Sherman Tank

I am real bad on working several projects at once – it is both good and bad. I like it because when I become bored or frustrated then I work on something else. Then I come back with a fresh approach. Anyway, I am working 2 Dragon tank kits at the same time – a 1/35 Tiger Tank and 1/35 M4A2 Sherman Tank. It is interesting to see the difference between the new generation Tiger Tank and one of their older Sherman kits with some upgrades.

According to the packaging there is over 300 parts which includes newly tooled DS tracks, upper hull, cupola, turret, etc. It also includes a sheet of PE and separate tow cable. Decals are for Shermans that “served” in the battle of Tarawa. Marine fans ought to like since there are very tank models out there that were involved in Pacific battles.

Overall, I think it is pretty good kit and will look neat when done. I know that the Sherman fanatics have some issues, but for the average modeler this kit is good enough.

The major issue is the tracks. Dragon redid their tracks. It is newly tooled one-piece T54E1 VVSS vinyl tracks. It is my understanding that they can be glued together. This is much easier than cutting off individual tracks and gluing them together. That is a lot of clean up work.

The down side of the vinyl track is that it came folded around cardboard and this caused several of the guide teeth to become deformed. The first recommend fix was is to put them in boiling water. I tried this and it fixed the guide teeth but it messed up the rest of the track. I had to leave the track in the boiling water for several minutes to straighten the teeth. Basically it shrunk some areas and weakened the areas between the individual tracks. When you pull the track you can see through the tracks.

So I failed a “claim” with Dragoncare for replacement parts. They requested a picture of the damage track, wanted a receipt and wanted to know who I purchased it from. I no longer had the receipt but sent them a picture hoping that would be good enough. Last week, Dragon indicated that they would be sending out replacement tracks. I will keep you updated.