Does anyone know if there was any PE made for Tom Gannon's old MP Models M50 Sherman. I've got one hanging around that is not worth selling but some of the detail is a little soft. I think a set of PE might bring it around.

I've seen an Aber set for the Dragon M50 and I know On The Mark did a PE set for post war Shermans back when the Italeri M4A1 and Tamiya M4A3 were the only Shermans in town.

Any suggestions?

Robin,
AFAIK, there aren't any aftermarket sets geared specifically towards the MP kit. I have the MP along with the Aber set for the DML M50. I think the Aber set will be fine for the MP kit. I also have the AFV Club T80 track set to use on it as I think the MP tracks are a bit too thick. The On the Mark stuff is geared more towards basic E8 than the Israeli stuff.

Which version of the M50 are you planning on doing?

Chris "toadman" Hughes
Toadman's Tank Pictures

I was planning on just building a Sherman tank OOB. Hard to do when faced with the multitudes of correction articles, AM availability for mainstream kits like Tamiya, Academy, Italeri, and Dragon.

I figured an old OOP kit would not have a lot geared towards it and I would be less tempted to buy some AM. Having said that, the tracks do look like a lot of clean up would be necessary and I do like AFV tracks. I also noticed a lot of finer details just not as sharp as even old Tamiya or Italeri details like headlight guards, etc.

Not sure how I will go about building this kit now let alone which variant to produce.

I think the old Verlinden Sherman Super Detail set with the small PE fret for headlights, taillights and .50 cal maybe just enough to do this kit up, and I have an old one rusting away too.

While some of the details are soft, its still a good kit accuracy wise. You might as well use the Verlinden set if you already have it. No sense in letting it go to waste.

If you want to build it up like the one on the box cover, I have a few pics on my website of an M50 that's quite similiar to the one in the kit:
M50

If you can find AFV Modeller issue #21(yes, a shameless plug), I have a 60 picture photo essay of an M50 in there as well. Of course, Tom Gannon's book on Israeli Shermans is good for ideas too as it includes pictures of the tank that the kit is modeled on.

Hi Robin ...You might think about buying the Aber set for the M4A4 as well as it is based on the M4A4..Maybe a few parts from Formations might help it out a bit too . (I'm thinking of the transmission cover) That seam is going to be tough to get rid of ... Good luck with your project ..Have fun with it.

Rick