Sounds a right pain guys.Might settle for using my Resicast DV Sherman V hull and get a Tasca Sherman Firefly and use my spares up for 75mm gun etc.
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That looks like the pretty-awful-to-build Dragon M4A4 ā¦ I built one more or less alongside the Asuka one (my first Dragon Sherman in twenty years and my first Asuka Sherman at all), and very quickly knew which brand I would be buying more of ā¦
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Yup - itās the painful DML kit! I certainly wouldnāt touch one againā¦
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I agree.Tackled the Firefly and ended up cutting the lower rear hull down a bit and using an Accurate Armour update kit on it.As for the tracks well lets not go there.Grrrrrr
Richard
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Based on their VC kit, though, the RFM M4A4 that started this thread should be pretty good. I back-converted the VC to a āplainā V, and thought it was marginally better than Asuka in terms of some of the detail (manly casting texture and marks), but not quite as easy to build, and it had some odd things like a recessed step along the whole of the bottom of the turret that I needed to fill ā not to mention superfluous real metal coil springs inside the bogies. But I think Iāll end up buying the M4A4 because it has the Chinese markings that I want to model at some point.
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Nothing to add on Shermans other than an old story.
The Best Sherman kit I ever had was a Dragon Sherman kit. Nick named, Boomerang
I acquired the kit as part of a trade, looked at it and said what a pile of Dragon $hite.
Ended up selling the kit four times at a profit. Each time someone bought it, theyād look it over, say what a pile of Dragon $hite and traded it back in a few weeks to be rid of it.
Last buyer tried to sell it back (his 2nd time owning it) but didnāt like my generous $10 offer. He threatened to donate it to a raffle unless he got $20 for it. Countered w/$5 final offer.
The kit raffled to another friend whoād previously owned it. He promptly tried to sell it back to me. My offer didnāt impress so he decided to build it. Later, he was asking $15, which dropped to $5 for the started kit.
Not sure what happened to it after that.
Cheers 
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Friends donāt let friends build Dragon Shermans!
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That story was friggin awesome 
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Weird thing about Dragon Shermans is that a friend of mine gave me a built, but unpainted, M4 DV earlier this year, and though I obviously didnāt get to put it together, just examining the model left me with an impression of much better quality than the M4A4 kit. (I ended up taking bits of it apart and putting some other stuff back on, then painting it as a US Army tank in Tunisia, and Iām pretty happy with it.)
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Finally managed to get my hands on an Asuka Sherman V at Bovington for Ā£64 rather than the Ā£80+ it seems to be everywhere else I could find it.
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That seems rather expensive ā¦ I see Dominomodel in Belgium has it in stock for ā¬49 ā even with British VAT and/or import duties on top youād still end up cheaper than the apparent regular price in the UK?
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I did make a request in a specific thread but no one came to my aid there bud
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Oh, well, I guess we can chalk it up to modelling being an expensive hobby 
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Yeah, the prices for Tasca/Asuka kits has gone up quite a bit here in the UK. Seems like only yesterday when they could be had for Ā£30. I should have stocked upā¦
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In the US, the average domestic retail price for Asuka kits is $40 - Ā£30.69. Thatās across the āBig 3ā online shops in the country, and theyāve been that price for a while. Also, while they were scarce for a while two years ago, they are widely available now. I have no idea why they would be double that price in the UK.
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