M4 Sherman

Manufacturer: HäTIndustries (Kit #99001)

When I first looked atthis kit, I decided that I could approach it in one of severaldifferent ways: first, I could simply build it rightout-of-the-box; second, I could add some simple details, and makeminor alterations to make it look more like a detailed scalereplica; or third, I could go all the way, super-detail andmodify the entire thing. Since this kit was donated by HäT as areview item, I thought it would be best to build it simply as itcomes, so that the modeler can see what they get right out of thebox.

But after I put ittogether (which took about five minutes), I figured I would addsome lift rings too, since they are such a prominent feature ofShermans. So, I put four lift rings onto the hull, and anotherthree onto the turret. I simply used bent styrene rod toreplicate them. But then I thought that the model really coulduse some headlights, so I added some from styrene. The lightslooked pretty silly without their protective framework, so Iadded some from an Extratechetched brass set .And since I already added headlights, I might as well add taillights too, which I then proceeded to do (along with theirprotective frames). Oh, yeah, and don't forget the bow machinegunand ball mount ...

So that was pretty muchall of the work that went into building the model. I decided topaint the tank as a member of 756th Tank Batallion in Italy,1944, which had a neat camouflage scheme of tan and olive drab.Once I painted the tank, however, it looked a little bare, so Iadded a shovel and axe to the rear hull. The mounting bracketsfor these two tools were made from strips of lead foil that camewrapped around the top of a wine bottle.

I thought I was finished,but the turret looked really plain, so I decided to add the smallspotlight next to the roof ventilator, and also an antenna mounton the rear of the turret. That helped a lot, but it still neededa little lift, so I put together a .50 cal machinegun and mountedit behind the commander's hatch. It's a version of the gun with aperforated barrel, instead of the standard HB M2 versiontypically seen on US tanks, but I think it looks really cool.Although it's more appropriate mounted in an airplane, I've seena handful of photos of this type of machinegun mounted on aSherman, so it's not completely out of place (the gun is resinand etched metal from Aires).

And that was it. Finally.So I ended up going the middle route anyway, of adding severaldetails to improve the looks of the model, without actuallyspending an inordinate amount of time converting it to a more"complete" model. All told, I think it took about fouror five hours to complete, and most of that was painting.

It looks very good as is,but when you pick it up, you can see several places that couldhave used more attention if I wanted to spend some more time onit. For example, had I thought of it, I would have added the towhooks to the differential housing, and detailed the side skirtssome more.

As a wargaming piece, thisis a perfectly suitable and well made model. From the perspectiveof building a static display model, the main weak areas of thekit are the tracks and the rear hull. The tracks areover-simplified; they have very weak shoe detail, and no guideteeth. The inside of the track is perfectly smooth. This was donebecause of the way the track and wheel assemblies were molded asa single piece. It's not that big of a deal, but if you want toimprove it, it would be easy to substitute the wheels and trackfrom an ESCI kit. The sprocket wheels are molded solid, and I hadplanned on taking a motortool to them to separate the rear sidesinto two sprockets, but I forgot :}

The rear face of the hullhas an engine access door, and that's it. There is no boltdetail, no axles for the idler wheels, and no exhausts. I thinkthat HäT could have easily added a little more detail in thisarea without making the kit any more complicated. Oh yes, and theammunition loading door is missing from the left side of theturret.

My favorite part of themodel is the gun barrel: it is molded perfectly straight,perfectly round, and with only a very minor molding seam to besanded off. It would be worth buying a couple of these modelsjust to use the gun barrel on other Sherman kits. In fact, theprice would be cheaper than buying turned-aluminum aftermarketbarrels (which are a little small anyway), and you would also endup with some spare hulls for conversion projects.

There were no decalsincluded in the sample I received, and I don't think thatcommercial examples come with any either. The stars on the turretsides are from an old Microscale decal set, with black pencilused to scribble them out (the crews did this to reduce theirvisibility). The other markings are rub-on transfers fromSMA/SSP. I painted the kit with AeroMaster and Testors ModelMaster acrylics.

I was very pleasantlysurprised at how well this model turned out, and I can highlyrecommend it to all modelers, not just wargamers. The onlysuggestions I would make to HäT would be to add a couple ofsmall detail parts like headlights and a machinegun. Thatwouldn't have been too hard to do, still keeping within theirsimple design philosophy for this kit.

Thank you very much to HäT for providing the reviewsample.