Stephen Brezinski Wee Friends Sherman Firefly High Bustle Turret, with pistol port

This review is from the viewpoint of a display modeler looking at historical accuracy as well a quality of the casting and the parts. My primary references for this review are: Son of Sherman Volume 1, The Sherman Design and Development, published by Ampersand Group (2013). and Sherman Minutia website, The M4A4 Sherman. It is the best on-line reference for the details of the Sherman tank variants; not as much of vehicle combat history though, @ http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/index.html . A great Firefly reference I have is SHERMAN 1c FIREFLY, Armor PhotoGallery #21 (2009).
	This scan shows the cast resin Firefly turret and the approximate 15 cast metal parts. The quality and detail of the resin is very good and largely defect free. A few dark spots visible are small dark inclusions within the resin, not air bubbles. The white metal parts are cast well and need just a little trimming of flash and sanding edges. There are two 17-Pounder gun barrels in my Firefly Conversion: one with the typical round muzzle break with two baffle holes, and a second barrel with a more cylindrical muzzle break I am unfamiliar with. The muzzles should be drilled out. Below the turret we see the rectangular loader's hatch, the split hatch cupola, individual periscopes, the gun travel lock and other small parts. It appears we must open up the hole in the rotor shield (gun shield) for the base of the gun barrel to insert.
	This is a scan of Dragon Models instructions for assembly of their 1/72 scale Firefly 1C turret. This may help in putting together this Wee Vehicles turret. This Wee Vehicles firefly turret appears based on the Dragon kit, a good choice.
	A close-up of the resin turret shows the two turret hatch holes for half-figures, the ventilation dome, radio box on the turret, the pistol port on the left side, and the holes for the separate cast metal periscope parts that drop in. Not seen here is the cast-in cheek armor on the forward right side. There are small dimples indicating where the lifting rings go, easily made from copper or brass wire; I recommend drilling the holes a mm or two deeper first. This looks like an accurate late Firefly turret that would accurately fit on a Firefly 1C hull based on the M4 Sherman, or a Firefly 1C Hybrid hull based on the M4 Composite.
	The separate Wee Vehicles cast resin British all round vision cupola below is not part of the Wee Vehicles Firefly turret, and I do not yet have a part number for it, but I include it here as it was sometimes used on the Firefly tank as well as late Cromwell tanks and on Comet tanks.
Conclusion The turret is first rate. I like the separate periscope parts. The soft metal gun barrel is not as finely done as a turned aluminum and brass 17 Pounder gun barrel. Like with all plastic and resin Sherman turrets, etched brass detail parts would be very helpful for a good display model. Preview sample purchased by the author. This model can be purchased from