Designed as an airborne tank, the M22 Light Tank was not used in combat with the American Army because a transport plane with a large enough cargo hold was not available. The British Army however had the Hamilcar Glider, and several "Locusts" served with the 6th Airborne Division during the Rhine crossings in 1945.
This metal model is made by Skytrex/Hinchliffe, and is in 1/76 scale. A quick little assembly project needing minimal trimming. I added the antenna, smoke dischargers, and decals. The figure was included. The model is painted with Testors Olive Drab.
The forerunner of the Stuart M3 light tank was the M2A4. A handful were used in the Pacific during the battle for Guadacanal; that being its only combat action in WWII. It was basically obsolete (too weakly armored) at the outbreak of the war, yet had some successes along with Stuart tanks during the fighting.
The kit is a conversion of the Matchbox kit, following the procedure outlined for a 1/35 scale project by Joe Morgan in "Fine Scale Modeler presents Modeling the Second World War", Kalmbach Publishing, 1995. One has to modify the suspension, rear decking, mufflers, and tool stowage, as well as the gun and mantlet. Vision ports also need to be added on the turret sides. The markings are estimations based on photos of other vehicles used in the campaign. The commander figure is in metal from MMS. Overall a nice little project. Of course, as soon as I started it, Milicast came out with its own resin kit!
The M4A3E2 Assault Tank was an uparmored
version of the Sherman, designed to stand up to superior German firepower.
Armor thickness on the hull was increased to 100mm! Typically, a single
"Jumbo", as these tanks were called, would lead a column of tanks
into battle, and were the only American "heavy" tank pending the
arrival of the M26. Only 254 Jumbos were built, so they were somewhat rare.
This model is armed with the 76mm gun (the kit actually comes with the 75mm
gun), and the tracks are augmented by "grousers" to decrease the
weight per track area ratio.
FINE SCALE FACTORY makes this 1/72 resin rendition. Casting is very nice and there are lots of parts; the resin tracks come in small sections that get wrapped around the running gear. I added the antenna and tow hooks, plus some stowage. I gave it a faded olive drab paint job with decals from the spare box. The crew has painted out the hull stars with darker olive drab paint.
This is "Elowee", an M4A1 76mm wet stowage Sherman Tank. She served with the 2nd Armored Division in the Cotenin peninsula, France. The M4A1 wet chassis had larger crew access hatches than the hull for the 75mm turrets. The "E-1" turret marking indicated the company commander; by the time the vahicle took part in the St. Lo breakout the turret marking was painted over.
This 1/72 plastic model is made by TRUMPETER from China. I assembled it as per the instructions and only added the antenna and crew figure. The color scheme is Olive Drab with bands of Earth Brown (in this case Testors' Faded OD and French Chestnut) and a dusting of light brown. The kit appears to be modular and shares parts with other Sherman kits, so there are several spare parts you will not need. Two different MGs are available to mount on the turret. Also, there is the option of an "easy assembly" suspension, with one-piece bogies instead of the multi-piece assemblies, most likely designed with the young (or very old) modeller in mind.
The instructions are not as complete as I would like. Historical background is on the outside of the box, not in the instructions. There are decals for three different vehicles, but diagrams for only one color/decal scheme (luckily I have a good reference for Elowee). Decal #7 is misidentified as #8 in the diagram. There is a partial diagram for creating the antenna out of sprue, but a novice may not understand it. Also, pay careful attention to the diagrams to see which parts are options and which are not needed! The tracks are single piece rubber pieces, which some modellers will not like. The on deck tools are molded on the hull as opposed to separate pieces. I opened up the lift hooks on the turret and hull; some of you may want to add wire headlamp guards. I do like the fit of parts and overall quality of molding; there is even some accurate roughness in the surface of the cast hull.
In summary, the kit is a bit reminiscent of the Airfix, Nitto, and Matchbox Shermans, but has better proportions. Not as good as ESCI, although the turret may be a good substitute for the ESCI incorrect 75mm turret of their M4A1 wet hull! Many reviews are critical of some of the soft detail and the soft tracks, but I can recommend this kit for beginners or for advanced modellers who may want the occasional simple build.
HaT Industrie, world-renowned for their
Napoleonics and Airfix reissues, has entered the small scale AFV arena.
This is their first kit, geared primarily for the wargaming market. Similar
in complexity to Eidai (aka Arii or Grip) kits. With only eight parts, it
is easy to assemble a whole army of these for your tabletop adventures.
They come packaged two to a box.
The casting is very nice, although some details are absent. The plastic is a bit softer than other plastic kits, so be careful if using a knife to modify it. I used Testors Model Masters paint, but this brand (which always seemed a bit oily to me) did not seem to hold as well as I'de like. Maybe humbrol will work better on this plastic.
I've given the kit a basic paint job of earth red bands over olive drab (which the US army used from 1944 in some units), with rust colored tracks and black tires. For some gamers, this might suffice. I have added a number of details: decals, tow rings and hooks, lifting rings, vision holes, headlights with guards, bow, turret, and co-axial MGs, and some stowage in back. I could add more stowage and a gun travel lock...and if I can find the parts I just might.
So what kind of Sherman is this? The kit represents the following configuration: welded hull, early turret with a single commander's hatch, 75mm gun in the M34A1 mount, no vision slots in the front armor, one-piece differential housing, no loader's hatch in turret side, track return rollers located towards the rear, sand shields, early block style track pattern, driver's/radio op. hatches that open at right angles to hull sides, and the rear decking without vents. I guess it is a mid/late-production M4. The hull might be suitable for converting the Italeri (ex-ESCI) Sherman!
US CASTS issues this resin model of the M26 Pershing. The model comes with figures and hatches; I added cable, decals and antennae.
Developed from the T26 Medium Tank, the Pershing was a response to the need for a vehicle capable of taking on the German Panthers and Tigers. Full production was ordered in January 1945, and vehicles saw action both in Europe and the Pacific theater.
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