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Academy Kit Number 13011 1/35 U.S. Airborne Tank: M551 Sheridan |
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First Look By James Woody, #33899 |
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MSRP: $30.00 USD Upon opening the box you will find 4 bags of crisply molded, dark green parts. One bag with the upper and lower hull, one with mainly suspension parts, one with turret and hull parts and the last with various parts for the gun, hatches, etc. The parts look very clean with no flash, but you have minimal ejector pin marks to take care of. The tracks are vinyl with just shallow basic detail. The kit even comes with the mesh for the turret baskets (it was missing from my sample). Decals are included for 3 different tanks used in Viet Nam in 1969 and 1971. There are 35 parts on the trees that are not used for this version of the Sheridan, and I have heard that Panama and Iraqi versions will be forth coming from Academy. The exterior detail is very good, but you will need to button it up since there is no inside detail at all. The one piece upper hull fits over the one piece lower hull leaving a slight gap at were they join that will have to be filled. The turret, with its compound curves fits together like a glove once the pour stubs are removed from the parts. All in all this kit is very well engineered. This is a very nice kit, with lots of room for the detailers and after market folks to provide the interior and track. Now if someone would only make a C130 in 1/35 so that I could model a LAPES drop... |
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) Build up photos courtesy of Academy Hobby. |
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