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Unboxing: Bolt Action M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer
February 17, 2015 by dignity
Justin, John and John's magnificent hat reminisce on their re-enactment days while taking a look at the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer for Bolt Action from Warlord Games.
The Hellcat was the fastest armoured fighting vehicle to feature in World War II, though this came at the cost of less armour. This kit contains resin and metal parts and includes both the pre and post-1944 variants of the guns barrel.
Would you sacrifice armour for speed?
I love this kit / tank (although I got mine 6 months ago and the tracks were separate)
Great fun to use in BA – providing you use it properly, e.g. if it arrives from reserves and moves onto the table (as it does when using with US Airborne) make sure any potential attackers cant see it, as I learnt the hard way when on the turn it arrived my recce move put it back off the table!
Really interesting vehicle. Did the turret have no roof purely to save weight? It’s always struck me as an odd design. I know some crews of the M10 added a roof.
I believe the theory of open-topped tank destroyers on the American side was to allow the commander to have unrestricted vision. You mostly find the M-10 and M36 crews added roofs. But as you’ll have guessed, using these things in winter, cold or rain was an upset to the crew. Especially when that radial engine is sucking is cold air in through the open turret 🙂
A must have addition to my army in building.
Ming the Merciless was allowed to play with a tank destroyer? OMG…
Nice kit but not keen on resin and metal (there will be a plastic Hellcat along in due course 🙂 )
Great unboxing episode! M18s are indeed excellent vehicles in most game systems, if you canuse them correctly (as @olliep says). The “recce” rules Justin describes seem to capture this well. Tank destroyers are ambush weapons, especially the M18. They can’t really stand toe-to-toe with full-fledged tanks. This is part of why they made them so fast, so they can get the hell out of tight spots and relocate once they knee-cap enemy armour . . . just as John says. 🙂 Interesting omission on the vehicle commander. Maybe he’s off at lunch? 😀
Absolutely correct on the differences between intended design doctrine, and actual patterns of use on the field. And in our Battle of the Bulge article series we MAAAAY have actually recreated the very engagement John talks about (Noville, just northeast of Bastogne, Dec 20, 1944)
A few excerpts:
“Standing in the way of this move by 2nd Panzer Division was a battalion-sized batch of tanks and halftrack infantry named “Team Desobry” after its commander, Major William R. Desorby. Hopelessly outnumbered by one of 2nd Panzer’s main kampfgruppe, Team Desorby was hurriedly reinforced by just four M18 Hellcat tank destroyers of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion.”
So, like John says, small detachments of these vehicles were rushed to stress-points, especially where enemy armor was deployed, where their high road speed definitely came in handy.
Later:
“My opponent’s Panthers and Mark IVs quickly shut down my Shermans, but my single platoon of quick little M18 Hellcats kept shooting and displacing, steadily “sniping down” on the Germans’ armoured strength in true ‘tank destroyer’ style.”
Here are the relocation capabilities John and Justin discuss. 😀 You’ve GOT to do this, the armour on Hellcats is just tissue-thin compared to “true” tanks.
Great show! Amazing that the whole hull is just one resin piece, with all the deep detail under the tracks and into the suspension, etc.
You know, I don’t have a “black book” of “John’s mistakes” . . . 🙂 although even if I did, more a few marks would be erased to credit all the great detail in this episode. (Now if I can just get rid of some of the marks some other folks in the community may be keeping on me. 🙂 )
Aww, thank you dude! I’ve always loved Hellcat just because she is a rather sexy machine. When with the one over here I love listening to that radial engine purr. It has a presence that the M10 and M36 just don’t have.
Like a lot of weapons in WW2, if it looked right and sounded right it worked right.
This kit looks fantastic. Envy for the US players.
gr love to get my mitts on 1 of them but I only play S.A.S/LRDG in bolt action 🙁
Oriskany drove me mad with some Hellcats in a recent game.
That’s the one I mention in the post above. “Relocate, baby! Relocate!!!” 😀
nice neat looking model.
I would and have traded armor for speed. Armor only helps you after you’ve been hit. If you can be fast and nimble enough, you don’t ever have to test out the true mettle of your armor. 🙂