So i hve been working on the DDML Sherman III for about a week now and I must say tht I am far from "blown away" by this kit. Don't get me wrong I think its a sound value but it CERTAINLY has its detractions.

The radio pot on the RHS of the glacis is completely wrong - it should be the horse-shoe style seen on asll M4A2s up to the 47 degree hull variants.
There may be M4s with this configuration, but I haven't been able to find one.

The interior detail on alll the hatches is ruined by the clear periscopes and their mounts - these aren't even worth opening for show. I had to cut away all the detail and replace the periscope with a TMD pc just so I could put a fig in the turret!

They could have included the later single pc trans cover from their earlier kits.

The p/e is okay, but don't try to anneal it or you'll be left witha ruined Pierre Cardin shirt ( I know- I don't usually dress up so much for my modelling sessions!)

Suspension: Why not give us the intermediate set up with the Assymetrical skid. the spoked wheels don't seem to fit the suspension either- I replaced them with Academy's parts!

Having said all this - I want to reiterate that I like the kit for the subject and value, I guess i just feel that these kits don't measure up to the hype. I don't expect the manufacturers to ever produce the "perfect kit" - what would be the fun in buyilding that? But it would be nice to have them up to the level of the new Tasca Firefly's standards (Even with the heavy price tag)

I am sure I will get scalding returns from this post, but I know I am not alone in my feelings


Chris

Gday Chris
No scaldings here mate.
This is far rom a perfect kit, but that said it is a huge improvement from previous offerings... (Tasca aside, from what I've heard!)
The direct periscopes for the drivers hatches annoyed me too.
I went the Formations M4 conversion for this kit, but would have been helped by the inclusion of the one piece trans. cover, and some applique armour plates, and alternate one piece track. [Speaking of the tracks, I think they are great and a vast improvement on the fiddle of indic. linked track as the Sherman doesn't have the asssociated sag that indiv. links could accurately portray.] The radio pot seems far more common on the M4, which suited my needs as well as the construction of the glacis plate.
All in all I think as you said the perfect kit would not be as fun, as I know I have toiled for months in getting mine finished...




Brad

Brad, Good stuff...... I do like the tracks - the Best in styrene for sure! I also thought asbout hte Formations conversion, but I just couldn't wait that long!
Chris

Chris,
If you can get the book Armor Photogallery #11. One of the M4A2's in the book is on display, and it has that style of radio pot. There are a number of pictures in the book that are M4A2's per the credits that also have this feature as does the photographs of a later production early hull in the Hunnicutt book. More or less a standard deviation.

I personally like to read what problems modelers encounter with kits as it can really save time for me when I get to it. If you find any more, please let us know. The early cast nose shows up very (very) early on the M4A2's.
Tks,
Randy

Brad, How did the Formation items fit? Dan

Gday Dan
The fit is pretty good as I recall...
Be super careful removing the vent covers from their pouring blocks. I managed to break both
As for the rear plate, I actually already had it built as the Mk. III, so there was some difficulty in removing it and having it cleaned up enough to fit the new parts, but I imagine that attached to a freshly assembled kit they'd work a treat...
My only problem is that I am now up to placing the rear idler attachments, which once the Formations rear plate is in place, ends up being half resin half plastic and on mine aren't exactly level, but this could attributed to the clean-up as menttioned before...
Cheers
Brad

I hate i dont have a damn camera...... I ued the formastions tools on my model and I love them - anything not to use p/e!!!

Thanks for the pot info. Like always, never say never when it comes to Shermans.

Thnks
Chris

Not from me There are one or two points I would disagree with - I'm (very slowly) building it OOB at the moment. Having just checked the M4a2 (Part 1) book, Randall is correct regarding the radio pot..

They didn't give the intermediate skids for a simple reason - they designed it as an Early III. My guess is that they MAY (at some point in the future) update it to a later III although the AM stuff is all available to upgrade.

My biggest complaint (again?) are the instructions - with the amount of work they're putting into their kits, you'd think they could revise the damned instructions as well...

Gentlemen,

As Jim wrote, the kit represents relatively early configuration of Sherman III and DML deliberately chosen not to include all possible options. Just as M4A2 Tawara kit was meant to represent a typical tank configuration from a specific period and place, so was this kit. We spend some time to choose the specific list of features to include in this kit, and deliberately tried to differentiate it from the Tarawa kit as much as possible. From modeler point of view it would probably be better to have all the options in one (BIG!) box, but from a kit maker point of view in this case it was better to limit the options a little bit to get more "focused" release.

Regarding one-piece transmission cover - there is more to that than just the idea of making the kit different from a previous one. In fact in Sherman III kit the hull dimensions were slightly corrected from all previous DML kits (including M4A2 Tarawa) - if I remember correctly the dimensions of lower hull were sligtly modified and position of upper hull relative to lower hull changed. Changes are quite small and were made to let the new 3-piece cover (which was designed carefully using measurements of the actual thing and we believe is very accurate dimension-wise) fit correctly. When we first tried to "fit" new cover parts on CAD drawings to the hull we noticed a problem and then when we started verifying previous DML M4A2 hull dimensions with our references we noticed that they were slightly off here and there - nothing major, but it was a problem as new transmission didn't fit well. This all means that old one-piece transmission covers simply don't fit well to Sherman III parts, as they were desiged for hull that was slightly inaccurate. Future M4 kits will include new one-piece covers and hull parts will be similarly corrected.

As others wrote the antenna pot style is very common for M4A2 with cast hatch hoods and it was also chosen according to our references to make the kit more different from M4A2 Tarawa model.

Pawel

Exactly. Can you imagine just HOW big a kit (and the corresponding price) would be if it covered the Early, Mid and Late M4a2? You'd also have to throw in a DV hull, a third hull with applique and two turrets along with several different styles of mantlet. As for decals, i'm not even going to imagine how big it would be either...

I still think that DML got it essentially right - prior to the TASCA Firefly coming out, I stand by my original comments in the Review - it WAS the best M4 in 1/35th and the first which really addressed the previous problems...

And even more confussing instructions!

As has been said before this kit isn't perfect, it's just the best thing going when it came out, and except for the Tasca Firefly blows away everything else. I would like to echo a couple of things mentioned though. I also am less than crazy about the inside of the hatches. I would have liked to see more detail here, but I'm not upset enough to invest in A.M. hatches or periscopes. I also really wish DML would do better instructions. I fantasize about a DML kit with Tamiya instructions. Two other small quibbles. I really wish they'd have included a wider range of decals, and PLEASE, Please, please, include at least ONE figure.

Still this is the next kit on my list to build, once I complete all my unfinished kits. I love the fact that I can make a British Sherman that is as accurate as this one is, without having to go out and buy a bunch of A.M items.