introduction

Gaso-Line is an established French company offering full resin kits, resin conversion sets, figures and accessories in 1/48, an area of growing interest to many and one that not many AM suppliers have paid much attention to yet. These offerings are very welcome by those of us that enjoy building this scale.

review

This particular set replicates one of the several different styles of tracks with extended end connectors (duckbills) used on Shermans and related vehicles. They appear to be T54E1 steel chevron tracks. It is designed to fit the Tamiya 1/48 M4 Sherman #32505, M4A1 Sherman #32523, Sherman Firefly #32532 and M10 Tank Destroyer #32519. It may also fit on Hobby Boss and Bandai kits. If used on the M10 kit, the side skirts (parts) will need to be left off. M10 and M36 crews had those removed in order to keep the duckbills from hanging up.

The kit comes packaged in two zip-lock bags inside a plastic clamshell box. There are no instructions, so you are on your own as far as assembly.

The kit consists of ten pieces of ten well detailed links for each side. Since the Sherman family used somewhere between 78 and 84 links per side that gives you a few extras just in case. The links are a bit smaller than the links included in the Tamiya kits, I ended up using 82 links per side on my M10. I don't suppose that would be noticeable, though. There is also a slight bend in the sections, but after assembly, painting and weathering it should also not be too noticeable.
There was very little flash and the casting blocks were removed very easily. They are made of a somewhat brittle material, but I found that warming them in very hot water for half a minute or so made it easier to shape without breaking. And I did have a couple of breaks!

conclusion

Overall I think this is another fine offering. The detail is very good and the lack of flash is welcome. Assembly may have been easier if the pieces were of link-and-length construction and there were some kind of instructions, but someone with a modicum of experience in resin kits should have no problem.