I don’t know how long ago, but probably almost 20 years, I bought and built the Dragon kit of an Israeli M-51 Sherman (popularly, but erroneously, known as the “Isherman” or “Super Sherman”), but never did finish it. As it’s been so long, I don’t recall my reasons for that, but looking in the box recently, I think it’s because I didn’t particularly feel like building the tracks for it. I had bought the AFV Club set of T80 tracks, which I took out of the box a few months ago with the intention of putting them on a Sherman I have almost finished by now. Because that tank needed a different pattern of tracks after all, I instead decided to use them on yet another Sherman last week, but very much discarded that plan soon after I started assembling them. In any case, I still have the original tracks and will probably be putting them onto the model soon, so this one will finally get finished because of my current interest in Shermans 
(Also, the reason I’m posting this instead of actually working on any of these models is because it is very difficult to put on small parts if you have a sticky plaster on the index finger of your dominant hand … Work will resume once that’s off )
Before I do that, though, some photos of the model as it sat in its box for the better part of two decades …
[ATTACH]412747[/ATTACH][ATTACH]412748[/ATTACH]
As you can see, it’s not entirely Dragon. The upper hull and some of its detail parts are actually from the old Italeri M4A1 kit, for the reason the following photo illustrates:
[ATTACH]412752[/ATTACH]
I placed the Dragon hull that came with the M-51 kit onto the Italeri hull here, to show the difference in texture. The kit part is far too rough, which I seem to recall is because Dragon used as their example, a museum tank that had been painted too many times without removing the old paint first. Real Sherman castings were fairly smooth, so the Italeri hull was a far better representation (I also scraped down the texture on the turret). Because the Dragon Sherman kits all trace their lineage back to the Italeri kit, this was a simple substitution that looks like it required no modification to the Dragon lower hull at all. I’m not sure anymore why I had that hull. Could be I bought the Italeri kit specifically for this, but I haven’t got a clue what I did with the rest of it.
The main work needed was to cut out the Italeri engine deck and put the Dragon one (that was a separate part) in its place, as well as extending the rear hull plate with some plastic card and filling a gap between the front mudguards and the hull in a similar way. The following photos show better what needed to be done:
[ATTACH]412749[/ATTACH][ATTACH]412750[/ATTACH]
The periscope in the driver’s hatch is from the old and very useful Verlinden set, and I replaced many grab handles with copper wire, but that’s about it.
The only change needed to the turret was to add some blocks so it fits the Italeri turret ring:
[ATTACH]412751[/ATTACH]
(Also, the reason I’m posting this instead of actually working on any of these models is because it is very difficult to put on small parts if you have a sticky plaster on the index finger of your dominant hand … Work will resume once that’s off )Before I do that, though, some photos of the model as it sat in its box for the better part of two decades …
[ATTACH]412747[/ATTACH][ATTACH]412748[/ATTACH]
As you can see, it’s not entirely Dragon. The upper hull and some of its detail parts are actually from the old Italeri M4A1 kit, for the reason the following photo illustrates:
[ATTACH]412752[/ATTACH]
I placed the Dragon hull that came with the M-51 kit onto the Italeri hull here, to show the difference in texture. The kit part is far too rough, which I seem to recall is because Dragon used as their example, a museum tank that had been painted too many times without removing the old paint first. Real Sherman castings were fairly smooth, so the Italeri hull was a far better representation (I also scraped down the texture on the turret). Because the Dragon Sherman kits all trace their lineage back to the Italeri kit, this was a simple substitution that looks like it required no modification to the Dragon lower hull at all. I’m not sure anymore why I had that hull. Could be I bought the Italeri kit specifically for this, but I haven’t got a clue what I did with the rest of it.
The main work needed was to cut out the Italeri engine deck and put the Dragon one (that was a separate part) in its place, as well as extending the rear hull plate with some plastic card and filling a gap between the front mudguards and the hull in a similar way. The following photos show better what needed to be done:
[ATTACH]412749[/ATTACH][ATTACH]412750[/ATTACH]
The periscope in the driver’s hatch is from the old and very useful Verlinden set, and I replaced many grab handles with copper wire, but that’s about it.
The only change needed to the turret was to add some blocks so it fits the Italeri turret ring:
[ATTACH]412751[/ATTACH]
They don’t seem to want to come off without breaking. Not sure what to do next, but chances are this will go back into its box for another twenty years or so.
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