Tasca has followed their
Sherman Firefly with a superb new kit of the M4A1. The two
kits share the peripheral detail sprues such as suspension
and small details, but the hull, turret, gun mount and so on
are completely new. The Tasca kit is a fundamental
improvement over the old Dragon M4A1 which is very dated by
today's standard's and had some shape issues. The Tasca kit
is much more refined in basic shape and outline, and
incomparably better in small detail. It is a joy to build
and I built mine largely out of the box. The turret is a
marvelous rendition of this complex shape, and the cast
upper hull is every bit as good.
The Tasca kit is not without its faults, but they are mostly
minor and most will only be appreciated by a hard-core
Sherman nut. To begin with, there is a mismatch between the
content of the kit and the decal selections. The kit depicts
a M4A1 manufactured by Pressed Steel in 1942 with its
characteristic riveted lower hull. However, some of the
decal options are of Lima or Pacific Car M4A1. This was
certainly the case for Major Jim, from 2/13th Armored which
I built, and for "Comic" of the 752nd Tank Battalion. In the
case of Henry III and the 2nd Armored Division M4A1, the
photos are not conclusive but Henry III does not appear to
have a rivetted lower hull. This
is not simply a matter of trimming off the rivets as the
transition point between the hull bottom and rear plate on
the welded hulls was rounded where as on the Pressed Steel
it is hard angled. This doesn't take a lot of effort to fix,
but modelers should be aware of this issue. There are a
number of other details that are inappropriate for M4A1s as
early as Henry III and Major Jim. This includes the
driver/BOG hatches which should not have the spring/catch
assembly. The .50 cal machine gun is stunning, but the two pintles provided are not the ideal choice for tanks like
Major Jim and Henry III which should have the D69820 pintle
and the .50 round box. The kit has the same bogie assembly
as the Firefly and the separate suspenion release. Although
this is an excellent heavy-duty bogie, it is a slightly
later configuration than Major Jim/Henry III which should
not have the spacer between the return roller axle and the
roller arm. The turret has the mountings for the searchlight
which would not be present on Major Jim/Henry III.
I should make very clear that these are not errors in the
kit but rather are mismatches between the kit configuration
and the subjects selected for the decals. The model will
build into a very accurate Pressed Steel M4A1 out of the
box. It's up to the modeler to match the kit configuration
to an appropriate tank, or to modify the kit parts to
reflect the tank selected.
The kit comes with a two-piece vinyl track. This is quite
good as vinyl track go, but there is a distinct mold seam
running down through the center of the end connectors. I
used the kit track, but more fastidious modelers may want to
use an after-market link-to-link option. Surprisingly, the
M4A1 does not include PE brush-guards as did the Firefly. It
does include a very nice screen under the air intake cover,
but I would have rather gotten a set of brush-guards than
the screen which can hardly seen on the completed model. The
kit brush-guards, although very delicate by
injection-plastic standards, are still too thick.
Conclusion
This is a splendid model.
Tasca's M4A1 kit sets the current standard for Shermans with
superb renditions of many common components such as hatches,
gun mounts, headlights and tools.
Some assemblies are marked
as M4/M4A1, so we can only hope that this kit is followed by
a M4 to replace the ragged old Tamiya kit. It would be
especially welcome if it came with a welded lower hull so
that it could be swapped out for the bolted hull where
desired.
