Small Scale Military Headquarters

First impression is ok. Big green Sherman tank with a really big gun. There are two, identical, seated driver figures. I got mine at TRU. It is the solid green with the false barrel camo.


Subject: 10 outa 10 Lets face it, if it aint a panzer it's a good idea In this case an great variant of the Sherman. A Sherman with UMPH, if you'll allow. The Firefly is the tank that really identifies the key issue with the Sherman, the gun. With a 75mm pintball gun the Sherman is near worthless. With a 17 pounder, it's a deathdealer.

Model: 6 outa 10 Sorry guys. This is the rather sick 21st Sherman with a few improvements. The best thing is the new, (yes, it appears completely new) turret. Looks pretty good. I went online to look at the real thing and the model does pretty darn good. The 17 pounder does have a big ugly seam running the length of the top side of the barrel. The bigger 21st models often have this seam, mine is particularly bad though, ymmv. Muzzle break looks wrong as well. It has the right number of baffles but is cylindrical in cross section. The real thing is quite spherical in appearence (kind of funny looking actually). The hull is mostly the ugly old sherman hull with cast in tools and accesories, massively out of scale hatches, which on mine will not close properly. As for the two driver figures, Fireflys had four man crews. The radio operators space was occupied by the longer 17lb ammo. One guy is enough. The hull front does look different, but does not really agree with the images online. However, there are several versions of the Firefly and conciderable variation on the glacius. The tracks are painted redbrown, somewhat glossy, no highlights. Running gear looks a bit out of scale and clunky. Cleaning rod is molded as a separate part.


Skin: 8 outa 10 Hard to screw up a big green tank. There are vehical id numbers on the hull sides and what appear to be unit symbols on the front and rear hull. Most of the vehical is unweathered. The weathering is odd, just tan mud on strategic points. I suppose it would work with a proper wash and highlight job, but it just looks odd on an otherwise clean vehical.

Well sports fans that gives us and overall 8 outa 10. But note, I gave it a ten for just BEING a firefly. The model got a 7 outa 10 for execution.

I can't help making a couple comparisons. I purchased a 38t about a week before the Firefly. The 38t just kicks it's butt. Pure and simple, its a MUCH better model. 21st really needs to sit down with itself and commit to the quality of their recent offerings. If you're not going to retool the Sherman than don't bother. Second comparison is with the PZKW IIIL I purchased last year. The firefly is a MUCH better effort (I woulda scored the IIIL about a 5 overall). Progress?

David

Where are the pic's?

Yeah. Where's the pics? Anyways, thanks for the review.

Here you are:

OMGosh Note the turret color! It IS different than the hull I did not notice until I saw the pics! The difference is more pronounced in the photos than with the MK1 eyeball, but you CAN see it.


Here you can see the rather strange weathering, also note the gross hatches that wont close properly. You can see the unit markings as well.

Very Nice turret detail!

Very gross Molded on tools, note sparse weathering blotches.

Yea i got the same firefly to and i have to say its not that bad. The line running down the center of the gun is really enoying but i just put a net with camo in it to cover it up .I see the problem with the hatches but mine are deffiently not that bad

I have three and only one of them would allow the gun to traverse down to zero degree elevation. One was really bad and I had to pull the turret off to dremel out the slot behind the mantlet while the second was just mildly raised. Despite this one issue I thought this is a vast improvement on the 75MM release.