The Little World

Am I seeing a kit made for a different market from the previous Zvezda tank?

It was a Josef Stalin II and might have been more popular in Russia than in the west. This Sherman might be the other side of the coin. And the sophistication of the kit might reflect an expectation of more sophisticated demand.

Whatever, it is better moulded and with more detail. The hull, for one, is complete and I’ll not need to close it in with Evergreen sheeting. Each piece so far has fallen exactly into place and yielded to the thin cement.

It’s only the prospect of the multi-segmental track that makes this less appealing. I coped with the little Polish TKS so I guess this will be the same. At least the pieces are big enough to be easy to slide on.

I was getting nostalgic for 1957 while I assembled it – my only other Sherman was started that year. Unfortunately it was taken along on an ill-starred trip to Mexico and given away unfinished to the sons of a Mexican engineer my Dad was working with. It was not my idea, but I went along with it – eventually I got a replacement die-cast model howitzer the next year as replacement. I shall look upon this tank as closure for an odd incident.

At least I’ve gone up a little in size – the Revell M4 was 1:50 scale. It had 5 soldiers, though, so maybe the trade-off is even.