I recently came back to this hobby after a four year hiatus and want the next kit I build to be a Sherman since I’ve never built one before. However, I have run into a small problem: there are so many versions of this available that I am having trouble figuring out which one to buy. So my question is, what kits do you folks recommend? I already plan on getting that new Dragon one, but what are some others that are good?
I’ve heard (from an expert source) that the best kit on the market right now (subject to change daily!!) is the Dragon Red Army one, with the Academy USMC (NOT Red Army) being a close second.
Welcome to the forum. Keep asking those questions. It can keep you out of “bad kitdom”!!
I have the Tamiya Sherman early and it is a nice kit and goes together well. No indy tracks to worry about either.
The M4A2 Russian Dragon do looks a great kit, im doing it in a Sherman group build
the new Dragon Firefly is good too but has the indy tracks, there good tracks but take your sanity away from you
the Academy M10 and M36 kits are packed full of bits and look great
if you want 1:72 scale, i think the italiery one is pretty nice. it has the engine and grills, also you get a choice of strip or link tracks. no photoetched parts however. it’s the short-barrelled one and i believe it’s an M4 since the engine is radial. i have the kit but haven’t built it yet, from my experience with italiery it’s probably a nice solid kit.
Think about this, if you want a really nice, accurate Sherman with plenty of petite detailing, any of the Dragon/DML/Shanghai Dragon Shermans will do just fine. Some of them are a little tricky to build, especially if you do not have a lot of experience with single link tracks. The latest M4A2 comes with vinyl tracks though.
Tamiya’s Shermans (except for the M4A3E2 Jumbo) are accurate kits that build rather easily. The have good detail and are fine kits. They do tend to be a little more than Dragon kits though.
Also don’t overlook the Academy Shermans. They do several IDF Shermans as well as an M4A2.
This kit is actually a 25 year old Esci kit that Italeri has recently reissued. The main problem with this kit is the variant it represents was a rare one that Sherman experts say only was used as a Duplex Drive (amphibious) Sherman. There is still debates about this fact.
The kit has the cast hull of the M4A1 with the later style large driver/co-driver hatches. This hull was normally found with the long barrel 76mm gun and late turret, not the short barrel 75mm and early turret.
In 1/35th- The Tamiya Sherman is a real nice and trouble free build. There is one thing you may or may not want to correct, depending on how anal you get- there is an open area under the sponson that needs filled with sheet styrene. Not a big deal because it is pretty easy and if you don’t want to be bothered, it is real hard to see anyway. The Dragon Sherman is a little more complicated of a build, but they are the best around, especially the M4A1 early, the newer release Firefly and the M4A2 Red Army . They have more being released this year. The Academy is a good kit as well. Never done an Italeri, so I cannot speak for them.
Dragon has the best for 1/35 scale. (the red army one)
as for 1/72, get the Italeri one! It’s great!
http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/articles.html
Here’s a good collection of Sherman reference and build articles
Thanks for all the suggestions. These will definately come in handy.
The new Tamiya 1/48 scale Sherman is yet another choice. As pointed out by another forumer, here is a good review on Hyperscale
http://misc.kitreview.com/armourreviews/sherman48eviewsp_1.htm
http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/paintingvehicleswithtrackssp_1.htm
http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/paintingvehiclessp_4.htm
the Eduard 1.72nd kits are ment to be great
http://www.eduard.com/./products/card.php?id_product=3738&name=&catalogue_nb=&type=&pgroup=&scale=&product_month=&product_year=&page_start=
but at $29.99