BlueBrixx GMC M36 Jackson Set 100655

BlueBrixx's GMC M36 Jackson is a model of the American tank destroyer, built from 653 blocks at roughly 1:32 to 1:35, measuring around 20 cm long. Designed by Adrian. No stickers or prints. Age 12+.

The gun came off an anti-aircraft mounting

By mid-1944 the American army had a problem it had been told it would not have. Its tank destroyers carried a 3-inch gun that could not reliably penetrate a Panther from the front at normal combat range, and Panthers were what they kept meeting.

The answer was already in the inventory. The 90 mm M1 was an anti-aircraft gun — designed to throw a shell several thousand metres upwards — and a weapon built for that has exactly the high muzzle velocity that punches through armour. It was adapted for a turret and put on the M10's hull.

The M36 reached Europe in September 1944 and was the only American vehicle in wide service that could kill a Panther head-on at ordinary ranges. It arrived weeks before the Ardennes offensive, where that mattered a great deal.

Open on top, and why

American tank destroyer doctrine held that these vehicles should be fast and hard-hitting rather than protected — they were meant to rush to where enemy armour had broken through, shoot, and move. So the turret has no roof: it saves weight, and it gives the crew the all-round vision that ambush work needs.

In practice it meant no protection from airbursts, grenades or anything dropped from above, and crews improvised covers from whatever they could find. Late-production M36s were given a folding armoured roof, which is the army admitting the doctrine had been wrong.

In the BlueBrixx range

Set 100653 is the M5 Stuart, the American light tank from the same designer.

Specifications

Pieces: 653 · Scale: approx. 1:32–1:35 · Designer: Adrian · Age: 12+ · No stickers
Model length: approx. 20 cm (7.9 in)