Just pcked this up last night after reading the comments on the board yesterday. Can someone explain the history of this tank? It says red army, I assume russian. How did they get a Sherman? Can this be built as an American Sherman? Very ignorant when it comes to armor. Ask me about South Pacific Corsairs!
The M4A2 (twin diesel engined variant) were provided to the Russians via the Lend Lease program during WW2. The Dragon M4A2 76mm Sherman was not used by the US. Marines used the M4A2 75mm (different gun/turret) in the Pacific.
You could trade your 76mm turret with someone for an earlier 75mm turret to make a USMC tank.
The US Army passed on the diesel engined Sherman to reduce the logistics strain a second fuel type would produce.
Where would one find a replacement 75 mm turret/gun to make the kit a USMC Sherman?
Take a look at formationsmodels.com or tigermodels.com. Both sites have a lot of good Sherman conversions/kits. If you go to tigermodels.com, the Sherman parts are under “TWS”. Trakz, Legends and Resicast also have Sherman parts. HTH
it might be easier to wait for Dragons USMC M4A2
or pick up Academy’s M4A2 (although a couple of the versions are actually M4A3s. The ones with wood armor, specifically). Very nice kit, though. See my SHERMAN IN PROGRESS thread here for pics
Also, the Dragon M4A2 Okinawa is available for preorder on Greatmodels.
I think you mean Italeri’s M4, but you are right. That kit with wooden armor builds into an M4A3 75mm.
FTMP, you can mix and match your Red Army M4A2 hull and the 75mm turrets from these kits:
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the Tamiya M4A3 kit,
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the DML M4A1 Early,
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the DML Sherman Ic Hybrid. Loads of spare parts (e.g. an “extra” turret and lower hull IIRC), but it’s OOP, and it’s going price on eBay is just ludicrous.
The beauty of kitbashing your kit with one of these is, even after using any one of the 75 mm turrets from those kits on your Red Army M4A2 hull, you can still build a full-up kit from the other parts between the two kits…and still have a complete suspension set and some other goodies leftover for other Sherman projects or to trade with someone.
The Sherman is pretty much as close to Frankenstein as an armor modeler can get. All sorts of variants and mixes are available to be made.
Thanks for the information. I have the Academy M4A2 US Marines Sherman 13203 and am waiting for the Dragon M4A2 Red Army Sherman 6188 (on order) and was just curious if the Red Army one could be made into a Marines version. It looks like it can be from what I have read.
What about the hull, did the USMC use the newer hulls ?
I think so, at least on Saipan in June '44. I’m not a Shermaholic, though I play one here in this thread, har, har.
Seriously, though, I think they used them on Saipan, maybe even Peleliu.
You might want to consider just building it as a Russian Sherman. The Russians were very down on the Sherman for a while, but their crews loved them, as the vaunted Russian vehicles were horrible to serve in, whereas the Shermans were rather more reliable, and much more comfortable. And the Russian denegration of the tank to the contrary, the Sherman made its own contribution to the Soviet war effort. (There are actually Shermans in war monuments in several locations in Russia testifying to that fact.)
In fact, the first Soviet unit to enter Vienna was a unit equipped with the M4A2.
Yes Thanks. I understood that turret needed replacing from a previous post.