Dragon continues their steady release of what will surely emcompass the whole Sherman family, this time with the M4A3E8(76)W HVSS, thankfully Dragon also include the added armour seen on many Shermans in the European theatre. This is not jut extra parts for the old M4A3, although alot of the parts are also included in the older kit, it does include a new upper hull, the fenders are separate parts and are surely the best option, with the finished article beig better than the solid Trumpeter and have a better definition than the flat PE fender braces in the UM kit.

The hull is similar to the older M4A3 hull but with wider front fenders to embrace the wider fenders. there will hopefully soon be a site dedicated to 1/72nd scale Shermans giving a detailed analysis of the merits and drawbacks of all available Shermans in this scale. Once the site is ready I will put a direct link on each and every Sherman page, here I shall just concentrate on what is included in the kit.

Top view of the hull with the wider front fenders.

The next two sprues are identicle to the ones supplied in the M4A3 kit and includes one of the best small scale 0.50 cal MGs I have seen.

he next sprue is for the HVSS suspension, each unit is made up from 8 parts, although care should be taken to fit the Horizontal springs before glueing anything else in place as the main unit needs to be stretched apart slightly to fit the springs in after which the rest can be glued on making the unit more stable. The units are very well detailed.

The last sprue contains the fenders, the extra armour parts, plus a new rear plate.

The kit contains the earlier T- track for early HVSS, great for WW II but not so great for those that want to do a later vehicle, However I am sure that Dragon will release a later version and even hopefully the Israeli M51,

The PE is similar to the M4A3 but does have the wider fenders for this type.

Markings are provided for 4 vehicles although the second sheet is technically a correction and maybe an after sight, with a recent discussion about whether the vehicle name was Flat foot floogie or Flat foot floozie, so Dragon hve included both, personally I opt for the Floogie.

References

M4 Sherman in Action Squadron/Signal Armour No 16