Introduction

The Sexton II was designed out of a need by the Commonwealth for a mobile 25pdr gun platform. Designed in Canada and built at the Montreal Locomotive Work of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Sexton was built on the Ram Chassis, while the Sexton II was built on the Grizzly chassis. The Sexton II did not change much from the early to late variants, with the exception of moving to the single piece transmission cover and some other small modifications. The new kit from Dragon Models is an example of the later variant with the single piece transmission cover and newly included DS Track.

Contents

• 12 plastic sprues
• 1 photo-etched fret
• 4 lengths DS Track
• 1 sheet of decal
• 1 instruction booklet

Review

Having reviewed and built the first release of the Sexton II by Dragon Models, an initial look in the box reveals that not a lot has changed. The only real difference between this release and the initial release is the inclusion of the one piece transmission cover and the inclusion of the new Canadian Dry Pin Dragon DS Track. There is also an addition of a few new photo-etched parts and a new decal sheet with this release. Again, as in the first release, the moldings are very well done, crisp with some great looking fine details. And a review of the sprues from the first release show that these are the exact same sprues as the first release, with the exception noted above.

Review of first Dragon Sexton II: here
Build of first Dragon Sexton II: here

Looking at the instructions, they look almost identical to the first release. There are some minor changes here. When assembling the bogies, the kit now uses the bogies from a sprue marked M4, which is a change from the first release. It should be noted that these bogies were included in the first release, but not used. These bogies, while not exact replicates of the Canadian Heavy Duty bogies, do represent them better with the larger fins.

As for the new DS Track, it looks for be very well done, and is a decent representation of the Canadian Dry Pin track. The track comes in 4 pieces, two per side, and should look good installed on the vehicle. I know there has been a lot of negativity surrounding DS Track, but for a build of a Sherman variant, where there is little to no slack in the track, the DS track works well, and are easy to install.

The construction of the gun and fighting compartment are identical to the first release. This includes the 25pdr gun, which is just a tad out of scale. This can be easily rectified with the upcoming re-release of the 25pdr barrel from RB Models.

The exterior is again identical to the original with the exception that Dragon has included photo-etched parts for the front head light guards. Speaking of head lights, some of the later Sexton II’s had the head lights moved from the front glacis to the front of the fighting compartment. I have seen this on many reference images, but I have also seen the lower mounted head lights on the later variants as well, and cannot seem to find a reasoning for this. It should also be noted that as this kit uses the same sprues as the original release, I would believe that Dragon has not resolved the fit issue with the rear deck.

It should also be noted that on some later variants of the Sexton II a pedestal for a .50 Cal was mounted in the front right corner(over the driver) of the fighting compartment.
This release includes new marking for the kit, to include British, Polish, and Canadian. The decals are very well printed, great looking color, and well within register. The one issue I have seen is in the Canadian marking, the size of the side tactical markings for the sides look over sized.

Marking Options:
86 Field Regiment(SP) RA, (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) 2nd Army, NEW 1945
5 Field Regiment(SP) RHA, 7 Armoured Division, NEW 1945
1 Artillery Regiment, Motorized, 1st Polish Armoured Division, France 1944
23 Field Regiment (SP) RCA, 4th Armoured Division, NEW 1945

And as usual, with Dragon instructions, read and dry fit often.

Conclussion

Overall this is another great looking release of the Sexton II by Dragon Models, and is more representative of the later Canadian Sexton II. While the kit does provide the Canadian Dry Pin tracks, Unfortunately, as a second release of the kit, there is not a lot of significant changes to the kit itself. If you are fan of the Sexton itself, or you have not purchased and/or built the first, I would recommend this release of the Sexton II from Dragon.