Hi
In my stash I have an old 1/35 Tamiya M4A4 Sherman that I was given as a gift, therefore I was wondering if there is any conversion kit for this to make a Sherman Firefly as I am more interested in British than US armour, if so who makes it and where can i get it from. Thanks, Nick

Hi Nick,

D you mean the Tamiya M4 (Early)?

If so you can make it into a Mk I or a M4 Firefly VC.

Cheers

Al

Hi Alan, no I didn't but I did make a mistake it should be an M4A3, woops , did the british use this at all, if so do i need to convert it at all or was it the same as the US one? Here is a photo of the box art:

Cheers, Nick

Hi Nick,

i don't believe they were ever issued for general service to the British. I could be wrong but that's as I remember it.

I'll look it up when I get back home. You could probably used the lower hull and quite a few bit and get an alternative upper hull.

Still never say never with Shermans but I think they only receiived about 7/9 of these for trials.

Cheers

Al

Ok, thanks Alan, Nick

Nick: The M4A3 wasn't used operationally by the UK. To convert it to a Firefly, you might as well go and get a real Firefly kit. Several boxings are available from DML. Here in the US, off of Ebay, they go for under $20.

By far the best Firefly VC kit is the Tasca one but that one runs about US$55 from Hong Kong online shops.

There is almost nothing in the Tamiya kit you can use and you'd have to spend $30-40 worth of aftermarket parts to get Firefly bits.

HTH

Hi Roy, Thanks for that info. Nick

What you can do is convert it to a Brit Sherman 1b (M4 105) by adding a 105 gun and mantlet and converting the engine deck and rear to an M4 type. Probably not the best way to go (I'd prefer starting wit hthe OLD DML POA 105 M4A3 kit.
Apart from that it's not really open to Brit use.
Cheers
Al

Hi Al
That sounds interesting, I have a while to go probably before I build it so I may look for some refernce etc. Cheers, Nick

See reply to PM
AL