Armed with the larger 17 pdr gun the Sherman Firefly was often the match of the German Tigers having the ability to take on their heavy armour where the normal Sherman 76mm gun fell short.
This kit comes from the Japanese manufacturer Tasca who specialise in Sherman variants as well as a few minor German armour offerings. Tasca aren’t a prolific manufacturer but what they make are generally condidered to be the best Sherman kits available, and deservedly so. This kit is no exception.
Coming in a large tray and lid type box this kit contains eleven sprues moulded in dark green plastic, one sprue of clear parts, one photo-etch fret, a sheet of decals, four lengths of track, instruction book and painting/marking guide. All the detail is clean and crisp, cleanup is minimal with no flash and very faint mould seams. Knock out marks are all be on areas that won’t be seen.
A lot of the smaller parts are very delicate so a kit to be wary of the carpet monster and fat fingers when building. A number of optional parts are included such as two types of muzzle brake, different hull machine gun plugs, an optional armoured radio box for the turret, and different positions for the barrel travel lock.
The hull tub is made up of seperate pieces rather than the usual single moulded piece with the top part of the hull having beautiful weld seams, subtle texturing and casting numbers etc. There are separate engine inspection hatches and the turret is also correctly textured.
The suspension is very finely detailed, made up from a lot of small parts to give the maximum ammount of detail as well as making the suspension workable once assembled. You also get the choice of different road wheels and drive sprockets ( open spoke wheels or solid pressed wheels, two types of idler wheel, and three different types of drive sprockets ). The suspension parts also come with very finely detailed casting numbers moulded in place.
The tracks are made up from four lengths of soft vinyl, two per side. Detail is very good right down to small gaps between the links which is not something you will usually see in vinyl tracks.
There is a single commander figure included in the kit, dressed in British/Commonwealth tanker overalls and beret. The detail is good and the moulding nice and clean.
The instructions use clear line drawing style diagrams which is handy as the writing is all in Japanese. Oddly, unlike Tamiya, Tasca don’t include a set of English instructions. Even so the assembly is very easy to do using the provided instructions.
Decals are provided for four vehicles – A Squadron, 24th Lancers, 8th Armoured Brigade, June 1944 Normandy :; BELVEDERE B Squadron, Staffordshire Yeomanry, 27th Armoured Brigade, July 1944 Normandy ; 1st Squadron, 2nd Armoured Regiment, 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, Polish 1st Armoured Division, Spring 1944 U.K. ; C Squadron HQ, New Zealand 20th Armoured Regiment, 4th Armoured Brigade, April 1945 Italy.
All up this is a superb kit and can be built straight from the box into a very nice model. The level of detail surpasses any rivals to date. So if you’re looking to build a good model of the Sherman Firefly VC, and especially if you’re wanting to build a vehicle in New Zealand markings then this is most definitely the kit to go for. It’s not the cheapest kit around, Tasca kits never are, but the end result is well worth the money spent.
Click on thumbnails to enlarge image.
Its the small bolts on the inside of each wheel that the Tasca one lacks and are on the Resicast wheels, looks like an update set for the next one.
Is the running correct? The resicast running gear up date has a series of three bolts along the base of the boggie mount which are labelled as an update for the M4A4 as used by NZ these are not cheap! Would need three sets!
sorry just looking I was at a Tamiya set!! They do have the bolts! Do you currently Dean have a firefly in stock?
No, sorry, we’re getting out of retailing so we’re not replacing stock as it goes.
Forgot to Add Aber do a direct barrel replacement, have one on the way after discovering the RB one is 3mm to long.
Currently building this very kit. Overall very good pity the instructions do not have an English translation and a lack of stowage so went for the Legends kit. Thought the detail on the stowage box is a little limited compared to the Ultracast set for the Canadian version, but as mine is a NZ vehicle (actually aimed as a donation to the army museum) I used the kit parts.Will do others perhaps another firefly as a Coldstreams Guards vehicle or a canadain one.