Italeri

1/72 M4A1 Sherman Calliope

Kit Number: 7056

Reviewed by  Jack Kennedy, IPMS# 12511

MSRP: $16.20 Kit supplied by MRC/Academy: www.modelrec.com I have long been a fan of Italeri models and when I received this 1/72 M4A1 Sherman Calliope my opinion of their kits improved. The Sherman Calliope was not a huge success due to the fact that it could not be aimed properly. Still in all, it was an interesting concept. The kit was very simple to build. All of the parts were well molded in OD plastic with vinyl tracks. As a surprise, Italeri decided to include an engine and transmission, however in order to see them the hatches over them had to be left open. When I built this kit, I cheated and left them out and closed the hatches. Assembly was straight forward with no fit problems. The suspension was keyed to have the tracks sit properly. This was a nice touch and eliminated any alignment problems. The tracks called for the heating of the connecting pins but I decided to try CA glue and this worked just fine. The turret and all its hatches went together nicely with just a small amount of sanding at the joints. One had the choice of leaving the hatches open or not but I couldn't see any sense to leaving them open with nothing to see inside. It would have been terrific to have an interior to view. The Calliope was somewhat tricky to get properly aligned but after a few tries it went together just fine. Attaching it to the turret took a few fits to get just right. After all the sub assemblies were complete all that was required was to put them together and decal it. Decals consisted of two variants of stars. Not a big deal. They were very thin and went on smoothly without setting solution. I airbrushed the entire tank with Model Master Acrylic US Olive Drab. Before adding the decals I painted Future Floor Wax on the spots where the decals were to go and when added and dry, I hit it with Testor's Dullcoat. Overall I was quite pleased with this model and would recommend it to any modeler regardless of their ability. It was that easy. I wish to thank MRC/Academy and IPMS/USA for giving this kit to me to review.

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