Leva Productions Article by Doug Chaltry; last updated 12 November 2007.
As one can see in the scan, this set includes a new turret of the early style (without hatch for the loader), a .50cal machinegun, and two pieces of wooden stand-off armor for the hull sides. This armor was a common feature on M4A2s in use by the US Marine Corps, which is where this set gets its name from. However, it's only been recently that the M4A2 Sherman became available to us in this scale. For the past several years, an expensive resin conversion set was available from MR Models, which is designed for the Italeri (former-ESCI) M4A1 Sherman kit. But now we also have the Dragon M4A2 Tarawa kit that would be perfect for this set, though I have not yet test-fitted the wooden armor to see how well it fits the Dragon kit. As for the quality of this set, it looks fantastic. The wooden side panels in particular are very well done. The turret has a really nice cast texture to it, which many plastic Sherman kits are lacking, and the machinegun is is pretty decent as well. A similar set was also available from Leva that includes all that is seen here, plus some additional wooden armor for the hull front. Since Leva apparently is no longer producing, I am uncertain as to the future availability of this set. Thank you very much to Todd McKendrick for the review kit. |
