FOV Firefly

[krieglok]

I bought two of the new Fireflys from George at Minuteman and they arrived the other day. I opened one box up and it contained a nice sculpt commander figure as well as the usual FOV add ons. The vehicle is spot on for a Brit Firefly. Details are correct and well represented. True there is no weathering, but I can do that myself with some light dry brushing.

The two drawbacks I encountered are a tight fitting turret and tight tracks. I disassembled the hull and removed the turret and found flash and a few burs which prevented the turret from traversing like it should. They were easily removed and I used a little silicone grease to make the assembly operate smoothly.

The tight tracks are another case. FOV used the same tracks as it has on earlier Sherman releases but the Firefly has a slightly longer wheel base. The tracks are so tight, they were "sucked" into the front drive sprocket, between the two gear sides. In fact, one sprocket was broken by the over tensioned track. I was able to repair it though. I explored ways to move the rear idler in to loosen the track but there is all castings there. The better approach might be to add track links somehow. I like my tank tracks to function smoothly so this will be a project for me to do for sure.

[[CAT]CplSlade]

Hooray for cost-cutting measures!

[graycap]

The Firefly does n't appear to be available over here in the UK yet. Looking forward to getting one, though it is worrying about the tight tracks. I see FoV have chosen as their model ALLAKEEFEK which was one of the victims of Wittman's Tiger tanks at Villers-Bocage.

[krieglok]

Interesting about the tank`s history.

I tried a process of soaking the tracks in very hot water, picking them out and stretching them gently and then putting them under very cold water. The process loosened them up quite a bit. The tank rolls free now. We will see if they stay that way or if they shrink back up...

[graycap]

Thanks for the tip about stretching the tracks. Much appreciated.

[tmanthegreat]

Just got one today. Really, it is a good and very accurate tooling. More accurate than the 21c 32x version by far.

I haven't taken it out of the box yet, but why oh why did FOV stop the weathering on their vehicles? Just looks cheap and not right. Its nice to have a non-North Africa Brit tanker figure as well, but even the paint on that is subpar compared to what Unimax has done in the past. The box is marked "Enthusiast Edition" but its totally "Action Grade" material...

[tmanthegreat]

Double post here, but finally have the Firefly out of the box, "assembled" and displayed. Here are my thoughts:

Tooling:
As was said above, it is very accurate to a Sherman Firefly with correct turret design, front glacis, rear deck, etc. The sculpt is crisp and looks good. It is a new turret and upper hull from FOV's regular Sherman model. Much more accurate tooling than the 21c Sherman Firefly. I like the fact that both the commander and loader hatches open on the turret. The driver's hatches on the forward hull do not open.

In a change from FOV's previous models, the upper hull and turret are plastic, while the lower hull is diecast. This still gives the tank some weight, but not as much as on the old Sherman tooling which had more diecast.

Tools are moulded into the hull sculpt. They are painted well, but the original FOV Sherman toolings (even the action grade ones) had removable tools.

My vehicle has the same tight tracks that krieglok noted on his. Will have to try his soaking method to loosen them. Turret was also tight, but I was able to loosen it some by turning it around multiple times.

Accessories:
Pretty standard, but somewhat less than what we used to get. Only 4 jerrycans, 1 large crate, 1 small crate, 1 small, 1 medium, and 1 large-sized canvas rolls, bottles, tow cable, and the track link. I did like the new trading card, which has gone back to giving data about the vehicle like FOV did on their older cards, instead of the war-gaming stuff.

Oddly, no .50cal MG was included, though there are mounting points for on on the commander's hatch. I took the .50 MG from a standard FOV Sherman I have in storage and it fit right into the hole. (Now the tank can defend itself!)

Other Items & Issues:
The figure is a standard Brit tanker and I like his pose standing in the turret. I don't like the simplistic paint job. It rather reminds me of what we saw on the cheap Bravo Team 1:32 scale figures.

Also, not a speck of weathering. I thought FOV was being sub-par with the simple airbrusing of "dirt" on previous releases like the Chafee and KV-1, but I would gladly take that over the factory fresh paint job on this tank and other current releases. Doesn't help that the tank is all dark green as well, so it looks really boring.

Final Thoughts:
First, thanks for reading through my rant on this new release. I like the FOV Sherman Firefly due to it being an accurate representation of that tank and that fact that is another piece of unique British armor, which we are in need of in 1:32 scale. However, I have a number of beefs with it as well in part due to the high cost versus quality as well as Unimax's cost-cutting measures. It lacks the quality and overall detail of earlier FOV releases and comes at a higher price.

[Heer]

Interesting to see that FOV has done a relatively good mould for the firefly, but is still weak in terms of weathering.

[binder001]

Thanks for the comments. It looks like FoV has done a decent model. A couple responses to your comments:

1) No .50 cal MG - the British, especially in NW Europe weren't that big on the commander's AA MG so they commonly omitted it. Very few "Firefly" photos show the external MG in place.

2) Molded on tools - that's much better than the original. The old version had removable tools, but at the cost of HUGE lumps of metal to hold them, then the tools were slightly undersized to fit the brackets.. Molded in place is much better than that!

3) On one hand it's nice to see an M4A4 (Sherman V) as this has never been done in 1/32nd scale. However as a collector of US stuff I wish they had done the base vehicle as a Sherman Hybrid iC, the "Firefly" based on the late Detroit-built M4s. Almost as common as the Sherman VC, but more adaptable to kitbashing other vehicles. Oh well, maybe next year will bring a decent US version of the Sherman.

[Heer]