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While looking through Concord’s US Armor Funnies, I noticed a few very interesting vehicles with wading gear and pulled out Academy’s M4A2 kit. While it had wading gear, it did not have the gun rotor shield cover, assistant driver’s MG cover, or the muzzle cover. While the last one is fairly simple to make, the others are not so easy to recreate a convincing canvas appearance. Since that day, Dragon has released two better candidates for the vehicles depicted in the book, namely their Tarawa and Mk III M4A2 kits.
Tank Workshop has now released four covered mantlet sets designed specifically for Dragon’s M4A2 USMC Tarawa and Mk III Sherman. Each consists of a covered rotor shield, a resin or aluminum gun barrel, and a covered assistant driver’s MG cover. This particular set is TWS 0046 Early Sherman Mantlet Cover Set.
Inside a © Ziploc bag with a heavy paper header, we find the resin parts. See photo 1. There are three items, the canvas assistant’ driver’s MG cover, the gun mantlet canvas cover, and a resin barrel with muzzle cap molded on. Also inside the bag is a small strip of lead foil with a paper insert informing one to use it to represent the tape where the canvas cover met the gun barrel. See photos 2 and 3.
All parts were perfectly cast with well thought out casting gates. I used a sprue cutter to remove the large casting gate from the back of the main gun canvas cover. I realized that the barrel would not fit from the front so looked at the other end and noticed a small translucent square which I removed with a scalpel and fitted the barrel from behind. Photos 4 through 6 depict this sequence.
The barrel’s seam is then covered with the included strip, cut to size. No indication is given in the instructions so it is trial and error judging by photos found in books. See photo 7.
The fit to the Dragon turret shell is quite good. Please note that I am holding it in place in the photos. The gun barrel does assume a slightly gun down level but this seems accurate. The canvas cover appears to be over an early mantlet as included in Dragon’s MK III kit. See photo 8.
Speaking of accuracy, the heavy canvas appearance is well done, the assistant driver’s MG cover fit very well and the gun barrel seems based on Lion Marc Designs gun barrel which is quite accurate in shape. I hope to see the resin gun barrel and assistant driver’s MG cover sold separately as these are common on long road marches behind the lines.
My thanks go to TWS for the review sample and a job well done. Note, these sets are not included in the wading sets which are sold separately.
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