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ARM: DML 1/35 scale M4 Composite Hull PTO

Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 scale =9139-=9145 Kit No. 6441; M4 Sherman =93Composite Hull=94 PTO - Smart Kit; 642 parts (560 in grey styrene, 57 etched brass, 22 clear styrene, 2 DS plastic track runs, 1 twisted steel wire); retail price US$49.95 via Dragon USA

Advantages: new and fully redone version of this kit replaces the old Imperial kit; new parts provide lots of options, as well as more =93mix and match=94 bits for the true =93Shermaholic=94

Disadvantages: nothing major noted

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: for all Sherman and ETO fans

The final basic production model of the M4 series medium tanks to come from the Detroit Tank Arsenal used a new composite hull with a cast glacis with the complete =93big hatch=94 section for the driver and the bow gunner and initially the low bustle turret without and later with a loader=92s hatch. Nearly all of these tanks were sent to serve with the US Army in the Pacific, hence the PTO moniker (e.g. Pacific Theater of Operations) for this kit.

A number of years ago DML released an Imperial series kit of the =93Composite=94 hull M4 which could be built as either a US Army M4 in the Pacific or a Sherman IC Firefly; the kit included two turrets but suffered from the original Italeri suspension clone and also the much- disliked three-piece DML VVSS tracks. This kit is a total do-over and shares nothing but its subject with the original kit, but does use most of the =93common=94 sprues from recent DML M4 Smart Kit releases.

The kit has a ton of options, but many are not usable with the =93Composite=94 tank. Photographic evidence tends to support the fact that these tanks nearly universally used the low-bustle turret with loader=92s hatch and twin radio antennas (transmit/receive and receive only), M34A1 full width mantlet, =93sharpnose=94 transmission housing, either five-spoke welded wheels or the =93six spoke=94 welded solid wheels, flat or =93upswept=94 return roller mounts, plate or machined drivers, T48, T49 or T51 tracks, no fenders or skirts, and no antiaircraft machine gun. While the kit comes with a high bustle shell and details, none of the photos I found show a Composite hull with that turret in the Pacific through early 1945.

The kit provides brand-new moldings of the low-bustle turret and also a new =93Composite=94 hull with the sharpnosed transmission. It comes with its own unique driver mounts; while recent complaints on the internet indicate some DML kits have these undersized, I cannot tell if these are or not as I have no blueprints for comparison. In any account, once the kit is built they are virtually invisible so this is more a matter of taste than wrong or in the wrong place.

This kit provides a choice of fender tips (plastic or brass) as well as the M4A1 DV kit details for the rear and etched brass grillework under the air intake cover and also under the rear lip of the hull above the exhaust outlets.

Some things are constants now such as the familiar M4A2/A3 basic detail sprue of tools and fittings as well.

Technical assistance was provided by Pawel Krupowicz.

Four different finishing options are provided in the kit and Cartograf decals for each one: =93Southern Cross=94, 44th Tank Battalion, Limon, the Philippines, 1944; =93Bushmaster=94, 763rd Tank Battalion, 96th Infantry Division, Leyte 1944; =93Battlin Basic=94, 44th Tank Battalion, Manila 1945; =93Ole Miss=94, 44th Tank Battalion, Manila 1945.

All four of these tanks are found in Steve Zaloga=92s book =93Tank Battles of the Pacific War 1941-1945" (Concord #7004, 1995) and provide the specific details for each one: =93Southern Cross=94 uses five- spoke road wheels and machined driver toothed rings and a single antenna; =93Bushmaster=94 uses two antennas but the tracks are not visible (mud!) in the photo; =93Battlin Basic=94 and =93Ole Miss=94 show single antennas, =93six spoke=94 wheels and machined drivers. All use the T48 tracks which come in the kit. (This is a great book for reference for anyone doing PTO tanks!)

Overall this fills another gap and leaves us with essentially only the M4A6 and the Sherman =93cousins=94 Ram and Grizzly not kitted. It will be popular with Sherman fans as well as provide =93mix and match=94 with other kits.

Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.

Cookie Sewell

Reply to
AMPSOne
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snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: : : Overall this fills another gap and leaves us with essentially only : the M4A6 and the Sherman cousins Ram and Grizzly not kitted. : Did I miss the Sherman Jumbo somewhere? No, I do not mean that Tamiya thing with the backwards/upside down mantlet and other problems, but a really good Jumbo...

Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Burden

what model is that, bruce? never heard os a jumbo, but i ain't to knowing about allied stuff. now if it had swastickers.....

Reply to
someone

and leaves us with essentially only

ing with the backwards/upside

=EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF= =BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF= =BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BDBruce

Tag! The Tamiya one is not very good and has a multitude of problems. Right now you need one of the DML late-model M4A3 kits with extended end connector tracks and a good set of after-market hull and turret to get a proper Jumbo.

Bruce, you were number two to ring me up over that one!

Cookie Sewell

Reply to
AMPSOne

snipped-for-privacy@some.domain wrote: : : what model is that, bruce? never heard os a jumbo, but i ain't to knowing : about allied stuff. now if it had swastickers..... : The "jumbo", or more properly the M4A3E6 (?) was intended to be a heavily armored close support vehicle, mounting the 105mm howitzer.

The mantlet and front glacis plate were specially thickened, and to deal with the weight, "duck-bill" track extenders were added to the inside and outside of the tracks, which required a special extender plate between the lower hull and track bogey assemblies to accomodate the inner duck bills.

Of course, it is believed that more than a couple of these vehicles were, ummm, "re-purposed", and the 105 was replaced with the 76mm, and used at the front of an armored column, since they could withstand a hit that would take out a "standard" Sherman.

I do not believe more than a few hundred vehicles were produced.

Any errors are mine, and that is what I get for not consulting Hunnicutt before posting.

Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Burden

never saw a pic of one. still ww2 or were they korea? google didn't cough up a pic, but i'm tired.

Reply to
someone

Cookie, here's some:

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The quick way to tell is that the correct final drive cover should be tangent to the differential housing on the bottom and on the slope, but the bulges should be an inch or two larger radius.

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KL

wrote

The kit provides brand-new moldings of the low-bustle turret and also a new ?Composite? hull with the sharpnosed transmission. It comes with its own unique driver mounts; while recent complaints on the internet indicate some DML kits have these undersized, I cannot tell if these are or not as I have no blueprints for comparison. In any account, once the kit is built they are virtually invisible so this is more a matter of taste than wrong or in the wrong place.

Reply to
Kurt Laughlin

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