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Friday, July 12, 2019 - 10:13 PM UTC
Renewed from Dragon, a variant of the Sherman commonly found in the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO): The so-called “composite hull”.
This was referred to some M4 Shermans that featured a cast front hull mated to a welded rear hull.

Dragon's 1/35 M4 Sherman “Composite Hull” PTO has now been enhanced and released anew. The key difference is a set of brand new T48 track links produced under the Magic Tracks label. These T48 tracks are accurately engineered and beautifully injection molded. This kit is the culmination of intensive research, allowing modelers to conveniently depict an M4 Sherman tank taking part in the Pacific Theater of Operation.
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Comments

Dragon has another bite at the apple--hopefully, they will fix some issues with their original release. Only one of the turrets they included was correct, the high bustle version, seen on the very last Composite Hull M4s. But in the original release, they left out the lower half of the high bustle turret, and one hopes they include both turret bases this time around. The low bustle turret is a very late version with the thickened armor on the right turret front, which also included the loader's hatch and restored the shell ejection port on the left side. A small run was produced at the end of 1943, and they were seen on some Fisher-built M4A2, and PSC-built M4A1 Shermans. However, they were never seen on Chrysler tanks, so it won't work for an M4 Composite Hull. Most Composite Hull M4s had the low bustle turret with the thickened front armor, but no loader's hatch or ejection port. Asuka's kit has this turret. Dragon also has never offered the correct gun travel lock for the 75mm gun. Their kits all include the taller lock used with the 76mm gun or 105mm howitzer. I can't tell from the small illustration whether they have added a new part. If not, it can be scrounged from a Tamiya, Academy, or Asuka kit, or a resin part (https://tigermodeldesigns.com/product/35-1219-m4-series-gun-travel-lock-type-1/) can be substituted. On the plus side, the new Magic Tracks are a definite improvement on the Dragon Styrene tracks in the first release. Most of the Chrysler Composite Hull M4 tanks went to Army tank battalions in the Pacific, or to the UK as Lend-Lease (where they were mostly converted to up-gunned Fireflies). However, some went to Army units in the ETO. The 6th Armored division had some in 1944-45, as did the 70th Tank battalion
JUL 13, 2019 - 08:56 AM
You don't need both turret bases. The supplied turret base fits both turrets. ( As I sit here in front of the computer dry fitting the pieces together) It fits the high bustle better though. The low bustle turret is strange in having nice cast texture all around and a totally smooth rear.
JUL 13, 2019 - 10:04 AM
The base fits the high bustle turret, but the bottom face of the part is too low. The purpose of the high bustle was to allow clearance for the larger driver and bow gunner's hatches--with the low bustle, the hatches couldn't open if the turret was reversed. The correct base for the high bustle turret sits higher, and the hatches would be able to open on the real vehicle. When a batch of early turret shells left over from the M32 conversion program were mounted on new M4A3 tanks by Fisher in late 1944/early 1945, they had to have the bottom corners of the bustles torched off, to allow the larger hatches to open. Looking again at their promotional montage, it may be that Dragon isn't including the high bustle turret at all on this rerelease. I hope I'm wrong, though, since the version of the low bustle turret they include will either need a lot of conversion work to plug and resurface the unwanted openings, or it will need replacement with either an Asuka styrene turret, or a resin item, which adds to the cost..
JUL 13, 2019 - 02:21 PM
You do need both turret bottoms to build the different tanks for the decals included. Granted the low bustle needs a lot of modification to work. DML fixed some of the problem after initial release and began including the two rings in later boxes. That said it wouldn’t surprise me if they took a step back and went back to including only one again. I’ve seen them doing that type of thing many times over the years. I bought the one with both rings and still had heavily modify my LB, I plugged in the pistol port and the loaders hatch and then sanded them smooth. The high bustle would be the easiest one to use OOTB but if they eliminated it from this new re-release then they made it so everyone will have to heavily modify the LB without an easier OOTB option. Or they will have to spend money on an aftermarket turret like Gerald said.
JUL 14, 2019 - 04:45 AM
Let's wait and see, In their re relese of the early M7, they included the hull sides for the mid version, so maybey they'll include the 2nd turret ring.
JUL 14, 2019 - 05:04 AM
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