Modeling the Sherman Tank in 1/72nd Scale
 
"Douglas Kay" Firefly VC Dragon
Kit #7300
Article by Doug Chaltry; last updated 19 February 2011
This kit is a special edition of Dragon's previously released Firefly VC model. It was released at the 2006 Dragon Expo in Europe in both 1/72nd and 1/35th scales (as well as with a large scale action figure). Douglas Kay was the turret gunner in "CAROLE", a Firefly of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, 27th Armoured Brigade. Note that a couple of well-known photos of this tank waiting to be loaded onto an LST at Gosport show it to have a deep wading stack mounted on the hull rear.

The plastic parts in the kit are [almost] identical to the previous release of the Firefly VC. The only difference is that the upper turret part in this kit lacks the pistol port opening on the turret side.

From what I can tell from the photo, everything needed to build CAROLE is included in this kit, including the additional blanket box attached to the radio box on the turret rear. You'll need various aftermarket stowage items if you want to build the tank as pictured.

The unique aspects of this release are the etched brass fret and the decals. Again, to the best of my knowledge, the decals are correct, though there are some shipping stencils missing that are seen on the tank in the Gosport photos. I'm uncertain as to when those markings would have been removed from the tank, but they probably would have worn off pretty quickly.


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Modeling the Sherman Tank in 1/72nd Scale