Hi all. Been a long time. This thought arose after doing the Dragon kit lately...What would it take to get a kit manufacturer to 'get it right' with what they respectively include (the good stuff) in their kits and have them all in one kit? What I mean is, in my opinion a 'lil gem' of a Sherman would be inclusive of:
Tamiya - Turret (early), Pioneer tools
Italeri - Solid road wheels (with detail both sides)
Dragon - Hull & 1 + 3 piece trans. housings (for the textured finish), Drivers hatches, PE rear deck vent covers, seperate fuel caps, ind. track links, etc.
Forget after market, (ok, so a periscope set would be grand!) I think that building light guards yourself out of PE sprue or even aluminium plumbers flashing...
How good would a straight kit build be if it had the good parts of each set? Oh well, that's probably the exact reason we chop and change and combine and alter and fiddle and twist and bash kits to our perfection!

The best way to get all you need to make a great M4A1 is to buy the Formations kit ..You get just about everything you need ...Great turret (even earlier than the Tamiya one ),excellent hull ,super tools with the straps moulded on...a nice set to fix the Italerie bogies...all you need is an old Italeri kit and you are good to go! For $55.00 you get pretty much all you need.

Rick