Sherman Preview Photos
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Below are some photos that Matthias Roth of MR Models sent to me showing the recent work he has been doing on his new Sherman lineup. Here are some miscellaneous comments that he included with his emails:
"... under preparation are at moment some NEW M4 Sherman conversions, which should be ready end of September: M4 Composite, Firefly IC Hybrid, M4A6, M4A4 w. 75mm turret, M4A2 intermediate and M4A1 mid/late exact upper hull. All models are complete new developments, all hulls are machine tooled, with exact turrets, all models are coming with CNC-lathe turned gun barrels. Other Shermans will follow this Autumn / Winter, e.g. M4A1 very early with peep slots and the only 90mm Sherman, the M36B1."
"... the production of all 6 announced Shermans in 1/72 is running, models should be avaiable in about one week or so, when I´ve the instructions ready. I send you a couple of samples soon, more Sherman stuff in 1/72nd is under preparation. Next Sherman is M4A3 mid prod. 105mm (NEW upper hull, no ESCI copy !), but as you see, the basic hulls for early M4 and early M4A3 are ready too. I´ll do later also a very early M4A1 with peep slots, but this hull needs some sculpturing & grinding work, the parts for the welded hulls I did on milling machine and lathe, which is a much faster process.
"All kits come now as conversions for the former ESCI M4A1and now Italeri "M4", it´s a reason of price & availability of the basic plastic kit. All kits have lathe-turned gun barrels, new drive sprockets, new idler wheel mounts, new roadwheels and a couple of other parts. I´ve made all main types of final drives, all main types of turrets, completely new engine decks and so we can do later more Sherman variants from the existing master parts.
"The following Shermans are avaiable soon:
MR-7222 Sherman Firefly IC Hybrid 14.50 (upper hull, turret, final drive, lathe turned gun, detail parts for ESCI kit)
MR-7223 Sherman M4 Composite 14.50 (upper hull, turret, final drive, lathe turned gun, detail parts for ESCI kit)
MR-7230 Sherman M4A4 w. 75mm turret t.b.a. (upper & lower hull, rear wall, turret, final drive, lathe turned gun, detail parts for ESCI kit)
MR-7231 Sherman M4A2 intermediate prod. 14.50 (upper hull, rear wall, turret, final drive, lathe turned gun, detail parts for ESCI kit)
MR-7232 Sherman M4A6 t.b.a. (upper & lower hull, rear wall, turret, final drive, lathe turned gun, detail parts for ESCI kit)
MR-7238 Sherman M4A1 w. early T23 turret 14.50 (upper hull, turret, final drive, lathe turned gun, detail parts for ESCI kit)
NEW in November / December: MR-7240 Sherman M4A3 w. 105mm turret (upper hull, turret, final drive, lathe turned gun, detail parts for ESCI kit)"