Light Tank M-24 Chaffee (British Army) - 1:35 Bronco Models

[Mike]

Light Tank M-24 Chaffee (British Army)

1:35 Bronco Models



In association with

The Chaffee was developed to replace the ageing an relatively unsuccessful Stuart light tank, and every care was taken to keep the weight down, resulting in an incredible 20 ton tank with a relatively large 75mm gun, good manoeuvrability and off-road performance. It played a small part in the end of WWII after entering service in 1944, but very few tanks were delivered in time for the end of hostilities. Post-war it served in Korea and Vietnam, and was generally well liked by its crews. The armour package was light, but heavily sloped to give it extra effective thickness, and the 75mm gun punched way above the 37mm unit in the Stuart, and although it couldn't penetrate the thicker armour of the heavier tanks it might encounter, it could at least give them pause for thought if the need for engagement arose.

Although it was received too late into British service to participate in WWII, it was used used in Korea, where it was a capable reconnaissance tank and its accurate and powerful main gun could be used to good effect in close quarters.

The Kit

The kit shares most of its parts with the earlier release, which has already garnered an excellent reputation, and on inspection this kit looks to keep that reputation intact. The first thing that struck me when I opened the box was that for a small tank, there was a lot of plastic in the box! There are 18 main sprues, plus 14 "strip sprues" of track-links, a clear sprue, two sheets of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a number of separate parts, the lower hull "tub", and a length of string. A small sheet of decals and Bronco's usual glossy instruction manual complete the package, and once out of the bags, there isn't much room to re-pack the box.

Wide use of slide-moulding has been used to enhance the kit, and the little raised "bridge" sprues are all over the main sprues, giving us hollow barrels, and more complex shapes than would otherwise be possible with traditional injection moulding. The part count is impressive too, with the sprues densely packed, as is the main PE sheet, which even has individual casting numbers to be applied to the final drive bell-housings. Construction begins with the lower hull, which is very nicely moulded, with plenty of detail present even before you start installing the suspension parts. A full set of torsion bars are included, and their covers hide them away from sight, but they can be set up to function the same way as the real thing, although I would be wary of stress fractures in the bars if you test the suspension too often! The exposed dampers and swing arms are installed next, and if you are careful with the glue, you will end up with suspension that actually works. The dampers are made from a hollow outer and inner slider, with separate bolts to attach to the brackets on the hull.

The return rollers are next, and drive sprockets are built up from a central hub that has been slide-moulded with detail on every face, to which the sprockets themselves are added, hub back, and then onto the final drive housing. Again, with care, the sprocket can be left mobile. My example has some minor damage to one of the inner hubs, possibly where it was cut from the sprue, but nothing that cannot be fixed with a little piece of styrene sheet and careful sanding. The idler wheels are similarly constructed from layers, and attach using a free-floating pin to the hull mount.

The various sub-assemblies that attach to the upper hull are then built, and set aside for later installation, including some nice PE grilles for the engine deck, alternative styrene or PE light protection cages, and the driver's flip-down windscreen. The top hull is broken into sections to eke out as many versions from the same basic parts as possible, with the front section being the largest, and including the finely detailed turret ring, bow mounted machine gun and the spare roadwheel mounted on the glacis plate. The rear is built up from quite a number of panels, and care should be taken here to ensure the deck is square and symmetrical once done. The two hatches on the front deck can be posed open or closed, and have rotating mounts for clear periscopes included. More PE mesh and detail parts are added during the next few steps before the final deck panels are added along with the rear bulkhead.

The tracks are provided as individual links (my favourite) on unusual sprues that are minimalist and have no outer ring that we have come to expect from modern toolings. The parts are instead laid out in a "ladder" with a small length of sprue connecting them together. Not only does this save styrene, but it also makes cutting them from the sprue an easier task. Each link has three sprue gates, and cleanup should be pretty simple, just needing a sanding stick to return the rolled edges to their correct shape. The links are also a click-fit rather than the traditional glue-and-wrap style "Magic Tracks" favoured by the likes of Dragon. You simply click the tracks together, and a pair of pins and sockets retain the parts, while remaining workable. It should make painting and installation easier, although some touch-ups might be needed where the tracks are at sharper angels to eachother, exposing sections that may have been covered when the painting stage was done.

The fenders are built up off the hull and added once complete, but I would be tempted to attach the base first and add the ancillary parts in situ to ensure everything lines up correctly. Some PE detail parts are added here too, as well as stowage boxes and spare track-links, which have PE retention clips for a bit of added realism.

The main gun is a curious piece of styrene engineering, as it has a delicate slide-moulded spring that has to be seen, as it is quite impressive. This is sealed within the recoil block along with the flange of the barrel, and guide part. This gives the gun recoil, which although it is a bit of a gimmick does beg the question "why not use a more durable metal spring?". The barrel itself is slide moulded and has a hollow end, so a quick scrape with a convex curved blade should be enough to prepare it, although I understand that an aftermarket turned metal barrel is already available. The turret itself is built up from a number of parts around the bottom ring, and the gun is integrated, receiving lots of extra parts to detail the breech and loading mechanism. The gunner's seat is also included, oplus a couple of jump-seats around the turret edge for the commander and loader. The coaxial machine gun slips through the mantlet part, then the main gun is then mounted, which should result in it being able to elevate as well as recoil. It's quite a blast from the past having moving parts on a kit of this type, but hats off to the engineers, who probably enjoyed the process. The mantlet is then joined to the front of the turret, and that in turn is glued to the lower part. A radio set is included to give the turret more detail, and the top of the turret is then detailed before being added to the lower part later in the build process, with the commander's cupola plus the turret mounted AA gun being built up in the interim. The big .50cal weapon has a slide-moulded cooling jacket into which the barrel drops, and a PE handling grip is included to improve the detail further.

The turret bustle stowage bin is made up from slabs, with plenty of PE detail added including some chains and locking clips. The various parts are then added to the upper turret before it is all mated with the lower. Personally, I would mate the turret halves earlier to save knocking off all the additions during handling.

A bonus offering of a milk churn, ammo boxes and jerry cans are included on the sprues, but some extra stowage in the form of a kit bag, four go-bags and a tarpaulin roll aren't documented. A figure is also included in a relaxed pose with tea mug in hand, just the chap on the boxtop. Finally, the string is used to provide the towing cable, although no mention of the part numbers for the towing eyes is made on the instructions, but after a concerted search I found them on the two spruea marked Ga, part 37. The weave of the string provided is however incorrect for a braided cable, being an interweaved plaited type, so a suitable replacement would be in order if you're looking for accuracy. RB Models make a range of different width real braided wires that look very good once installed, mainly because they're real braided cable.

There are five decal choices included on the small sheet, and you should choose early because some structural differences are noted during the build between some of them. From the box you can build one of the following:

• HQ Troop, 5th Royal Tank Regiment, 22nd Armoured Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division, Germany 1945 "Kelly's Aye"
  
• C Squadron, Reconnaissance Regiment, 5th Infantry Division, British Army, 1946 "Chieftain"
  
• Newly delivered tank for trials purposes, England, Winter 1944
  
• 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, 1944-45 "Annie"
  
• 1st Royal Tank Regument, 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, 1945 "Trigger Happy"

The first three options are overall Olive Drab, while the reminder are printed in a scheme reminiscent of Dark Bronze Green, but the colour call-out tells us this is also Olive Drab. If you're in any doubt over which is right, you can see some rather good information at the MAFVA site here .

Decals are of course quite limited in scope, but they are crisp, seem to have good colour density and a reasonably thin carrier film.

Conclusion

It's a great kit, and can be built from the box into a stunning replica of this small light tank. Detail is excellent, and the turret interior is very nice, as is the fine detail that is to be found pretty much all over the kit. The working suspension, tracks and barrel recoil are perhaps a little gimmicky, but they do have an appeal, and can always be set in place with a little liquid glue at some later point. That feature would be especially useful if you were posing the tank on a diorama, giving you the opportunity to show the suspension in action, compressing over bumps.

Very highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Shar2]

Nice review, of what looks like a great kit, one for the wish list.

[Dads203]

Dave, it's a cracking kit fella one to get for sure.

Dan

[Paul A H]

That looks seriously nice.

[Shar2]

I will get one Dan, just as soon as I can find one in country.

[abowie]

Hi Mike, I'm a lurker here usually but I thought I 'd respond to your review which is very good but a bit incorrect in some areas. The M24 was used by all of Britain's Armoured divisions excluding the specialist 79th AD serving in Northwest Europe beginning in early 1945 and serving for the last few months of the year. I have photos of them in service with all of the three normal AD's 7,11 and Guards and they are definately in service, not to mention various references to their issue and use in Regt histories and memoirs such as Bill Bellamy's troop leader.

They were cleaned up for the Victory parade but I dispute the Instructions and believe they were all still in OD or possibly SCC15 but polished with Petrol for that parade shine as were other vehicles at the time. 7 AD repainted theirs but Deep Bronze Green would not have been available just yet remembering that the Centurians were still being painted in SCC as late a Korea.

The Chaffee like most Lend Lease equipment was not kept for long post war and definately did not serve with the british or Commonwealth in Korea (The US and South Koreans used them though).

Their are some issues with the markings given:

1. HQ Tp 5RTR22 AB 7 AD Germany 45. "Kelly' Aye" T 330415 Overall OD
2. C Sqn Recce Regt 5 ID 1946 "Chieftain" T330512 Overall OD
3. Newly Delivered for Evaluation Winter 44 England T330411 Overall OD
4. 3 RTR 22 AB 7AD 1944 - "ANNE" T 441275 Shown in the colour guide as a Dk Grey but tells you to paint OD
5. 1 RTR 22 AB 7AD 1945 - "Trigger Happy" T330553

Nice to get five choices however there appears to be quite a few serious
errors particularly with Formation and Aos in these two options.
1. 5 RTR was the junior Regt in the Bde yet the Aos is 52 (1 RTR) when it
should be 53. The Tac Marking is in Yellow (1 RTR Snr Regt?)
4. 3 RTR by my reckoning (and I am happy to be corrected)was the second Regt of
11 AD in 1945 and not in 7AD. The grey scheme is intriguing even though
it tells you to use OD. Additionally the Tac marking in Red (5 inside a
Square) 5 TP Bsqn (?)should be in Yellow being the Second Regt. The T
Number range seems to me to be far removed from the original range
considering only 302 were recieved (speculation until I find the number
breakup which I have somewhere)

Schemes 2,3 and 5 seem OK

Cheers

Al