Bolt Action Sherman V

This year Warlord Games brought along a lot of love for the British Armies of Bolt Action, beginning with the Sherman V in early summer 2016.

Don't confuse this kit with the M4 Sherman by Warlord Games as well. This one has a few minor and one big difference. First of all, this isn't an Italeri/Warlord collaboration kit (speaking resized model kit), this is a proper "gaming" kit, with the thick sprue frame and a bit less nimble small parts.

But let me introduce the Sherman V, it was the british lend-lease variant of the US american M4A4 variant. This one is the base for the converted Sherman Firefly VC, that I'll cover in a separate review later this month. Most Of the build 7.499 M4A4 units were shipped to allied countries and not even used by the US Americans themself.

What is in the box? For 20 GBP you receive 3 grey plastic sprues, an instruction leaflet and a small decal sheet. All the parts you need for the 28mm / 1:56 scale plastic Sherman.

The sprue is cleverly used and shares two frames with the Firefly VC (as the only difference is the upper hull and turret/weapon). A nice addition is the tank stowage and the two tank members added to the sprue. They are kept in the same design as the older metal variants, that were part of some of the resin kits.

As with most kits, this Sherman starts with the track sections. Quite easy to build, upper tracks, lower tracks, the suspension and the sprockets.

Those are aligned left and right to the lower hull, along with the front armour (differential cover) and engine plate in the back. Before you glue the differential cover, make sure if you want to use the hedge cutter or towing lugs.

As with all my plastic tanks, I added a bit of wheel weight to the body. After that, the hull is closed with the upper part of it.

This step is a bit fidly, as some of the smaller parts are easy to loose during assembly, so keep an eye on them.

This is a two step process, some smaller details for the back and the front of the tank. If you want to, you can keep the drivers and / or gunners hatch open.

The hull is completed so far. Next step is the turret. Pretty straight forward, not much to do here. The gun can be positioned in an elevated way, but is glued into position, no moving parts here. No options on the gun, just the 75 mm M3 L/40 gun in the kit.

The commanders hatch can be closed or open, in the later case you can use one of the two crew members. The other parts are for the detailling of the turret.

Last but not least, a turret-mg and a bit of stowage. Two spare wheels, a jerry can and two pieces of track. The Sherman has options to track guards, but as these Shermans will be used in Northwestern Europe, I kept them off.

And here's a small Sherman V/VC platoon, along with the long nosed brother in the middle. The second and third picture show all three of the plastic Warlord Games Sherman, with the VC Firefly on the left, the Sherman V in the middle and the M4 Sherman (Italeri) on the right.

As a final row of pictures, see a small turn around the tank here.

Conclusion
There is something about Warlords own plastic range. They are a bit more sturdy than their Italeri cooperation tanks (not bad tank kit though) and they can't deny their origin, as this is clear some Nottingham "plastic-craft". If you've build one of the more modern Games Workshop vehicle kits, you'll know what I'm talking bout.

20 GBP is a reasonable price, you get proper quality, a few options and a solid kit. Yes, the Rubicon variant has more options / variants, and Warlord could work more with hybrid kits (I'd love to see the sandbag armour etc. as additional parts of resin instead of a whole resin kit), but never the less, it gets the job done.

The British received as part of the Lend-Lease policy the most tanks of all the allies, almost 80% of all the tanks shipped during this program were under command of the Empire. The Sherman V was used mostly in Northwestern Europe (some of them by the Polish 1st Armoured Division), but saw action by the Chinese in India.

Bolt Action is a brand of Warlord Games.