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Egyptian Sherman, Six Day war 1967, Dragon 1/35


Stathis

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It's the new Sherman kit from Dragon. Simple and cheap (I think) kit, with one-piece DS tracks and not in individual pieces. 

The detail is very good. 

The Egyptian Shermans were the M4A4 type with the diesel engine of A2 and the French FL-10 turret with autoloader. 

If I remember well, they were all destroyed in the Six Day war. I have started building it. It looks very easy to build. 

 

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I was very disappointed with the value for money for this kit. 

 

The colour and the detail of the turret looks like it's made from an other company. Eastern Express or Heller! 

Actually, I think it is. The turret is from AMX-13. So if a company has already produced an AMX-13, then Dragon might have taken the sprues for this turret. 

 

The DS tracks are longer and I had to cut away one track link and it still looks if I must cut another one. I will see after painting. 

In my opinion, this kit should cost about 40 euros the most. My first Dragon kit was a Panther G with zimmerit, which is a whole lot better than this Sherman 

and costs 60 euros. 

 

Next time I'll wait for a proper review... 

 

gOyzwmj.jpg 

 

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Well, at least one of these survived because it's in the war museum in the Citadel in Cairo, but I think you've done a great job with the model itself.

 

Very interesting subject. 

 

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17 hours ago, Usman said:

Well, at least one of these survived because it's in the war museum in the Citadel in Cairo, but I think you've done a great job with the model itself.

 

Very interesting subject. 

 

Thanks Usman! I am struggling a bit with tanks, to be honest. 

 

What can I use for steaking? Did those tanks had any streaking at the desert? 

Also, did dust or mud stayed between track links or on the hull? I mean, in thedesert there is no rain, so what can I do to weather it? 

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4 minutes ago, Stathis said:

Thanks Usman! I am struggling a bit with tanks, to be honest. 

 

What can I use for steaking? Did those tanks had any streaking at the desert? 

Also, did dust or mud stayed between track links or on the hull? I mean, in thedesert there is no rain, so what can I do to weather it? 

Looks a great model. I did some extensive weathering on my M3 Grant, by applying a pale stone colour via an air brush to represent dust, of which there must have been plenty!

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Nice work thus far, Mr Clive. 

 

Egyptian vehicles were apparently a very pale colour, possibly cued from British Light Stone.  They would have been familiar with that colour and inherited some ex-British vehicles very probably in that colour.  Photos show them to be very lightly stowed - just the standard tools etc - in contrast to the usually-festooned IDF tanks.  Ying and Yang next to an M50.

 

There's another survivor at Yad La Shiron too.

 

I've long fancied doing one of these.  What I don't fancy at all are the utterly ridiculous prices Dragon/stores are applying to this kit and others in their Arab-Israeli series.  Does the new turret really add 50% to the the price of an M4A4 or Firefly?  Made worse by IMHO needing to bin the DS tracks in favour of indy links, another £10-35 depending on brand.  So I'll be waiting and/or continuing to watch out for donor parts.  The Verlinden turret comes up on eBay now and again.

 

I've never been a fan of flexi tracks, and stories are beginning to circulate of DS tracks disintegrating after a few years - although the jury is firmly out on whether that's a problem with the material or an effect of aggressive solvents in the finishing.

 

France was playing both sides here - who knew? - by working with Egypt on the FL10 conversion and with Israel on the M50 and M51, and selling them (and Lebanon!) AMX-13s.  There's a series of photos of the prototypes of all 3 in French colours and markings.  The FL-10 conversion prototype was on an M4A1.

 

I can see why IDF went for the M50 conversion rather than the FL-10 turret.  A dozen rounds in the autoloader magazines and then you need to take cover, get out and reload from outside - passing rounds out through the turret hatches.  Hmmmm.  Maybe we see why all were lost..........

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No worries.

 

Well, from what I remember the tank was *very* pale. It almost looked white in some cases. I'd send you a pic, but I don't have them with me at the moment. What's already been said above regards the colour is probably spot on.

 

Regards dust...it's *everywhere* in Cairo, and from what I remember in the Sinai if anything is moving around then it will get dusty, so the tracks should have a light dusting on them I'd say because it's not mud, so wouldn't cling. On our vehicles there was a light dusting. They still managed to kind of look clean at the same time. So I would say it would be the same with the tank. 

There's always a difference between what your eyes see and camera captures, but I'd say this pic is pretty much spot on regards the shade:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M4A4-AMX-13-latrun-2.jpg

 

 

Edited by Usman
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  • 5 weeks later...

Well, after some problems I couldn't leave behind, I made a slight progress by trying to do something with that tank. 

So, is this acceptable, or should I paint it again? 

 

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