Revell Sherman M4A1 (03290) 1:72

[Mike]

Sherman M4A1 (03290)

1:72 Revell

 

 

The M4 Sherman was developed in the early part of WWII as an answer to the Panzer III and IV, again which it faired very well, outclassing them in armour and armament. It was designed from outset to be fast, reliable and easy to repair, which were key in its continued survival to the end of WWII and beyond, causing the effective leap-frogging of the M26 Pershing directly to the next generation of Main Battle Tanks. Sharing much in the way of mechanicals with the earlier M3 Lee, the Sherman was powered by a Continental radial engine that was mounted in the rear and powered by gasoline/petrol. It had a fully cast hull and turret (initially) and sported a 75mm gun, which was soon uprated in later sub-variants to a 76mm M1 gun with higher muzzle velocity and a re-structured magazine that contained more armour-piercing shells for killing other tanks.

 

Production of the M4A1 began in 1942 and ended May 1944, with their first in battle at El Alamein in late 1942 with the British 8th Army, but was used extensively by the US, Poland, China, and by the French in smaller numbers. Over 6,000 were made before production was switched to the M4A1(76)W with the T-23 turret and wet stowage hull.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of the venerable Matchbox kit, and as a lot of folks really like that, it’s no bad thing.  The kit arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of one of the decal options on the front, and a few shots of a completed model in the same captured “Beutepanzer” scheme on the rear.  Inside are three sprues in an olive drab styrene, a small decal sheet and the instruction booklet with colour profiles of the two decal options at the rear.  It’s an ageing tooling, but it was well-detailed back in the day, and holds up pretty well considering its age with no visible mould-wear on this pressing.

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the lower hull, which has outer walls added along with the rear bulkhead in preparation for the suspension bogies that are made up from two wheels trapped between the front and back halves of the bogies, three per side and each side handed appropriately.  The idler wheels and two-part drive sprockets are added on the ends of the track runs, then the rear bulkhead is outfitted with exhausts and air cleaners in pairs.

 

 

The tracks are moulded as link-and-length in the same styrene as the rest of the kit, with long runs on the straight sections, short runs on the diagonals, and individual links on the highly curved sections at the ends.  This will give the tracks the correct faceted look, and with some sympathetic painting to bring out the detail they should look great.

 

The upper hull is a single moulding, with the cast glacis plate added to the front and the apron at the rear, then the details such as headlights, bow machine gun, travel lock and front hatches are glued in place, to be joined by the full-length side skirts later.  The turret is made up of top and bottom halves, with a side hatch, commander’s cupola that can be left open or closed, and gunner’s hatch, which can be cut in half to pose open if you wish, joined finally by the glacis plate and the main gun barrel, which will benefit from having the muzzle drilled out if you feel the need.  The turret locks into place on the hull with a bayonet attachment, and you can add a .30cal on a pintle-mount with ammo box in front of the less well-appointed hatch.

 

Markings

There are two decal options on the sheet, one of which is a captured vehicle in olive drab, the other in US service with some camouflage applied.  From the box you can build either one of the following:

 

• Sherman M4A1, unknown unit, German “booty” tank
• Sherman M4A1, Company D, 66th Armoured Regiment, 2rd Armoured Division, “Spearhead” Division, Operation Cobra, July 1944, Normandy Campaign

 

 

 

 

Decals are by Zanetti, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

 

Conclusion

This is a welcome re-release of the old Matchbox plastic, and it’s holding up very well for its age.  The decal options are interesting and unusual too.

 

Highly recommended,

 

Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations, but there are many shops stocking their products where you can pick up the kits either in the flesh or online.

 

 

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

  or

[GreenDragon]

Been a very long time since I built one but that doesn't look like the Matchbox kit to me. Theirs is a welded slab sided hull Firefly in 1/76th scale and comes with a section of damaged bridge.

 

Paul Harrison

[hwallen1410]

Have to admit I thought the same, as I can't recall ever having seen one of these in a Matchbox box back in the day.

 

But a quick search came up with the following

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/matchbox-40181-sherman-m4a1--164519

 

You learn something every day on this site

[Mike]

1 minute ago, hwallen1410 said:

You learn something every day on this site

That goes double for writing reviews

[fatfingers]

I think Matchbox were already owned by Revell when the kit was originally released. Find it a bit odd though that the box art shows a 75mm gun version yet the kit in the box is a T23 turret with the 76mm gun 🤔

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[noelh]

23 hours ago, fatfingers said:

I think Matchbox were already owned by Revell when the kit was originally released. Find it a bit odd though that the box art shows a 75mm gun version yet the kit in the box is a T23 turret with the 76mm gun 🤔

 

Regards,

 

Steve

The box art is correct. The original beutepanzer Sherman M4A1 was a 75mm captured in Tunisia. The kit is the M4A1 (76). Yet another bizarre cock up from Revell. 

 

http://beutepanzer.ru/Beutepanzer/us/M4_sherman/m4-75-sherman-01.htm

 

At least 'DUKE' was a 76mm version. But the name is much too large. 

Edited June 22, 2021 by noelh

[AWFK10]

Revell acquired all the old Matchbox moulds in 1991, along with the right to use the Matchbox name for a period of 10 years. For some reason, they applied it to new boxings of kits that had never been part of the Matchbox range, such as the He-219. I think the Uhu was their own 1960s kit but if I remember rightly they did also adopt this marketing policy for some ex-Frog kits of German aircraft. This Sherman is a Revell original that they chose to release in 1994 under the Matchbox brand. Apparently it was tooled in South Korea:

 

http://www.matchboxkits.org/product_info.php?cPath=100_110_115&products_id=204