Bristish Sherman VC Firefly - TASCA

After two years waiting, Tasca finally has released their Firefly and the only that can be said it that the wait has been well worthy. Maybe there are some room for some aftermarket (perhaps link by link tracks or a turned aluminium barrel?) but for the refinement details and moulded quality this is an unbeatable model.
the headlights and periscopes; a rubber piece for represent the bogies springs, a small photo-etched sheet (we miss here the tool brackets and lockers), rubber band tracks formed by two sections for each side, and finally a decal sheet with markings for four different vehicles:
Vehicle #1: A Squadron, 24th Lancers, 8th Armoured Brig. June 1944, Normandy.
Vehicle #2: "BELVEDERE" B Squadron, Staffordshire Yeomanry, 27th Armoured Brig. July 1944, Normandy.
Vehicle #3: 1st Squadron, 2nd Armoured Regt, 10th Armoured Cav. Brig., Polish 1st Armoured Div., Spring 1944, U.K.
Vehicle #4: C Squadron HQ, New Zealand 20th Armoured Regt., 4th NZ Armoured Brig., April 1945, Italy.
During the building, there is the choice of three different drive sprockets (veh. 1 &4; veh. 2&3) and two sorts of road wheels (the solid pressed and the spoked ones). There are not indications in the instructions sheet about which kind of wheels have to be used for each marking option, so check your reference pictures here or go for the more common pressed wheels for a safer bet. Also, the box includes two different frontal housings for the transmission, two different positions for the gun barrel travel lock (veh. 3 is different), three types of rear turret radio boxes (veh. 1&2; veh. 3; veh. 4) and two kinds of muzzle brakes (veh. 1&4; veh. 2&3). Be careful if you choose the vehicle #4 because the co-driver hatch and the part that closed the machine-gun hole are different, and also it carries add-on armour on the hull sides and right side of the turret.
In any case, and as usual, it is very recommended to carefully study the instruction sheet after choosing the vehicle to build. Take care to drill the necessary holes in step #11 before the two parts of the hull are glued together.
One question that we do not like too much is the breaking of the lower hull in several panels, as is usually seen for example in many Eastern European kits. One could expect a single piece lower tub for the Far East quality standards of nowadays.
As we already said, the refinement of details is superb: foundry marks in the hull, hatches, bogies…, the cast texture of the plate and very delicate extra fine parts. Tasca even includes very small bolts in the wheels sprues to be added to the road wheel if you wish. They are twelve per wheel, and the wheels are twelve too, so 144 bolts in total. will be a test for your patience, your eyesight and our love for superdetailing. The tracks also have a good detail despite being of the rubber band type. Their only four ejection pins are easily removable with a sharp cutter. They can be glued with ordinary liquid glue and are designed to have the union hidden after glued. They are of the “British” type T-62, very common in the Firefly.

This is a superb kit and only can be highly recommended for anyone who wants to enjoy modelling, regardless of their fondness for British tanks or Shermans, and also recommended for modelers who have already built a Firefly and now they wish to build the best one in the market.

More information at: Tasca Modellismo