M4A3(76)W VVSS Sherman

This is a great kit for the price! It includes two different types of tracks, three different gun barrels (one's aluminum), and two figure sets. I'd reviewed the tank crew set before, so I'll give a summary on them. They're not the best figures. I had a number of problems with them. They can be made to look great if you have a lot of time and willing to invest time into building them. However, the other four combat figures are great! They're also included in Dragon's M2A1 howitzer, just a few different arms. The details on mine were quite good. The tank is pretty straight forward. No fit issues and comes out to looking great!

This was my first Dragon kit and I do love the level of detail as compared to Tamiya and Italeri. The minor things like periscopes and detailed hatches make all the difference in building a realistic model. I was a little intimidated with the photo etch parts but the fenders weren't a problem at all. I gave up on the mounts for the tow cable, I'm just not good with those tiny parts yet and probably need to invest in some tools to help me with stuff like this in the future. I had only one issue with the kit, and that was the rear idler wheel. I couldn't get it to mount properly without some considerable improvisation and the directions weren't very clear. But that is a minor issue. It's nice to have an extra set of tracks for another kit (I used them on an Italeri kit because their tracks are useless) and the extra decals are a plus too! The biggest flaw that I discovered too late, the decals for Thunderbolt are wrong! Fair warning, it should be Thunderbolt VI NOT IV. You can fix that prior to attaching the decals though. The 101st paratroopers are superb and the tank crew isn't too bad but the commander figure just doesn't seem to fit right in the commander's cupola. You have to squeeze his legs to get him to fit. The driver and bow gunner figures are pretty nice 1/2 figures but you will have to put something in the hull of the tank for the driver to sit on. Now the I've done a Dragon kit, it's going to be hard to do anything by Tamiya now. I've been spoiled by this detail This kit is NOT for a beginner, I look forward to doing more kits by Dragon.