufacturers are slowly coming to the understanding that
releasing some sprues from kits is advantageous, as they upgrade other
manufacturers' kit and also bring in more money from the same molds. Everyone
wins in those deals, as modelers can upgrade older kits without buying a
complete kit and trashing it and two companies (or more) make money on the deal.
AFV Club has been one of the better ones at this, as they have released their
track sets separately from kits which allows modelers to put a decent set of
"shoes" on obsolete Tamiya and Academy kits. This set, part of their forthcoming
M41-based series of kits (which includes Hobby Fan resin kits such as the M52
105mm SP Howitzer) is a very nice set and will upgrade the Tamiya M41 kit in a
flash. AFV Club slyly includes the adapter plugs and mounts in resin to cover
the parts on the Tamiya hull which need to be replaced.
This kit is the first one to include idlers with the slots in them and the rims
on the insides of the road wheels. The road wheels consist of three parts – a
back section with detail, a front disk and the front rim. They look right when
assembled and are quite nice. The kit – since it is designed to fit on a
new-from-the-ground-up kit – includes return rollers, mounts, road wheel arms,
shocks, and drivers. The drivers include the mud cleanout slots as well, due to
clever molding.
Replacement is not a drop in. The modeler has to do a lot of cutting and
trimming getting the old molded-on bits off the Tamiya hull so they can replace
them with the AFV Club ones. The idler mounts have to be replaced as well, but
the driver mounts simply cement over the slots for motorization axles in the
Tamiya hull. These parts will also fit on the M42 hull, but it will take some
care and experimentation to get them to fit as the drive line is essentially
reversed from the M41's layout.
The most puzzling thing about this suspension is – why is this so good and well
done when the one on the M10 series of kits was skimped on and glossed over?
(Backs on the wheels and styrene springs as an option would have made it a
top-choice Sherman upgrade for everyone else's kits!)
Cookie Sewell AMPS
Review Copyright © 2001 by Cookie
Sewell
Page Created 27 March, 2002
Last updated 22 July, 2003
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