Rick Cooper treats us to a review of the Dragon Firefly 1c Welded hull version.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Thanks for the review Rick - it's on my wish list now.

Rick,

Another fine review from you. Excellent work.

BTW this was the kit that was suppose to be sent to me for review but due to an oversight at HQ it was sent to you.

I have requested the review of the new Tasca Firefly IC and have been told if and when it arrives it will be set aside for me.

Looking forward to adding my 2 cents worth at some point in the not to distant future.

Cheers,
Dave.

Good review Tom but having built the kit myself I have a rather less positive opinion. Just some of my thoughts after building it.

I agree most of the parts are very well moulded, but the fit isn't up to Dragon's usual standard. Some of the PE parts have no folding lines at all despite needing up to 4 folds. Some of the plastic parts have no connection points at all leading to sloppy butt joints. Dragon even managed to forget some of the locating holes to drill out in the upper hull, so some parts you just have to guess where to place them.

The instructions are some of the worst I have seen in a while with numerous parts numbered incorrectly and a couple that don't even exist. For the hull front brackets there are 2 diagrams to show how to position the PE yet they refer to different parts in each diagram, and these 2 diagrams are on the same page in the same construction step!

I think its fair to complain about the decal options. It's just damn lazy to only provide one. Even if Dragon couldn't find any other references they could of at least chucked in some gerneric ones. Any sort of choice is better than none.

I had the same thoughts as you when I looked in the box. It looked great and I couldn't wait to start it. In the end I rated it around 70% as the final product looked good but as an overall package it wasn't up to scratch. If your new to Shermans I would say to avoid this one. There are no explainations of the options and some assembly steps are very vague, espescially if your new to Shermans. I made numerous mistakes on the way and without the help from some of the guys on the forum it would of ended up looking like a jumble of different sherman parts chucked together. If Dragon would just get their act together with the instructions it would make a big difference.

Anyway, a very good inbox review and my points above can only really be seen once you start building it. Maybe I should submit a build review

Cheers
Matt

Hi Matt,

Sorry to hear your experience was about the same as mine with most DML Shermans! However, I'm only the editor on this one - Rick was the author! (I haven't got this kit myself, so cannot comment on specifics...)

Tom

Ah yes, sorry Tom, had a dopey moment there! Lets try that again, great review Rick!

Matt,

Nice catch on the front hull slip-up! I appreciate your comments on the fit, it's hard to know exactly how everything will fit together, it is where 'the rubber meets the road' so to speak. Now, what we need is your build review!! Hey, you opened up the door, I'm only pushing you through it!

Cheers,
Rick

PLEASE Matt ! Do a build review. I just aquired this kit and it will be my first Dragon Sherman. If I had known about all the pitfalls I would have skipped this one. So, Pretty Please !?
Tom

Thanks for the review Rick. It does indeed look like a nice little rendition of the Firefly. I think if you can muddle through Dragons typical offering of different version choices with no explanation of what pieces go with which version, you should be able to come out with a real winner.

Gary