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Friday, July 22, 2016 - 04:39 AM UTC
Now for something quite different, not German nor Soviet: An Egyptian Sherman with AMX30 turret will be soon available from Dragon
After Magach 1, Magach 2, and Magach 3 used by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), it’s time to unveil the first of the IDF’s opponents, and this honour has fallen on an Egyptian Sherman tank.

What is special about this tank is the fitment of an FL-10 turret onto a Sherman. Recognizing the limitations of the Sherman’s original 75mm gun, FL-10 turrets were taken from French-built AMX-13 light tanks. This turret with its autoloader allowed the crew to reduce from five to four men.

The Shermans also featured diesel engines retrieved from M4A2s. These unique tanks were introduced into Egyptian service in the mid-1950s. However, a great many were destroyed or captured in the Six-Day War by Israel. Postwar evaluations by Israel showed that such special Shermans were similar in capability to its own M51 Sherman.

This 1/35 scale kit is based on Dragon’s Sherman tooling. To this chassis has been added a brand new turret created especially for this hybrid vehicle. The oscillating turret of the original FL-10 was basically made of two hinged parts, whereby elevation and recoil were achieved by the upper part moving relative to the lower part, and Dragon has captured the turret shape.
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Comments

I know this is a bit premature but assuming this new Dragon FL-10 turret passes muster which would be the best M4 chassis to start with? (I was considering doing this model as a conversion anyway!)
JUL 25, 2016 - 07:02 PM
Oops, sorry, I now see that multibank sort of already answered the conversion question.
JUL 25, 2016 - 07:04 PM
Whoever gets the first shot in, most likely. Both tank's guns would go straight through the M4 at any angle.
JUL 25, 2016 - 09:05 PM
Whoever gets the first shot in, most likely. Both tank's guns would go straight through the M4 at any angle.[/quote] Yes, and I would say he who got in the first accurate shot would win the fight. The better training of the IDF would be a factor. They were making hits at 1,000 meters in an friendly fire incident. The M4A4(A2) AMX set up had some issues, which is why the IDF went with the M50. Still, that would have been an interesting duel to witness.
JUL 25, 2016 - 10:09 PM
These conversions were done on M4A2 and M4A4 hulls (the latter rebuilt with the diesel engines and engine deck parts of the M4A2, as nobody but the British liked the Chrysler Multibank engine). If you don't like Dragon's current M4A4 hull, you could swap an Asuka item with suitable modifications.
JUL 25, 2016 - 10:12 PM
"multibank" was the man's call sign I was referring to but thanks Gerald for chiming in with the answer to my question. I appreciate it!
JUL 26, 2016 - 01:40 AM
Did they upgrade the unsafe ammunition stowage as part of the rebuild?
JUL 26, 2016 - 02:42 AM
The Egyptian version kept the AMX auto loader. Near as can be seen it stayed dry stowage. I have the Lioness and Lion books on the M50, and based on the interior pictures the ones photographed were dry stowage. The left side of the turret basket was lined with rounds. After WWII it was determined that the wet stowage really didn't help as much as expected, which is why it was not used on later tanks. Putting the rounds in the lower hull was a definite improvement.
JUL 26, 2016 - 03:05 AM
Now that Tamiya has an AMX 13, I wonder if they'll kit an M4A4 hull to put out their own version of this tank?
JAN 28, 2017 - 09:09 AM
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