Building Dragon’s M4 Composite Sherman

Starting off great John. Will this be a pacific build?

The Large Hatch M4 Composite entered production in September 1943 with the low bustle turret that featured the cast cheek armor with no pistol port. In November, Chrysler transitioned to the new high bustle D78461 turret that added a loader's hatch and reintroduced the pistol port. Dragon was thoughtful by including both turrets in the kit. As stated, Dragon messed up by only providing the turret ring for the low bustle turret. So the logical solution is to build the low bustle version. But, Dragon also molded the very late low bustle turret with pistol port and loaders hatch. There is no know evidence that this combination was ever used on the M4 Composite. Some further corrections will be needed to make the correct turret.

I started making the corrections by gluing the loaders hatch into position, and then sanding the detail flush with the top of the turret. I also removed the protruding portion of the pistol port. Miliput was mixed and applied in the pistol port opening from the back side. I also applied a skim coat of filler over the loaders hatch to address any reaming seams. Once dry, these areas were wet sanded to blend the filler work into the turret.

I didn’t care for the look of the turret roof ventilator, so I removed the casting and replaced it with one from Tiger Model Designs. I also replace the turret lift rings that I scrounged from the parts box.





Mr Surfacer 500 was used to restore the cast texture from the modifications that were made. Working in small areas, I applied the surfacer and stippled with a stiff brush as it dried. Once the entire turret was covered, I used some worn out fine sand paper to buff down any unrealistic high spots in the texture.



And here is the completed turret with all of its fittings.

Moving on to the suspension, the bogies were assembled per the kit instructions. Before the top skid plate was added, the return roller bracket mounting holes on the front face were drilled out using the spacing jig from Click-to-detail.



Finishing off the front detail. I replaced the kit lifting rings with new ones from Tiger Model designs. New hatch handles were made from copper wire. And the photo etch light guards were supplied in the kit.



Here again, I didn’t care for the kit pioneer tools, so they were replaced with Tiger Model Designs Pioneer tools with molded on tie downs.



The tow cable was made up from Eureka XXL tow cable and formations cable ends.

Great build, can't wait to see this kit with some paint! Thanks for sharing.

Hi Gary,

Thanks!

This one is going to be covered in mud, So all that detail won't be seen after its done.

Looking most excellent dude


Gary

An amazing project... My projects look like a 6-year old with crayons compared to your work! LOL

Thanks for sharing your build details - I'm learning a lot of great information.