sure looks like a nice kit. I'll wait on the reviews on that one before I think of buying it. I hope the road wheels won't be in the 2 parts style like the firefly VC

Why wait? Tasca have excellent quality kits, and all their Sherman kits are great models, even built from the box. What's with the 2 part wheels? You mean the rear inserts? They're needed to get all the detail on the wheels.

Why wait? Tasca have excellent quality kits, and all their Sherman kits are great models, even built from the box. What's with the 2 part wheels? You mean the rear inserts? They're needed to get all the detail on the wheels.[/quote] You are right, of course. but I would like to see them add an alignment pin inside. why to wait? their kits are not on the cheap side of the scales, so I just want to be sure it's worth it.

Matan, Hi. Those two-part wheels are a necessary evil to get detail on the back without making the part so thick as to suffer from sink-marks like the Italeri ones. (They did the pressed wheels as one-piece affairs, but from the three kits in my stash I think I can salvage enough unaffected wheels for only one...) As for the HVSS wheels, these are radically different, and I'll be interested to see how Tasca handle them. I'm also keen to see their T66 track! I think the kit will put the Academy & Dragon offerings in the shade, but I too will wait to see. Regards, Tom

That's a very poor choice of words Jeremy. The word fiasco means an absolute, abject or utterly humiliating failure. By any stretch of the imagination the Tasca M4A3/76 is not that. A couple of missing handles and missing foundry marks is not that big a deal. As for the price- Tasca kits are pricey The M4A3E8 won't be any different. That's a choice the modeller makes- I'll wait a while before getting this one and pick it up on Hobbyeasy when the price drops. Since the only difference will be the a new lower hull and suspension plus a muzzle brake and since it follows so soon after the M4A3 I suspect the missing foundry marks will still be missing. This will not make the kit a "Fiasco" I'm a big fan of Tasca I have most of the Shermans some of them are streets ahead of Dragon equivalents and some of them aren't. The M4A1 Dv is excellent but the Dragon kit gives you more choice in terms of fittings. For ease of build I would go with tasca every time. No doubt Dragon will reissue it's M4A3E8 Thunderbolt kit to coincide with Tasca's release and muddy the waters. All good news for the modeller as it's an excellent kit I can't see any way around making the wheels in two parts. The DML kits bogies are each made made up of 28 separate parts and the wheels were in two parts with seperate tyres on each wheel.

As night follows day Pat, as night follows day...... http://www.afv-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/6183poster-reissue.jpg Alan

Pat and Stefan: Thanks for calling me on my choice of wording there. You can tell I'm not getting enough sleep Tasca's last offering definitely wasn't a fiasco, just a shade disappointing for the price they are asking. Regardless I love all of Tasca's offerings, especially the Sherman line, and am looking forward to picking up both of these kits. Cheers Jeremy

Like anything else, if you wait around long enough, you'll find a good deal on it. I've already picked up Tasca's M4A3 for less than $50, at which point, it's close enough to Dragon that I can justify it. So far in my return to the hobby, I have to say that Tasca kits are my favorite so far. They seem to hit a sweet spot between the likes of Tamiya and Dragon as far as detail and ease of build. Very well thought out design, etc. I like Shermans as much as the next guy, but it would be nice to see how they branch out in the future.

I'm happy to see Tasca's new M4A3EB. It will allow more accurate modeling of my late father's Easy Eight, #37, for which he was driver and crew mechanic in the 3rd Pltn, A Co., 15th TB, 6th AD, from mid-January through June, 1945. He and the tank were replacements during the Battle of the Bulge. Late April-May, 1945 photos of three (four?) sides of #37 -- or "Hank's Tank" as it has come to be called in recent years -- made after the division halted offensive operations in eastern Germany to await the Russian advance show the stowage modifications my father made. They are posted at LINK The photos include crew members, other platoon members -- including the tank commander of the popularly modeled #34 "Army Mule" and 3rd Pltn Sgt. Frank Kotoski -- and the po;ularly modeled #26 "Aquino", which is parked beside #37. #s 26, 34, and 37 were in the same platoon. (Are three WW2 Army vehicles from the same platoon modeled besides these? What a diorama that combination would make!) There are two sources of transfers/decals for modeling "Hank's Tank" -- Bison at LINK -- and Archer at LINK (the latter include the markings stenciled below the driver's hatch, which were digitally determined by a researcher at the Kentucky Historial Society). Did I mention that I'm happy to see Tasca's new M4A3EB? Joe Burgess Son of the late Henry "Hank" Burgess of Kentucky