A standard vehicle in most WWII U.S. divisions was the M 10 Wolverine tank destroyer. Designed as a specialist anti-armor weapon, the M 10 served not only as tank hunter, but also as bunker buster, infantry close support, and even ersatz field artillery. Typically, a battalion was attached to each division, with additional battalions held at Corps level to contain enemy armored penetrations. Since we"WWII trackheads" are likely to need some, a quick review of some of what is out there in 15mm seems appropriate.

The Wolverine is available from three manufacturers in 15mm Quality Castings, Old Glory and Military Miniatures. The castings are evaluated on detail, scale accuracy (using the O'Leary scale standards from Herald # 25) and overall appearance. The comparative baseline is Squadron Signals'"U.S. Tank Destroyers in Action." Each kit gets a letter grade that, while striving for objectivity, does reflect my bias and opinion.

Quality Castings M10

This is a late-production M10A1, as determined by the size of the engine covers, the placement of the caps for the gas tanks, and the large scalloped counterweights on the turret rear. The turret casting nicely captures the look of the late production turret with the large counterweights and sloping rear wall of the turret modeled correctly.

Assembly was straightforward. The turret was one piece, while the hull mates with two track sections. A little epoxy and you're done. Detail on the casting is mediocre. Engine grill and hatch covers are etched and not readily visible after painting. External bolts for the add on armor plate are not raised and are barely visible. The breech block is oversized, filling the forward edge of the turret basket. The turret mounting post extends from the base of the breech block. As a result, no detail of the turret basket is provided. No external .50 caliber machine gun is included, nor is there a mounting bracket for adding one. Mine is an older casting, with luck it will be redone soon (if it has not already).

Quality Casting vehicles have a tendency to be on the small side, and their Wolverine is no exception. Checking the casting against the dimensions given in "U.S. Tank Destroyers in Action," I find that the width of the casting is close at 90% of what the true 15mm scale (1/108) should be ' Length is off a bit more, scaling at 88% of true 15mm. The big discrepancy is height. The Quality Castings kit is 77% of its actual scale height. On the table, the distortion in height is obvious as their M 10 is shorter than other manuf acturers' Wolverines. The Quality Castings kit stands about as tall at turret height as the Old Glory and Military Miniatures Wolverine hull. It does fit with the rest of the Quality Castings line, but does not lend itself to mixing with other manufacturer's kits.

My overall impression is of an undersized, plain vanilla casting. The lack of any real detail or feature leaves you with a very bland gaming piece. This can be improved by a serious amount of work like adding additional crew and the turret post HMG. Overall Grade C+

Old Glory M10

This kit is also an M10A1, this time with a mid-production run turret featuring smaller counterweights that square off the rear of the turret. The casting is representative of the vast majority of M 1 Os used in the war.

Detail is excellent. The add on armor mounting bolts, the engine covers and turret detail --down to the seats --are all clearly visible. In addition, the overall kit is very sharp and crisp. There is good detail on the track units, the gas caps, tow hooks, barrel travel lock, the turret interior and the .50 cal on post mount at rear of turret.

Like the Quality Castings kit, assembly of Old Glory's M 10 was also straightforward, although some flash removal was necessary with the track units. Start with attaching the two track halves to the hull, then attach the gun barrel to the turret, pop in the .50 cal and -- presto! -- you're done!

The Old Glory M 10 is close to O'Leary's standard scale for 15mm scaleofl/108. The dimensions compared to the standard scaled out as follows; length = 95%, width 107%, height = 95%. The casting fits with most other castings nicely, especially the M8, and M20 from Old Glory and Military Miniatures that you'd find in a tank destroyer battalion. As noted above, the Old Glory M10 towers over the Quality Castings kit. They don't mix well in the same unit, but you can use them on the same table.

This is a very sharp casting. It is a tad undersized, but not so that its noticeable. The detail is fantastic. The addition of a crewman or two turn this into a real visual treat on the tabletop. Overall Grade: A

Military Miniatures M10

The Military Miniatures kit is a great addition to the game table. This piece has a lot of character right out of the box. Mine is littered with the external stowage so typical of the U.S. Army in WWII. In fact, this particular casting is covered in so much stowage that a lot of the hull is obscured.

Assembly was again a breeze and very similar to the Old Glory kit. The Military Miniatures kit comes with a resin hull and turret, and pewter barrel, HMG and track sections. The fit on the parts was great and flash on the pewter bits was minimal. Some folks don't like the resin that they use, but this kit was clean with one tiny air bubble to fill in (though this looks enough like a nick from a shot impact that I was tempted to leave it alonel).

In addition to the external stowage, the detail on the kit covers the basics, such as the external bolts on the turret and hull, radio antenna mount, drivers hatches and storage racks. The turret features great detail including the only display of ammo racks on the rear faces of the turret that I've seen on a 15mm casting. The Military Miniatures Wolverine scales close to the 15mm size with the length and width at 95% of standard, and the heightat99%. The proportions of the M10 look correct and the additional stowage mimics the real life vehicle being modeled.

This is a great kit. The best feature is all the additional stowage that Military Miniatures includes on their kits. Adding a M10 to a tank destroyer unit is a great way to bring your castings to life while avoiding the "cookiecutter" syndrome. Grade A

In closing, my favorite of the three is the Old Glory Wolverine. There's something about the attitude of confident toughness the casting exudes, that the other kits lack. The Military Miniatures kit does brings great variety to your tabletop, and makes your units appear more alive and less sterile than the Old Glory and Quality Castings vehicle. So, by all means, pick up a few to mix in with the Old Glory stuff. The Quality Castings kit -while the only example of a late war turret -- is best confined to separate homogeneous units, and not mixed with other manufacturers kits.

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