Hey Ron,

I got me the new Italeri Sherman last week, and while I am not a Sherman expert and cannot comment on accuracy I would be glad to give ya a quick overview. The kit is typical Italeri. It looks all good, except for the texturing on the turret and the transmission cover, the stiff vinyl tracks and sink marks on a few parts (the drive sprocket being the most anoying one). The kit comes with two types of wheels, the solid ones and the ones with the holes on them (sorry for the lack of jargon there). New parts include the snorkel air intakes, simulated wood planks for protection against mines, a new rear engine deck for one of the versions .............and thats about it. It shure looks cool to me!

As I said on a couple of posts before, I have sent Modeling Madness a built up article on Tamiya's M4 Early Prod kit. The article should be up late this week or next week.

Hope this helps you in any way, and lets see how the experts can correct me or add to my account :-)

~~~and thats the story

Folks---it's a cruel world. I "have" to go on a business trip to Italy in late March. Does anyone know where the Italeri factory is located in the land of wine and cheese?
thanks
DJ

DJ, (sound like a real bummer...lol) Italeri's address is:

Phone: +39 (051) 726037
Fax: +39 (051) 726459
Address: Via Pradazzo 6/B - 40012 Calderara di Reno BO- Italy

Calderara di Reno is just North-NorthWest of the airport in Bologna. Hope you get a chance to get there...would love to hear about it, or even see some pictures of it!!

19K--Lord love you. I am going to Bologna! Yahooo!
thanks
DJ

WOW,...YOU ARE ONE LUCKY GUY!!! :-) :-) :-)

Please, try to get some pics if at all possible. One day I too wish to visit a model plant...I started to feel that ugly green headed monster rear it's head!!!

According to the experts (not me by any stretch) the M4A2's rear upper hull plate is more vertical than the M4A3's rear plate. Additionally, the exhaust set up for the tank is the M4A3's and not correct for an M4A2. I don't know what the "correct" set up would look like, I do plan on getting the kit because I think the wading gear/wooden armor look cool too. It's the rivet counters' complaints that got this kit pulled off the shelves back in 1989-1990. Let's hope they keep it down so some of us who want to build another Sherman get a chance to buy one at retail price.

[quote]


Here, here, Rob! I too plan on getting this kit. Rob, any idea if this was corrected due to the "rivet-coounters" complaints?

And a scene like the one in Band of Brothers does sound really cool! And what better kit from OOB to do it from...

It was labeled as the M4A2 "Jumbo", shortly after Tamiya released their M4A3E2 Jumbo. It was immediately panned as not being a "Jumbo". I had bought one and sent it to a friend for Christmas. It was a decent M4A3 75mm tank and it disappeared too soon. (remember back then we only had the Italeri and Tamiya ones around, the Nichimo was scarce and OOP). It was reissued once again back in 1996 as the Calliope with the addtion of the rocket rack. Now they've added the wooden applique armor and wading trunks and a new engine cover for the back deck. I believe the running gear is still the same as the old M4A1, M-31 TRV, M-36 Jackson, Kangaroo APC and M-7 Priest. They're getting a lot of mileage out of those molds.

Has anyone built the Sherman Crab? I bought a flail set by Coree the other day and am dying to put it on a Sherman. Appreciate learning about any pitfalls. The instructions leave much to be desired.
Thanks
DJ

The Sherman Crab...no, at least not I, DJ. Now that would be a nice addition to an M4 collection. Another nice addition and cool type would be the with the T-1E3 Mine Roller. Verlinden makes it, but it's those prices that keep me away for now.
One day.

Wow DJ going to Italy in March, you lucky dog! Bouna fortuna! Tu parli italiano? Need a translator, I can fake it. My great grandfather was from Isernia, came here in 1880, I envy you, hoping to get there someday.

Ron Cimorelli
Ashtabula, Oh

19K---I sought the mine rollers, but the price as I recall was staggering. Some $40 if memory serves me correctly. This flail looks super kool. However, the instructions are so typiucally lousy. I get annoyed at this aspect of the aftermarket products. You dump the bucks into the kit and see nothing but some vague drawing of the end product. I recall the CMD 75mm addition to the M-21 half track. It took me the better part of a month just to compare their concept and the real thing. I am not even sure that I ever got some of it in the correct spots.
DJ

Ron--this will be my fourth trip over there. I usually go to either Rome, Venice,or Florence. Bologna will be a new experience. Let you know how I make out. Going in late March.
DJ

Sabot,

Thanks for the tips Shipmate!!!!!!! I love being on a modeling forum, nothing but good help from great folks!

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

However, the instructions are so typiucally lousy. I get annoyed at this aspect of the aftermarket products. You dump the bucks into the kit and see nothing but some vague drawing of the end product. .... It took me the better part of a month put bold text here

Gee, have I heard that before! You're absolutely right DJ. Why is it that these conditions exist in the armour modeling industry? I don't know about you guys, but if I tried to do my job (custom home building) and turned a set of blueprints in to either the customer or the city planner that looked like most of the 'instructions' I've come across. I'd be fired by the customer, and laughed out of the industry by the zoning board!!!
Seriously, my 9 year old daughter could, and has, done a better job of drawing out directions to her pool party than some of these 'professionals' have done on a product they plan to sell to the public for a hefty profit!
And you want to know who's to blame for it, and why they are able to continue to get away with it? US! As long as we're willing to accept such shoddy crap, they're willing to feed us shoddy crap. The aviation modeling community sure did a heck of a job on ' raising the bar' regarding their product. What is it with the armour community?
Heck, maybe I'm just more full of road apples then I thought.....

Tread.

Damn, sorry about that screwed up 'qoutes in bold' attempt above I guess I'll have to practice a bit more.
The top qoute (first paragraph) above was from DJ. I just screwed up the text thing, sorry.
I'll try to get it right next time

Too true, Rob
I just pulled out my copy. On the sprue with the running gear they have the kit #'s that it is for,
#203,204,206,225,250,253,288 and 6389.

Tread--I just sent Jim a copy of an M4 fitted with T-1E3 mine rollers displaying an air recognition panel on the rear deck. Bryan asked about the placement and use of the VS-17 panel. What is interesting is that this particular tank has a "pusher plate" fabricated on the rear. Apparently, the weight of the rollers was such that the tank often become bogged down. This then required another tank to push it out of the bog. Interesting. I also appreciate your comments on aftermarket instructions. What a novel idea to stage a protest over aftermarket instruction sheets. Gunnie and I discussed some time ago the terrible (and I emphasize again terrible) instruction sheet given for the $90 Sheridan tank by Jaguar. Love to put together a petition to the folks at either Jaguar or VLS telling them to get their act together.
DJ

DJ, sorry to take so long to get back to you, sometimes these posts just get ' lost' because of the sheer speed that people are posting, but I guess that's a good thing :-)

On to your response regarding my post on the instruction sheet thing. First, thanks for the agreement in kind, as it were. A ground swell 'movement' could begin right here. Supported by other modeling sites of course. I think it would be a feather in Jim's cap, or possibly a thorn, depending on Jim's attitude towrds the issue, to become the source and initiator of change amoung the ranks of kit manufacturers. You and I both know how much it costs to create a resin casting of something, and when the retail price tag is $100. or more a copy, well, I can only compare it to the likes of companies like Adobe. They spend the time to write a program for the computer like Photoshop, and they charge out the ying yang for it to recoup their initial investment. Understandable. Butttttt, then they continue to charge the very same thing for it for YEARSsssss, when the only thing they've done to upgrade the product is an extremely small code tweak or functionality addition. You know, it's kinda like a toll road. Toll booth is up to pay for the initial construction dollars,but does the booth ever come down? Not in most cases.

The bottom line here is, as I said previously. The reason they only put in sophmoric instruction sheets is because WE accept sophmoric instruction sheets.

Tread.

Hey all;
for a winter camo easy follow:
first, paint overall model white, then drybrush using the proper colour, in the case Olive Green at the points of weathering,,,

Paulo--is that how you got the effect on the T-34?
DJ

DJ - I think that's an affirmative on Paulo's paint trick. Works pretty well I thought.

Tread - Know what you mean about the speed of new threads. Have you tried the Latest Posts link because you can also select it to show posts from a certain hour range. So if you know you haven't been here in say 18 hrs just put that in and go.

Jim

Many thx Jim, never used that 'Latest Posts' thing before....damn synapses!

Tread.