I wonder if a late model Russian M4A2 be in the works ??

John, this represents the 75mm gun tank on the later glacis. It's pretty late. The only other item would be the switchover to the 23-inch HVSS tracks. The Sovs did receive these in decent quantity along w/similar 76mm armed gun tanks of both 19-inch and 23-inch tracks.

Anyone else notice the choice of a very rare turret ...Low bustle with loaders hatch ..I know there were some but this was changed quite quickly when the turret blocked the hull hatches .

Rick

I'd say buyers should probably raid the spares bin for German pioneer tools to "Germanize" it. The kit soesn't appear to come with German supplies.

They were used "as is". They didn't "Germanize" them, as say some of the stuff they did with T34s. This kit is realy nice spare parts bin.

This does seem a bit of a let down from DML in terms of how is this special other than it not being OD, however they must see a need, it will be of a high quality, cleanly moulded, and desire for it must be there so good luck to them.

John you are very right...That is exactly the reference dragon used for their kit ....It is nice to see this type of turret which I don,t we've had in plastic before ..I have a funny feeling this might be the turret we get with their PTO M4 kit that has been announced ...I might just wait for that one to come out .

This is a diagram showing which turrets were used with which variants published by Dan Fong over on ML.

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This is a diagram showing which turrets were used with which variants published by Dan Fong over on ML.

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The kit matches the fourth drawing--late, low bustle, 75mm turret with thickened cheek armor, split TCs hatch, and small oval loader's hatch. I presume most tanks in the production run had high bustle turrets (drawing 5; Hunnicutt page 150) making this a rare M4A2 variant from the Fisher plant produced in December 1943 or January 1944. Is that correct?

Do large hatch M4A2 and M4A3 tanks have the same upper hull tail plate angle? Would a large hatch M4A3 use the exact same hull found in this kit (other than the obvious necessity of swapping out the engine deck and adding the engine door supports)?

No, the tail plate of an M4A2 is about ten degrees off vertical (same as an M4), while an M4A3 is about 15 degrees. Hard to be dogmatic about the date of production based on the turret style, since US factories were not fastidious about using parts in the order they were delivered. Just call it an early M4A2 with 47 degree glacis. Loader's hatches were also available as kits to retrofit older turret shells during rebuilds, so they turn up rather more often on postwar tanks sent as foreign aid.