These items appear to be old patterns as they are copies of kit items or not great in detail. Note that two mantlet covers are included for both Academy and Tamiya. none of the ventilators have the seep holes and the cupola hatch is best replaced with TMD's latest version.


With the exception of the track block (middle of photo) and end connectors, this all appears to be new patterns and are finely detailed.


The tools shown here have appeared before and the cupola hatches on the left are older patterns. The rest is nicely detailed.



This PE set shines. It is etched form both sides so it is connected to the frets unlike many of VP's latest releases. Fold lines are there.

Regards,

Saúl García

Saul,

I saw the kit laid out and also a build up at the IPMS Nationals in Columbus in August. It looked quite nice, and none of the bits that seemed to be rehashes or problematic would be hard to source elsewhere. The cupola you mention is a Grant style cupola that was used to replace the M.G. turret and is not like the later Sherman cupola. All in all I thought this and the flail tank were great efforts from Verlinden and I am anxiously awaiting getting my hands on one of each. The etch parts as you say are state of the art, which is nice to see after almost two decades of etched copper from the folks at VP.

Cheers,
Rob

Regards,

Saúl García

Saul, you made a false assumption regarding "old patterns", but you were pretty close! In the top pic, the only parts that are not newly made are the jerry cans, exhausts, air cleaners, dome ventilators, stowage items, drive sprocket rings and cupola. The towing brackets and crane boom arms are in fact all new. I had a little help with this one. No idea where the air cleaners and exhausts and domes came from as I am not a Sherman expert by any means (should have contacted Rob!). We have a guy in the factory that brought those parts from his private spares box.

This was a pretty challenging set to design, especially the PE! It took several tests & tweaks before we finally got it all to fit. I know it isn't perfect, but I am confident that it should make most modelers happy. FYI the Tamiya and Academy kits are quite different dimensionally, and this set was primarily designed for the Academy kit (but it does fit the Tamiya one).

The Crab, btw, was actually mastered years ago in Belgium (except the chains on the flail, made by yours truly), so all we really had to do was design the PE. I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how it all goes together! Not an easy kit!

Regarding connectionless PE, we are really only doing that on very small and delicate sets like tool clamps and such. For the larger parts like these it is much more practical to connect them to the fret in order to prevent unwanted damage.

Thanks for the review Saul, and thanks for the compliments Rob!

Best regards

Charlie

www.verlindenonline.com

as this was only a preview, I did not identify the parts in the photos (as will be done in the in-box review). You made my job easier! I will add the clarification to the other places I posted this preview.

Regards,

Saúl García

and thanks for the TMD part pics! I'll be hunting those down for my own build....

www.verlindenonline.com

I wonder how this compares with the Legend set?

I can't answer you. I did send this kit to someone who has the Legends and Calibre 35 kits so he is in a better position to answer.

Regards,

Saúl García

Saul,

While the m.g. turret and pepper pot exhausts are some of the nicest parts that I've ever seen in resin, I got both sets from Joe in Atlanta, they would not be proper to use on M31s. M31s were updated when rebuilt and would have had later exhaust and air cleaners and the m.g turrets were replaced with the split hatches found on the Grant turrets. Believe me the TMD parts are fantastic, and really look great on an Academy lee, but don't get them if you are building an M-31. I can not remember a picture anywhere with these fittings on an M31.

Cheers,
Rob

This is what I should have posted.

By the way, didn't you make one at one point (the air cleaners as above)?

Regards,

Saúl García