Friday, January 27, 2012

Plastic Soldier Company's Allied M4A2 Sherman Tank

Recently I purchased for the first time a kit from Plastic Soldier Company.  I picked up their Sherman Tank box.  There are 5 tanks in the box for $30.00 which isn't a bad price for 5 tanks.

Each tank and all of it pieces and variations come on one sprue.  Each model has the possibility of being three different tanks.  A 75mm Thin Mantlet, 75mm Wide Mantlet and a 76mm Cast Drive Cover.
I decided to make the 75mm Wide Mantlet version.  After taking all of the pieces off that I needed, I should point out that the only instructions are one page, front and back.  The different versions are color coded with a picture of what they look like on one side and an exploded view of the pieces coming together.
Everything goes together by visual representation, also there aren't any reference numbers to correspond the different variations to one model type.

While building it I did have some issues with the tracks and the fenders.  The tracks come in two pieces and they require one to put the top part of the track on the chassis wheels first and then mount the chassis to the tank.  This prevents the track from falling off while waiting for the glue to dry.  Once that dried putting the bottom part of the track on required some fiddling as the track does not fit snuggly up against the road wheels.  Also the two tracks do not touch when applied.
This will require adding some green stuff or some other filler to close the gaps.

The fenders do not have any guides or notches to place them against to ensure a proper fit.  So arranging the fender so it was level proved tricky.  I did a number of dry runs before adding the glue.  I'm not happy with the way it went together since it left gaps on the front.

Overall the model went together quickly.  I do think that it would be easier to have had rubber tracks in the kit or pre-molded tracks all ready applied to the chassis wheels.

Here are some photos of the completed model.  It has not been painted as I'm waiting to finish all 5.






1 comment:

  1. Very nice review sir! I'm dusting off my Americans trying to figure out what I need to add and I'm looking at more Sherman's and these guys seem the way to go at least for the price ... so it was good to see a thorough review with some nice pictures as well!! Endless thanks! Great blog too btw!!

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