Sherman Multiple Choice (1 Viewer)

VIRIATO

VIRIATO

Command Sergeant Major
Joined
Apr 28, 2005
Messages
2,393
Hi,
Just imagine you have $160 to spend on a Sherman. If you had to choose from the following, what would you choose?

a) The K&C British Sherman, for $125-buy it and keep the rest for other collecting;

b) The K&C US D Day Sherman, for $89-buy it and keep the rest for other collecting;

c) The Motor Pool Minichamps conversions -British Shermans ( http://www.themotorpool.bigstep.com/item.jhtml?UCIDs=1272459|1124160&PRID=1174948 and http://www.themotorpool.bigstep.com/item.jhtml?UCIDs=1272459|1124160&PRID=1174959), $160 each;

d) the Tamiya Sherman from the Masterworks 1/48 scale ( already built up and painted ) collection, for $69.95 ( http://www.michtoy.com/MTSCnewSite/vehicles_folder/tamiya_masterworks2005/TAM26506.html )-buy it and keep the rest for the above purpose;

e) the OSD British Sherman Firefly conversion from Solido-1/48 scale-for $89.50 ( http://www.onsitediecast.com/images/Os60811b.jpg )-keep the rest for the above purpose.

You might also consider keeping the rest for your wife...


Happy collecting and MERRY CHRISTMAS,
Paulo
 
Let me see.

a) Yes
b) Yes
c) I think you will be disappointed especially for that price. It looks like my $9.99 remote control tank that I got from ebay.
d) If its anything like their 1/35 masterworks then No.
e) I don't like the tracks and it needs weathering.
 
Since I already have the K & C US Sherman, easy answer: b. Except for a, forget the rest. Not K & C.
 
Since I have the DD27 Sherman and the DD45 Sherman the first two are out. I think Minichamps is way overpriced tripe so that's out. The little Tamiya M4 is a nice little model - in many ways nicer than their 1/35th version. HOWEVER, since I am a pretty fair modeler, instead of buying the built version I would spend the extra on a bunch of aftermarket parts and goodies to doll it up myself (in fact I am in the midst of just that project!). As far as the other conversion/upgrade - I'm not as familiar with it, but am certainly willing to look. THere are everal other companies that are capitalizing on Tamiya's move into 1/48th so there are new kits coming in 2006 (hopefully) from Trumpeter and others as well as the upcoming Tamiya M4A1 cast hull.

I'm a regular Shermanoholic. I buy or build or rebuild them in multiple scales. Any particular versions you need? Are you interested in historical accuracy or just want one that looks good? For instance, no offense to Andy, but the M4A3 with 105 howitzer (as built by K&C) DID NOT serve with the British forces. There was a very similar version of M4 with 105mm howitzer that did, so the K&C model captures the "spirit" of the thing, but the engine decks and rear plates are different - so "accuracy" versus "pretty".

There are a LOT of options out there in 1/35th, 1/32nd and 1/48th as well as several other scales. Shermans offer many choices.

Gary
 
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binder001 said:
Since I have the DD27 Sherman and the DD45 Sherman the first two are out. I think Minichamps is way overpriced tripe so that's out. The little Tamiya M4 is a nice little model - in many ways nicer than their 1/35th version. HOWEVER, since I am a pretty fair modeler, instead of buying the built version I would spend the extra on a bunch of aftermarket parts and goodies to doll it up myself (in fact I am in the midst of just that project!). As far as the other conversion/upgrade - I'm not as familiar with it, but am certainly willing to look. THere are everal other companies that are capitalizing on Tamiya's move into 1/48th so there are new kits coming in 2006 (hopefully) from Trumpeter and others as well as the upcoming Tamiya M4A1 cast hull.

I'm a regular Shermanoholic. I buy or build or rebuild them in multiple scales. Any particular versions you need? Are you interested in historical accuracy or just want one that looks good? For instance, no offense to Andy, but the M4A3 with 105 howitzer (as built by K&C) DID NOT serve with the British forces. There was a very similar version of M4 with 105mm howitzer that did, so the K&C model captures the "spirit" of the thing, but the engine decks and rear plates are different - so "accuracy" versus "pretty".

There are a LOT of options out there in 1/35th, 1/32nd and 1/48th as well as several other scales. Shermans offer many choices.

Gary
Click to expand...


Hi Gary,
Very interesting points. I am also a Shermanoholic and a general Tankaholic. My wife keeps telling me, why don't you also buy half-tracks, trucks, buildings. Well, I am also interested in these, but tanks have more than a fair share in my modest collection.
Historical accuracy is what I like best, although I like a pretty tank ( the K&C British is really a beauty ).At the moment I am especially interested on the British Sherman Firefly, but a lot of versions are not historically accurate because they include a hull machine gun which was absent from the Firefly in order to have more room for ammo, etc...An interesting book on this that I've been reading is «British and American tanks of World War Two», by Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis, published in 2004 by Silverdale Books in the UK. It has tons of photos and frankly it deals with every imaginable detail and version you want to research. There's more to WW2 than the fantastic German Tanks, I guess ( also have another volume on the Germans by Chamberlain and Doyle ). I have been into 1/32, 1/30 or 1/35 scale, but am now also interested in 1/48 or 1/50-there's good stuff from Corgi or Stretton Models-Tank Museum. Unfortunately what I am not is a fair modeler so I keep
myself to the finished material.

Merry Christmas,
Paulo
 
I agree Digger. With $160 to spend on a mounted Sherman, you ought to be able to get a pretty nice one! :eek:

And what's this talk of a 'British' Sherman? Wasn't General Sherman a good American? :rolleyes:
 
For "Firefly" buffs, see if you can get Mark Haywards "The Sherman Firefly". A little pricey, but an excellent book about the conversions and their uses. At one time Hayward also had a Firefly website (he still might, but I haven't looked for it in a while". He even had updates to his book available online, including more material on the rare and elusive batch of Firelies converted for US Army use (but never saw action).
 
And what's this talk of a 'British' Sherman? Wasn't General Sherman a good American?
Click to expand...
I agree. The General and the tank!

Now, I'm an ACW collector and maybe you WWII people will clear this up for me. I didn't realize there was a British Sherman. Wasn't the Sherman an American tank? Were the British Sherman's just American tanks re-painted or were they actual versions manufactured in GB? I know that the British had some mighty fine tanks of their own like the Churchill (I think that was it), so why would they need or even want the little Sherman death traps?
 
One of the most beautiful tanks K&C every made was a wood and metal British 30 Corps Sherman for use with the Arnhem series. Andy once made a wood long-barreled Sherman, but it was (1) very primitive, (2) not a firefly and in U.S. markings and (3) a prototype that was never sold.
 
"Now, I'm an ACW collector and maybe you WWII people will clear this up for me. I didn't realize there was a British Sherman. Wasn't the Sherman an American tank? Were the British Sherman's just American tanks re-painted or were they actual versions manufactured in GB? "

Actually the name "Sherman" is a British invention, but the tank is all American (not just US - there were 188 M4A1 "Grizzlies" produced in Canada!). To the US Army it was "Medium Tank M4". The British started receiving US tanks in North Africa and somebody in some ministry didn't like the US nomenclature, so they started naming US tanks after Civil War generals, M3-M5 light tanks became "Stuarts", M3 medium in its US form was a "Lee", M3 medium with British modifications became "Grant", and the M4 series became "Shermans". Later the press picked that up and started refering to US tanks by names, but the US Army never did.

When modelers or collectors refer to a "British Sherman" it's not that the vehicle was built in Britain or the Commonwealth, but that it has the colors/marking/modifications of a vehicle used by a British formation.

"I know that the British had some mighty fine tanks of their own like the Churchill (I think that was it), so why would they need or even want the little Sherman death traps?" - quit watching the History Channel and their nonsense about the Sherman! Yes, it was an obsolete design by 1944 but what tank can claim to be the "tank that won the war"? The T34 was good but it served in ONE area. The M4 served worldwide with many Allies. The German armor was good, but really geared to the defense. The Sherman almost always was in the attack. There were Shermans in Berlin, in Rome and in Tokyo and later in Pyongyang and Jerusalem! No German or Russian tank ever led a victory parade in Washington!
 
Its funny, but I have never heard a single World War II Veteran who served with or in Shermans that ever had a kind word to say about the tank. It was extremely poorly designed, far too tall, underarmored, undergunned, performed poorly off road because of its very narrow tracks, and was lost in record numbers to axis tanks, anti-tank guns, and even 13 year olds with panzerfausts. The only reason it can lay claim to being the tank that won the war is that (1) the Russians devoured 75% of the German Divisions with their far superior T34's and (2) the Allied Air Supremecy in the west permitted wonderful planes like the Mustang, Thunderbolt, Typoon and Tempest to knock out the vast majority of the German armor destroyed on the western front. So please, excuse me if I am less than sanguine about the Sherman, as it cost about 10,000 crewmen their lives.
 
Hi,
I have also read somewhere that the British armored columns trying to get to Arnhem in time ( the bridge too far ) called the Sherman «Ronson» because it did get on fire very easily. On that particular ocasion the first tank on a line of tanks travelling the road to Arnhem was always the first victim when things got rough.
On British Armor, the British also had other tanks than the Churchill, the early war Mathilda, and the Cromwell or the late war Comet, some beautiful miniatures are around. The Churchill was however a heavy tank, what they called an infantry tank for the infantry support mission, quite slower than the Sherman, which was a medium tank. The Sherman was the most important tank in British as in American service, and had many versions, inclunding the «Jumbo» ( MAA3E2 ), with a 75mm gun but also with added armor.


Happy collecting,
Paulo
 
Alexdakar said:
Let me see.

a) Yes
b) Yes
c) I think you will be disappointed especially for that price. It looks like my $9.99 remote control tank that I got from ebay.
d) If its anything like their 1/35 masterworks then No.
e) I don't like the tracks and it needs weathering.
Click to expand...


Hi,
I have never had a Tamiya Masterworks, 1/35 or 1/48, in my hands. I have just seen their photos on the net. Could you please tell me what you don't like about them? Also find it hard to imagine a Minichamps tank looking like a $10 tank, whatever you do to it, even if you make a hole on it with a bazooka. I have 3 Minichamps beauties but well it's all a matter of personal taste...

Best regards,
Paulo
 
Flammenpanzer said:
I would like to see a Firefly also, it would be nice if it was from K&C. I was hoping the soon to be released British Sherman was the Firefly version. Here is a good link for VIRIATO.
http://www.tanxheaven.com/ljs/fireflyljs/fireflyljs.htm
Click to expand...


Wow, that's what I call a good link! Many thanks, I have added it to my favorites. Great pictures of the Firefly. I'll search around for other Firefly miniatures.


Regards,
Paulo
 
When I think of Masterworks I envision something like the picture below. The 1/35 Tamiya Masterworks were plain and boring especially for the price. I think the Tiger tank that I built was better looking and I am not a master. The minichamps are too clean and with bright colors. I guess it would be okay for factory fresh tanks but I guess I like battle worn tanks.

tiger_davidson2.jpg
 
No, its not my tank. I consider this a Masterwork. I have built a couple of Tigers maybe I should take some pictures of mine. Sorry for the confusion.

This is plastic in 1/35 scale.
 
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