Iron Division/TGMA M4A1 upper hulls and 75mm turret
December 6 2007 at 1:54 PM
(Login toadman1) Registered Users from IP address 146.74.1.99
Yesterday I received from Bob @ TGMA the new Iron Division M4A1 dry stowage and wet stowage upper hulls along with the latest 75mm dry stowage turret. Briefly, they are very nice with the castings being real clean. I'll be out of town this weekend so I won't be able to post my reviews of them until mid-next week.
Look forward to your thoughts Chris - Iron Division was kind enough to send samples my way as well, and my initial impressions are very positive, particularly the replacement upper hull for the Hobby Boss M4A1 76mm wet, which will let most modelers make a far more accurate version of this variant wihtout the hassle of trying to fix the goofy HB hull angles. A definite must if you have this kit - hope it inspires some more builds of this Hobby Boss Sherman.
Still anticipated is the M4A3 correction for the HB kit (including hull angles and hopefully the engine grille width - thankyou Bruce Culver) which is going to be of particular interest to those who have issues with the HB kit for its discrepancies there.
Hopefully we will see that one soon - and I am sure Bruce second's me on that.
Konrad, Bob sent me samples of the M4A3 hull, and it looks very nice indeed, but the ones he sent me were in a white resin that does not show details well, so I want to wait for the production quality hulls he told me were coming before I post comments. Initial impressions are very favorable and I can tell you the new hull fixes the problems with the Hobby Boss M4A3 kits. Note that the M4A3 hulls come with the correct raised cast roof area up front with the casting marks and numbers as per the real thing, and all the details around the engine deck that HB did get right. This hull will solve all the glitches in the HB M4A3 kit hulls, and if you have an old bandai M4A3, this hull would be a good cheap way to bring the old girl up to current detail standards with very little work.
The production M4A1 small hatch hull Bob sent is an excellent replacement for the Tamiya hull. It has the casting texture on the surface, no rain channel, and even includes the front hatch bumper stops the Tamiya hull doesn't have. It also comes with sponson floors. All of the Top Gun hulls are hollow cast, but the turrets will be solid. I have a sample of his late-mid production M4 low bustle turret with the later gun rotor housing (widened on the right end) and no pistol port on the left side. A fair number of these turrets were made, and they are found in many photos of tanks built in late 1943-early 1944. Again, it's in the white prototype resin and I want to see the production version in cream resin for the better look at the details, but what I see looks very good. It has good texture and casting numbers on the roof.
It is very gratifying to see new aftermarket suppliers not only entering the market, but doing so in such a quick and efficient way. Our responsibility now is to support these folks so they keep doing this. If we support the aftermarket companies, there is almost no limit to what they can produce for us. If we don't, much of this will go away. Some already has, as we've seen with the track situation. Crikey, it looks like we're getting a new Churchill, and tracks too.
To those who prefer to build out of the box, I would just like to say that the majority of what the AM people are producing does not require any additional work or skill beyond what you'd need to build a standard Tamiya kit. It is a way to build models of vehicles that probably won't be coming from the Wizard any time soon. I would not expect Tamiya to kit every model of the Sherman (or Panther, or PzKpfw III or IV), but with the aftermarket replacement parts we have available now or coming really soon, we can do this, and with young Master Tim's tracks, we can shoe them accurately. You will be able to reproduce any Sherman in any photo, and they can't do that yet in the big scale. The really nice thing is the Top Gun and Faxon conversion parts are inexpensive. You do not have to break the bank at Monte Carlo to use them.
The only way 1/48 will grow steadily is for all of us to keep buying kits on a regular basis, not just when a new release comes out. By using the resources of the AM producers, we can keep modeling even when the flow of new kits slows down, as it is bound to, sooner or later. The new AM folks have stepped up to the plate. Now it's our turn - this is a great opportunity for all of us.
I personally bought both the M4A1 wet and M4A3 Wet hulls perhaps the first day they were offered. Good casting quality and reasonably fast shipping. The M4A1 hull is awesome and will definitely come in handy fixing up the HobbyBoss issues. I haven't had a chance to compare the M4A3 hull with the Hobbyboss kit (as I don't own an M4A3 kit yet), but comparing to the old 1/35 Tamiya it definitely comes out very good, with raised welds and casting marks. The underneath is not nearly as...elegant...as the M4A1 hull, but no one will see it so who cares? I would love to see them come out with a late 75mm turret with loaders hatch and then all the issues with the M4A3 kit will be resolved (or at least the more important ones IMHO). I would also selfishly like to see a set of pressed roadwheels, as well as other variants, as neither the Adalbertus nor the MR Models issues being very easy to acquire (especially with the exchange rate between the Euro and the Dollar!)...
How do the hatches from the Hobby Boss M4A3 kits fit with the Top Gun M4A3 hull? The caption on the Top Gun website says the hull is a repacement for the two M4A3 (VVSS) kits and is suitable for the M4A3E8 kit, but the hatches are different between the kits (VVSS versus HVSS). I cannot tell by looking at the photo of the M4A3 hull at the Top Gun website. I don't mind when I need to do some filling and filing for major hull joins, but I would prefer drop in hatch compatibility.
You mentioned the possibility that one could use the old Bandai M4A3 kits too, which is an attractive idea for an old M4A3 105mm kit I have, but again how do the Bandai M4A3 hatches fit with the Top Gun M4A3 hull? Have you tried them or are you just speculating?
All this M4A1-malarkey is getting me confuzzled...Say I want to do an early British Sherman as they appeared in North Africa. Which hull do I need, and which kit is best? Do I get this version with a HobbyBoss or a Tamiya? Do I get the MR M4A1 Early Production with M34 gun mount?
Too... much... choice... At times like this being indecisive is not a good thing.
Just dropping in to say "Thank You" for all the favorable comments on the new hulls. Of course I did forget one big thing when producing this M4A3 Upper Hull, the hatches to fit it come from the E8 version. OOOPS! Never fear, help is on the way. Alongside my other projects, a Sherman Accessories set is also being pieced together which now has early and late type hatches among other tasty treats. There are around 9 items that will be hitting the 1/48 Scale scene soon (I'm doing a bunch of Masters/Sets like an assembly line), among them are the later 75mm turret, Early 76mm turret, M4A1 Composite Hull (thanks again Chris!), Sherman Accessory Set, Resin Lower hull for Tamiya kits, WW2 US AFV Accessory Set, STUG IV, M-8 Greyhound Interior/Exterior Accessory set, and a Willy's Jeep update set. Plus there are more things started. As soon as I get over this %$&*#@ Flu, things might go alittle faster!! At least with the short amount of down-time, I've been able to re-evaluate the product line and set my self on a firm release schedule.
Bruce, finally casting your new M4A3's, sorry it took so long.
Bob and Steve
Top Gun Military/IRON DIVISON Resins
www.topgunmilitary.com
I'll definitely be looking forward to the StuG IV conversion if the quality of the Sherma hulls are anything to go by. Late or early? Also I'm gratified to see a late 75mm turret in the works too...
In response to requests for pictures of these new products, here is a quick bench shot I took of the Iron Division TGM M4A1 hulls, both the intermediate hull (with sponson fillers) for the Tamiya 75mm kit and late version for the Hobby Boss M4A1 76mm upper hulls are shown, and as can be seen they are both nicely done. Also shown is the late low bustle turret, which can be used on any of the Tamiya and Hobby Boss kits (check references, not all combinations are apprprate). A more extensive review will be forthcoming shortly.
