Hi
The Ultimate Sherman needs a home in my collection! But which one? Should I opt for the Academy or Dragon kit?
I have the Dragon kit, but I’ve read the Academy one is a better kit all around.
I bought the Academy one lately but I haven’t build it yet. It looks mighty good in the box, specially the suspension and wheels, but you must know that they tried to simulate a texture on the turret and upper hull which looks way overdone. Personally, I will sand that texture down and do it again with some mr. surfacer.
Oh, and the Academy one gives you a lot of extra parts for stowage.
I built the Academy kit - loved it! There was a fit problem at the back, but other than that, it was good…
Here is a pic of mine…
More here
I have the Academy kit. I haven’t built it yet, but as a couple of the fellas have already said, it sure looks great in the box.
I’ve got both the Academy and the DML kits of that puppy and have mixed opinions. The academy builds much much quicker but the dust boot for the maingun mantlet doesn’t fit on mine for squat which for some reason really frosted me and the detail is less that the DML in my opinion. The DML has a go-zillion extra parts which cause it to be a nightmare when it comes to ferreting out all the parts but the biggest problem I had is the road wheels have sinkholes completely around the circumference of the wheel and I went through a couple of aftermarket sets that were the same way. I may end up taking the roadwheels from my academy and finishing my DML because the whole dust boot thing really hacked me off like way majorly. The dustboot, turret joint is totally asymetrical on my Academy and like i said it really cheesed me off My vote goes for the DML overall even with the sinkhole wheels
I looked at both of them at a recent model show and ended up buying the Academy kit. I like the tracks (vinyl instead of the DML’s insane Sherman tracks) and I thought the kit had better detail and would probably build up easier than the Dragon kit. Of course I have no idea when I will ever start this kit. Another one on the pile.
Accuracy wise the MP Models M50 Super Sherman is one of the better kits, but it is of limited run quality and needs a lot of clean up: http://cgi.ebay.com/MP-products-M-50-Israeli-tank-1-35_W0QQitemZ120053809858