M19A1 Twin 40mm Gun Carriage
Posted: 30 Mar 2020, 00:19
After opening and closing the box again on Trumpeters Krug kit due to the number of parts, I made the decision to enter this into the group build,
Bronco released this kit last year and it has been sitting in my stash since that time. Something about it appealed to me, but after purchasing it I can't tell you what that was!
The M19 and M19A1s were designed late in WWII but never saw any active service. The Chaffee hull was used as a base, the engine moved to the middle of the vehicle and a tub for twin Bofors 40mm cannon mounted at the rear. Where it did see service was Korea, and like a lot of these autocannon tanks found its real role as fire support for ground troops. The kit blurb states they saw service in late WWII, most forums suggest this is not the case. The Kit blurb also states that the turret section was repurposed for the Vietnam era "Duster" mounted on the M48 hull. Again this is unlikely as the turret rings of both are different, they may have obviously repurposed the guns.
The kit comes in a somewhat flimsy cardboard box with nice boxtop artwork of an M19A1 pulling overwatch on a bridge in Korea. The box is absolutely full of styrene. I didn't count the sprues, but there are lots. The hull tub is moulded in one piece as is the gun tub. The idler and drive sprockets have slide moulded hubs which give nice detail. The overall quality of the moulding is excellent, but there is some flash and given the usual Bronco method of lots of tiny parts, there will be some clean up to do and this will not be a quick build! My usual moan about Bronco kits is that something that could be moulded as one piece is usually done in 5 or 6 pieces, the drive sprockets for example have 6 pieces. Nice for those who like glue, but a happy medium needs to be struck somewhere!
The instruction manual comes in the usual A4 booklet form, I've read it over very carefully, it is a bit confusing and hard to tell where some bits actually go. Secondary reference material will be necessary. This is made worse by the fact that Bronco often doesn't provide a locating tab or hole.
Rounding out the kit contents is a Sprue of clear parts, a small PE fret and a small set of decals. There is also a piece of string for the tow cable, I'll replace this with wire.
Colour schemes are mainly all over OD for the Korean models. There is one in Verdant MRDC, this is fanciful and based on a museum M19A1 not actual service vehicles as the M19A1 was out of service well before his scheme was introduced.
Anyway, onwards, during this period of being stuck at home I should make steady progress.
Bronco released this kit last year and it has been sitting in my stash since that time. Something about it appealed to me, but after purchasing it I can't tell you what that was!
The M19 and M19A1s were designed late in WWII but never saw any active service. The Chaffee hull was used as a base, the engine moved to the middle of the vehicle and a tub for twin Bofors 40mm cannon mounted at the rear. Where it did see service was Korea, and like a lot of these autocannon tanks found its real role as fire support for ground troops. The kit blurb states they saw service in late WWII, most forums suggest this is not the case. The Kit blurb also states that the turret section was repurposed for the Vietnam era "Duster" mounted on the M48 hull. Again this is unlikely as the turret rings of both are different, they may have obviously repurposed the guns.
The kit comes in a somewhat flimsy cardboard box with nice boxtop artwork of an M19A1 pulling overwatch on a bridge in Korea. The box is absolutely full of styrene. I didn't count the sprues, but there are lots. The hull tub is moulded in one piece as is the gun tub. The idler and drive sprockets have slide moulded hubs which give nice detail. The overall quality of the moulding is excellent, but there is some flash and given the usual Bronco method of lots of tiny parts, there will be some clean up to do and this will not be a quick build! My usual moan about Bronco kits is that something that could be moulded as one piece is usually done in 5 or 6 pieces, the drive sprockets for example have 6 pieces. Nice for those who like glue, but a happy medium needs to be struck somewhere!
The instruction manual comes in the usual A4 booklet form, I've read it over very carefully, it is a bit confusing and hard to tell where some bits actually go. Secondary reference material will be necessary. This is made worse by the fact that Bronco often doesn't provide a locating tab or hole.
Rounding out the kit contents is a Sprue of clear parts, a small PE fret and a small set of decals. There is also a piece of string for the tow cable, I'll replace this with wire.
Colour schemes are mainly all over OD for the Korean models. There is one in Verdant MRDC, this is fanciful and based on a museum M19A1 not actual service vehicles as the M19A1 was out of service well before his scheme was introduced.
Anyway, onwards, during this period of being stuck at home I should make steady progress.
Good luck with the rest