33rd Armoured Division Sherman I

[paulwdxb]

Hi, I'm planning to build a small diorama based on a photo of a Stuart III and Sherman I during Operation Charnwood. Minor problem - I went looking for a 1/35 British Sherman I, and I don't seem to be able to find one! Am I correct in thinking there is no Sherman I on the market at the moment?

 

Does anyone have any pointers to an after-market conversion kits that I can look at? 

 

I did look at the Dragon M4 Sherman Normandy 75mm (6511) kit - but it looks like that is not available any longer. 

 

Looks like unless you want a Firefly there's not a lot of British Shermans on the 1/35 market at the moment.

 

Cheers,

Paul

[junco]

Hi Paul, the Dragon Normndy Sherman seems to be only available at a ridiculously high price from China at the moment.

 

Why not look at TMD Tiger Model Designs website tigermeodeldesigns.com  as he sells M4 hull tops, I have some in the stash and they are the best you can get, only snag is there are multiple manufacturers to choose from.

 

If you want a M4 composite, go to plastmodels.pl and get an Asuka China Clipper.

 

All the best,

Neil

 

 

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, junco said:

If you want a M4 composite, go to plastmodels.pl and get an Asuka China Clipper.

 

I can recommend them as I've just received a kit from them. Ordered one week ago and couriered over. Excellent service.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

The Dragon Sherman's seem to come in and out of production, as do the Asuka ones. A  little while ago Fireflies where like rocking horse teeth and then a glut came on Ebay, before the RFM one was announced, I'd just keep tabs on there if I where you, that's where all mine came from. 

Good luck

Darryl 

[fatfingers]

If accuracy is not a problem theres always the Tamiya M4 Sherman!  

 

Recently finished one myself as a 33rd AD tank. As the others have said the Asuka and Dragon kits go for silly money these days.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Kingsman]

In British formations Shermans I, I Hybrid and II were mixed up. Any with the radial engine could and did serve together. All 75mm production had ended months before DDay so it became harder to keep units equipped with the same type. 7AD almost exclusively had Cromwells partly because of the shortage of 75mm Shermans. We didn't like the 76mm much because of its poor HE round.

 

So you could easily think about a I Hybrid instead. Also, dont forget that all ALCO M4s were built as DV right to the end, and we had these. So the Dragon M4 DV is an option if you can get it. Not sure what features you get in the kit for early/mid/late production.

 

Dragon's Composite PTO or Firefly Hybrid kits are options. The Firefly has UK stowage bins etc but you can only make a 75mm version from the kit parts by fiiling in the loader's hatch or swapping the turret shell. The PTO kit would need UK pattern stowage boxes etc.  The Asuka IC is certainly better but I don't know if you can build a 75mm OOB and it still has the loaders hatch problem.

 

There was a Dragon welded IC Firefly kit from which you could build a 75mm, but again there is the hatch problem unless Dragon left the original turret shell in the box.

 

Asuka's M4 Fay works. So does their M4A1 Late or the afore-mentioned China Clipper composite.

 

Dragon is re-issuing all the kits with DS tracks with new link and length tracks. And taking the opportunity to hike the price......  So they will probably be back.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Das Abteilung
Bad spelling!

[paulwdxb]

Thanks for all the responses so far. It does look like I'm in for a conversion job. I'll take a look at the TMD site for the upper hulls, and check out the Asuka Firefly IC and the Asuka M4 "Fay". 

 

One last question - is there a definitive resource/book on Sherman variants? I'm a "returner" to the hobby, I used to have some books "Nuts and Bolts" and a series of Polish books on panzers when I had a preference for German armour - these used to have great fine line drawings of variants etc.

 

I will post the project once it gets off the ground.

 

Cheers,

Paul  

[paulwdxb]

Hi all, I found http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/sherman_types/m4/m4.html which seems to be a great Sherman resource.

[junco]

The website is very good, for a book I would recommend Son of Sherman by David Doyle, Ampersand Books.  Can be very expensive as out of print currently, available as both hardback and softback, you can find used copies on ebay occasionally but it's the luck of the draw if you can get one at a reasonable price? I believe the hardback originally was at least 40 odd quid. It's a detailed study of all the versions and manufacturers variants.

Review on Missing Lynx.

 

Perhaps a touch overkill unless you have at least 30 plus Sherman kits in the stash!!!

 

Concord publications did a British Sherman photo book by Dennis Oliver, which can be picked up for about 20 quid but again luck of the draw on ebay and abebooks.

 

Regards, Neil

[Kingsman]

Son of Sherman is indeed excellent, at a price. I think I paid about £80 for mine back when it was in print. The old Hunnicutt book is still useful for the Sherman history if you can find a reprint (originals are truly silly money) but it doesn't detail all the production variations etc.

 

But the Sherman Minutia site is incredibly informative and trustworthy and access is free. To be honest that's probably all you really need.

 

But none of these will help you with user units etc. Who had what type and when.  That needs a lot more research and photo-surfing. It isn't helped by Ordnance considering all tanks of the same model from different plants to be interchangeable and shipping mixed manufacturer batches. However both UK and US were strict about not mixing engine types in the same Regiment. Which is fine for Sherman V, all Chrysler. But we had Sherman IIIs from all manufacturers. And we mixed up Sherman Is and IIs, which we also had from all the manufacturers. And from the front I Hybrids can be hard to tell from IIs, while from the rear it can be hard to tell a I from a I Hybrid. We even produced ARVs in all 3 engine types to go with them. The only exception was Fireflies. As there were no IIICs units with Sherman IIIs got ICs or VCs, as did some Cromwell units.

 

If your interest goes in the Israeli direction then Tom Gannon's book on IDF Sherman's is to be recommended.

 

And yes I have about 20 Shermans in my stash, although I've just built 4 of them in the last couple of weeks. Built, not finished.......