What You Get In The Box

(Note: This is not a How-to-Build article. It’s just my opinion on the contents, with maybe a few hints here and there)

Dragon DML M51 - Kit -

Having purchased the earlier M4A3E8 kits, the first thing I noticed here is that DML re-tooled the mold for the lower hull to eliminate the need to carve, grind or sand away the old Italeri suspension pads. There is nothing else in the box that resembles in any way the Italeri M4A1 kit, which is a shame, as I’ll discuss later.

Out of the box, the kit is based on the Batch Four M51 presently displayed in front of the Latrun museum, minus the large rear stowage bin, which, for some reason, is not included. It is also missing the base for the mortar. Since this kit was released, the display vehicle has been sandblasted and repainted, which obscures the main identifying feature to prove that the model is based on this particular tank and no other. At the time that the team from Dragon Models Limited would have researched the kit, this tank ‘s paint was chipped and peeling. Several layers, in fact, were visible. The texture of the kit’s hull and turret pieces closely resembles this type of surface. The rear of the upper hull is a separate piece and it also has the prominent weld mark where it would have been reattached after the hull was lengthened. The other accessible M51’s known to me do not have this feature. The model, as it is, can be built into what will generally look like a M51. It goes together well, with little cleanup and the fit is good.

DML M51 - Suspension
The track represent the T80 steel chevron type, common to later WWII and Korean War US HVSS Shermans, and the only HVSS track known to me to be used on IDF vehicles. If the T84 rubber chevron track was used, I haven’t seen photo evidence of it. Some people do not like the separate guide horns on the track, but I personally think that it adds to the finished model. Cleaning up the pieces prior to assembly is the most time-consuming and tedious part of the project. The result looks good, and is worth the effort. To be perfectly accurate, you should drill a hole in the top of each horn, which gave access to the mounting bolt, which is also missing, and two holes in the ends of each link to simulate the connecting pins. However, I’m not crazy enough to do that in 1/35^th scale!

The suspension bogies are not user-friendly. They are molded in a strange way that requires you to cut bolts off to allow for fitting the inside mount. In fact, the person that designed the mold originally could not possibly have ever seen a real HVSS bogie attached to a hull. The rear or inside portion is very inaccurate, as is the pad that attaches to the hull piece. Luckily, this is barely visible after the wheels and track are in place. The idler assembly is awkward, with the parts overly simplified and delicate. For some reason, the backs of the idler wheels have no bolt detail, although the road wheels do. DML could have done a lot better. (They are inconsistent this way. The Pershing/ Patton series and the original-mold Stug series, not the Gunze rehash kits, are some of the best armor kits available. Yes, for those who may wonder, I have built them, even the German stuff. In my humble opinion, they are superior to the Tamiya kits. With the exception of the M4A1 kit, however, the Shermans all come up short in some major way. Sad!) The sprocket assembly is also a little awkwardly designed, but with the care it will go together all right. Once built and painted, the suspension looks fine.

DML M51 - Turret
The overall shape is adequate, and it does capture the feel of the modified T23 turret. The mantlet and gun barrel have the correct massive look of the real thing. The muzzle brake is grossly undersized, which really disappointed me. It has the correct shape, though, so a very patient and careful modeler can use it as a template to build a good one. A less strenuous approach would be to bulk it up and cover it like I did. Accurate Armour has an update set, mastered by Mark Hazzard from the UK that includes a nice muzzle brake, along with a lot of other replacement parts and some photo-etch brass that will enhance this kit.

The mortar base is missing, so you have to fabricate one from sheet plastic and some tubing. If you want to add the mortar itself, it is identical to the one in the Academy Merkava 2 kit. Photos of the late M51 are rare, but there is a nice shot in my Israeli Sherman book that shows a fully equipped vehicle, including the mortar, in the mid-1990’s. If you leave the mortar off, you must add the travel lock for it. Only remnants of this are on the vehicles in Israel, but it is complete on the one in storage at Ft Knox.

Some sources state that the small box added to the right side of the bustle was for mortar rounds. However, given the IDF tank commander’s propensity for exposing himself in the cupola, I doubt if he wanted explosives that close to his head. Also photos of the inside of the box show fittings more in keeping with spotlight storage, or something similar. The box measures 18’L x 11"W x 9’’H.

On very later M51’s, the .50 caliber machine gun was moved to the mantlet, just like on the M109 and Pattons. The TC used a .30 caliber Browning in a scissors mount like the one on the Urdan cupola.

The rear bustle is a massive hollow casting that sits on a "shelf" left when the original turret was cut down. In some vehicles, the bustle is flush with the turret top, while on others it is raised about an inch.

Generally speaking, the T23 turret as fitted to most M4A1 was much like the one in the kit, round contours around the bottom where the sand mold part line would be. The part line in the kit is more or less along the same line. There could be a raised bead along this line, or not. The bustle casting had no such line, so be sure to allow for this. Other T23 turrets have a more carved look around the seam area, so this is an option. Be sure to have a good photo to go by or you could overdo this feature. There are also subtle differences in turrets depending on whether they have the split or oval loader’s hatch. To my knowledge, all M51’s had the oval version.

The simulated cast texture must be toned down considerably. The original US casting was quite smooth and the bustle is even more so. I used auto body putty to fill in most of the depressions, and also to apply a subtle carved or buttered look to it. A few small pits are fine also, but not those massive peaks and valleys in the kit. Try to imagine the effect that wet sand would have on liquid metal. The sand is applied smooth, but it may flake off here and there. Occasionally, a massive area of sand would flake off, leaving a large lump of metal after it cooled. Examples where this has happened also show that the excess was removed with a cutter or grinder.

DML M51 - Hull
This is an area where DML should have capitalized on their relationship with Italeri. The ancestry of the lower hull is obviously Italeri, so why not use their upper hull as a starting point for this kit? Instead, DML opted to do its own, and failed. The front of the upper piece is terribly misshaped between the hatches. After the muzzle brake, it’s the most disappointing aspect of the kit. However, it is very easy to fix. The plastic is just thick enough to allow you to use a round file to re-shape the area enough to get by. Carefully take away plastic in order to create the effect of the area around the hatches protruding from a valley in between. The valley should be flat in the center on a plane even with the lower part of the glacis. An alternative is to use an Italeri hull, but you must then remove the engine deck and modify the rear end to fit the lower hull extensions for the Cummins engine.

The engine deck has the top-mounted exhaust and louvers of the Batch Three and Four vehicles. The exhaust shroud is hollow, so it is difficult to backdate the deck to the Batch Two configuration. The lids over the forward access openings are a little too wide, and the supports and hinges are undersized, but easily fixed.

Another poorly scaled feature are the side fenders, which are two wide. I replaced them with evergreen strips. The braces, though, are excellent.

As mentioned, the kit lacks the large rear stowage bin, which I scrounged from an Academy kit. It’s also very easy to scratch build. It is simply flat sheet metal over a tubular frame.

DML M51 - Tools and Fittings
The tools are adequate, and definitely an improvement, for the most part, over DML’s earlier efforts, as well the Italeri ones.

The IDF fittings are very nice. The best of these are the jerrican holders, which come complete with mid-level frame. The cans themselves are separate, which is nice, because very often these are empty in photos. The spare wheels are good, as are the side boxes. When mounting the boxes, keep in mind that the shorter ones are toward the rear. The spare track holders are fine, also. However, the smoke dischargers are molded in two pieces, which makes it difficult to get a properly cylindrical profile with a round opening. Of course, loaded tubes have a cover that is secured with a small chain.

For a very late version, you need to add the stowage for machine gun tripod on the right sponson next to the turret.

Backdating the Dragon Kit

Batch One

The easiest conversion is for the 1967 Six Day War. Build the kit more or less out the box, with the corrections mentioned above, except:

--Remove the two rectangular nubs on the top of the bustle

--Remove the rear portion of the engine deck, from the hinges back. Replace the piece with sheet styrene configured in a similar fashion. The rear portion is bolted in place, while the forward section of this new piece is a hatch. The seam in the hatch has a strip welded to the lid to keep the weather out. Replace the hinges.

--Using photos or a spare Italeri hull, modify the rear of the hull, upper and lower, to eliminate the effect of the extension mentioned above. In the original Cummins engine installation, the upper hull was extended more or less in the same plane down to a point even with the sidepieces in the kit. These will have to be shortened, of course.

--Many M50’s and M51’s in 1967 had extended brackets for the antenna mounts. These were oblong pieces with rounded ends that extended outward from the existing holes in the bustle casting.

--From your spares box or a spare Tamiya M4A3 kit, take the left hand exhaust and glue it to the circular plate on the left side of the lower rear plate.

--Ignore references that say that the stowage suite as depicted in the kit is a later style. The other style is identical to the type on the M50. Both were in service at the same time, even before 1967. Both continued in service together long enough for both to receive many of the later post-Yom Kippur War modifications. Add a raised pin and locking clip for the travel lock. It should near the back edge of the forward section on the engine deck.

Batch Two

This is a little more difficult to do with the DML kit. Build the model as above, except:

--The rear portion of the engine deck should have the louvers that are on the kit part, but not the exhaust and its shroud. Carefully remove the shroud. Replace it with a piece of sheet styrene. Extend the metal weather strip straight across.

--Delete the antenna extensions.

Batch Three

This is essentially the very late version, but without the extended upper rear hull.

Tom Gannon