Trumpeter 1/72 M4A3E8 Sherman Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The M4 Sherman was the first of series of US medium tanks that incorporated a larger turret ring to facilitate a larger main gun in the turret. Its predecessor also had a large main gun, but this was located in the bow while a smaller caliber gun was placed in its turret.

The Sherman was also a result of a US combat strategy where tanks were not intended to fight other tanks, rather they were designed to create and exploit weaknesses in enemy lines attacking softer targets and reinforced positions. The job of killing German armor was left to the infantry, who quickly adapted a number of tank chasses to carry high-velocity armor piercing guns.

In reality, the Sherman faced off against German armor and held its own through a series of improvements and field modifications designed to counter improvements in enemy armor.

Trumpeter has released the "Easy 8" in 1/72 scale. Molded in light gray (standard Trumpeter) styrene, the kit is a simple design which will appeal to the weekend modeler, wargamer, and novice alike. The tracks are molded in black vinyl and feature some reasonably nice detail as well.

The kit is presented on four sprue trees and as you can see in the photos, two different options are provided for the suspension and road wheels. The first option has the outboard road wheels molded as part of the suspension and you merely add the inboard wheels before installing the suspension units onto the hull. In the second option, the inboard and outboard road wheels are molded separately from the suspension unit.

Typical of 1/72 scale armor, the pioneering tools are molded onto the upper hull. The travel lock, headlight fixtures, tow hooks, etc., are molded separately.

Markings are provided for several different examples.

This looks like a simple build for the weekend warrior and has lots of potential for weathering for a vignette or for your wargame battlefield.

My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!