There are two injection moulded plastic kits of the US M18 tank destroyer, also commonly known as the 'Hellcat' , on the market at the time of this review. One of these is from Taiwanese manufacturer AFV Club, the other from Korea's Academy. I purchased AFV Club's kit and here's an building review.

What's in the box?
The box is a rather standard sized box, with some photos of the finished kit on the side. One of the features advertised on the box top is a recoiling 76mm gun, but more of this later. The kit consists of 294 parts moulded in a light olive green plastic,two lengths of flexible vinyl track, a turned brass gun barrel, decal sheets with marking for eight vehicles and a spring for the gun. The parts are well moulded, with a fair amount of flash on parts like the turret stowage racks and grab handles. Details is fine, but there are several problems with this kit, and some annoying ommisions.

Building the kit
Construction begins, as usual, with the lower hull and suspension parts. Here's already one the kit's errors; the locating holes for the idler wheels unit (B36, B37), the final drive housing (C24) and the suspension dampeners are all too small. I enlarged them with files and a sharp knife blade. When this was done, the parts fitted without a problem. The shock absorver arms are moulded in a 'T' shape, with two link arms on each. Step 2 tells you to remove one of the arms, depending if you want to use the arm on the left or right side. I added the final drive housing and the first wheel station's shock absorber in step 3, and these were rather fiddly bits to apply. Also note that parts B38 and B39 have their numbers transposed, correct on the instruction sheer before commencing with the assembly. This way you can avoid quite a bit of irritation during building, when you find that parts don't fit.

The remaining road wheel axles and shock absorber link arms are attached in the next step. These were a bit of a tight fit, but still take care to align them correctly. The road wheels, idlers and sprockets are assembled in step 5. The road wheels and return rollers went together very smooth, no problems here. The sprocket and idler wheels are made of four parts, two each for the inner and outer sections. When joined together, the parts form the lightening holes and this works very well indeed, with a little amount filler needed to hide the join line. I haven't fitted the wheels yet, as I still have to paint the kit, and painting the lower hull is easier with those large wheels off.

Step 8, 9 and 10 cover the lower hull interior and here is the kit main fault: there are no parts to connect the transmission box with the final drive housing. This is quite visible when you leave the front hatches open, I didn't bother as I intend to fit some figures in the hatches. The interior colour should be white with probably the main floor under the turret in the usual olive drab, but there's no indication in the instructions. The hull top is attached in step 11 and 12 including the detail on the hull, finishing the job with the tail cover in step 13, and the 'rubber band' tracks in step 14. Again, I left this separate for ease of painting. I have also heard that it's almost impossible to fit the tracks with the hull top in place. I decided to give Model Kasten's link-to-link, workable tracks a try. AFV Club have inserted a separate sheet which indicates the places where the tools should be placed, as no holes have been drilled in the hull top. I marked the spots with a pencil, and then fitted the toold without problems. The locating holes for the lights and their protective guards are too small. The hatches have to be cut to allow them to be fitted in the open position. Remember to add a bit of cushion to the inside. This feature is not included with kit, but on the other hand, the details is fine, and the rear grilles have the correct pattern.

Step 15 is the gun, breech and its mounting to the turret front plate. The afore-mentioned spring goes inside the breech assembly, being trapped by a large 'pin' (A9). This is then in turn locked in place by the gun mounting (A6) and the brass barrel. The details on the front plate is good, with the casting number present - it would be a pity to hide this by adding the canvas cover - and good cast texture. More detail could be added, such as the handwheels and firing levers, and references can be found in the Reference Section on my own site, www.warmour.cjb.net">www.warmour.cjb.net.

Several smaller parts for the turret, such as the traversing mechanism, are assembled in step 16, and there then fitted to the turret ring in step 17. This is another sub-assembly, and it would be best to paint everything before adding the upper turret part. There is fine detail on the turret floor, which will repay careful painting and dry-brushing. The outside details of the turret are added in step 18, and there's a fair amount of flash on the stowage racks. I rather thinned down the foul weather hood stowage bins as well. The antenna guards was replaced by a piece of wire, as the original was so thinly moulded , it broke when I wanted to remove it from the sprue - but well done AFV Club, for such good mould making.  Again, you could refer to the Reference Section should you wish to add the wiring to the various turret instruments. Step 19 is the .50cal Browning HMG, with its associated ring mount. This is a really nice piece of moulding, with a separate coking lever and arm, and there are several .50 rounds feeding into the breech to be added inside the ammo box. The gun ring actually works after assembly, which is a good point if you want to add a figure. Try the new Hobby Fan figure, with some stowage included as well.

The turret sub-assemblies are joined together in step 20, I thinned the turret 'ready rounds' ammo rack. Everything fitted perfectly well, but you could a small weld bead on the joint between upper and lower turret half. This is not too prominent on the real vehicle so don't overdo it. The turret is placed on the hull in the last step, 21, as well as the mud guards. I decided to leave these off, as they were often lost in combat, or removed by the crew, as they interfered with maintenance on the suspension.

Putting a coat of paint on
Here's another error in the kit, the instruction give no clues at all, as to the colours you should use. They only give numbers of several brands. Luckily I have several of the tins required but when you're a first timer, it would have been better to simply tell you to paint what colour everything was painted. Also note that the marking option 'France 1944' should have no mud guards, as photos of this Hellcat in Brest show it without them.

Final verdict
Overviewing the kit, I think this is certainly value for money, even though there are several minor errors. The kit is generally well detailed, the turret is simply superb, and only a small amount of filler is needed. The ommsion of the final drive costs AFV Club half a star, and the annoying painting instruction another half a star. If you want to, you can add extras, like Model Kasten's separate link working track, Eduard PE set, or Verlinden Productions' interior (include the final drive/transmission axles!) and exterior update sets. Note however, that the VP sets were designed for Academy's M18 Hellcat, so may not be completely suitable for this kit.