It’s a kit from a long time ago, but I started to make a Dragon Super Shaman. At first glance, it seemed like a pretty good deal at the time, with a series of Orange Boxes and an IDF paratrooper figure.
I’m assembling the rolling wheels. The small rolling wheel of the upper track guide and the assembly position are very primitive, measuring by myself while looking at the instruction manual, and there is no mark for positioning. It reminds me of the Eastern European kits of the olden days.
The chassis and the rolling wheel are glued together, but does the part at the base of the rolling wheel shaft not match the chassis? I scraped the dowel and other parts where it interferes, and forced it to fit, but it’s hard to put together. In other words, when the rolling wheel and the chassis are bonded, the parts don’t fit at all. I wonder if it’s a collection of many variations of parts. When it comes to Dragon kits, most of the ones I have made in the past were of very high quality and appreciated by modelers after the technology was established, so sometimes I get confused when I make kits that are too old. The suspension is HVSS suspension with horizontal spiral spring. I think it was adopted in the later stages of the Sherman Tanks.
It is a kit with a lot of processing such as filling in various parts and cutting fenders. To be honest, the fit of the parts is not very good. The gate when separating parts is large, the accuracy of parts is moderate, and there is no precision like the Smart Kit or Premium Kit of the Dragon Models, so I think it is very stressful if you are used to making Tamiya level. Probably a repackaged version of the early Dragon kit, the one from the red box?
For some reason, there are three belt-type caterpillars inside, and only one of them has a dark yellow discoloration, and can be broken by bending it lightly over the vinyl. I thought that only the track belt would have to be purchased from a third party, but I don’t know. If I put the other two into the chassis, I think I could just wind it up. When I read the assembly manual, the installation of the starting wheel and the track is at the end of the process, so I don’t know the truth about that, so I’m feeling confused. However, this kit has too many strange parts such as the part organization. It means we can enjoy the real pleasure of assembly including these troubled parts.
(2025/05/03)
I’m assembling the upper body of Super Shaman. There are only a few small etched parts, and a small metal mesh is used for the rear of the tank. There was also processing work on the tank body, such as closing extra holes, scraping a little protrusion, and making holes.
I need to glue a lot of small plastic parts to the center guide of the track. It is not difficult work except that the amount is large and troublesome because the material can be bonded with plastic adhesive. The adhesive with strong fluidity might break the track belts, so I mainly used the one with polymer.
The part that floats without touching the upper rolling wheel was fixed by putting a tissue between the gaps and glued. When I got into it and used superglue, I couldn’t remove some of the tissues and it was a big trouble later. The parts such as the rolling wheel of the chassis do not fit well, so I reinforced them with superglue.
I ended up adding 8 frames left and right. The parts were separated from the hardened track, and used for the straight line of the ground contact area where the influence was thought to be small. As a precaution, the eight frames were brittle, so I applied superglue to all surfaces to reinforce them. The assembly manual said to add 7 pieces, so the assembly process is almost the same. However, only one rubber caterpillar had hardened. Is this intentional? If the other tracks had hardened, I would have been completely stuck with the work.
I was able to wrap the tracks on both sides. It was quite hard. The width of the track is very wide compared to the body, so the left and right fenders are bonded a lot. This is also difficult to assemble. The gates of all the parts are too thick to be processed, but I can see the way forward.
(2025/05/06)
I finally finished assembling the tank body. There are many loads on the body, such as a large tool box, many jerricans for spare fuel, and spare rolling wheels. I often put a lot of separately sold items on the Sherman, but this time, the parts included in the kit are enough. I easily picked up the Super Sherman in the flow of the U.S. Army Sherman last time, but it is quite interesting to put various parts on it. Also, the width of the footbelt is wide, so it looks impressive from the front.
The turret assembly process was skipped and the assembly was completed suddenly. The turret had a lot of work such as cutting various parts. However, there are not so many parts to attach, and I think the number of parts is about the same as the Sherman of WWII.
The large searchlight on the front is one of the characteristics of this tank. I painted the inside with silver before attaching the clear parts. If I install the parts after painting, I might lose the parts by then, so I put them right away.
The surface of the turret of the Sherman recreates the uneven mold like casting. I have erased the joint of the turret parts, but I wonder if it is welding marks or something. But it’s better to erase it. I didn’t understand it well, so I looked at the actual tank photo and there is no seam, so I think this is good. The rubber caterpillar has a slit and it bends at the connection pin, so it has a nice crunchy feel.
It is molded like a canvas cover is hung on the base of the barrel, and the barrel does not rise and fall. The barrels are parallel. I think it looks cool if the gun barrels are parallel when the turret is swung sideways.
The barrel is long and cool. It looks strong. I heard something that the gun is balanced by putting a bulge at the rear of the turret because the gun will lean forward with such a long barrel. Does it mean that the balance is improved by this amount? The inside will be a little more comfortable as there is more space for things.
One of the hatches is unglued, so I’ll try to find some nice looking tank crew.
(2025/05/11)
The kit comes with an Israeli paratrooper figure. It’s an old figure from when I started looking for a variety of soldier figures. Around the time of the Shanghai Dragon package, I think it was released in 2004, but the original kit might have been released a little earlier as the package was changed.
It included 4 figures of the airborne unit, which is said to be the elite of the Israel Defense Forces. Probably on patrol, judging from the pose. They all wear bulletproof vests. There were parts that I didn’t know where to glue them. I installed a lot of ammo pouches anyway as they were paratroopers. There are 2 soldiers each with a helmet cover and 2 soldiers without it, so the reproduction is detailed. I don’t know much about the equipped small arms, but I think the mold is fine.
The reference package illustration showed a gun sling, so I recreated the belt with thin strips of paper soaked in superglue. Since the superglue easily sticks to the parts, positioning can be done smoothly.
I primed it with black. I thought it would be effective to make shadows because of the bright color of the tank body, but I didn’t get so much shadows as I was blowing the basic color many times. Still, I’m hoping the paint will have some depth.
There are 3 colors of Israeli tanks from Cleos 500 series, so I chose the yellowest one out of them. I think the grayish one is more for current use. As I was sorting through my lacquer paints, I noticed that the number 313 FS33531 was also the color of Israeli desert camouflage. There are quite a lot if I look for them.
“The paint example in the Dragon’s manual is from the Third Middle East War, otherwise known as the Six Day War, but when I looked at the Israeli tank figures I had, they were all composite CVC (Combat Vehicle Crewman) helmets with more modern communications and protection. At the time of the Six Day War, the materials and technology were still at a relatively classical stage, so I wonder if it would be a mismatch. In the Fourth Middle East War, Yom Kippur War, there seems to be an example of the helmet replaced with a more advanced form. The Yom Kippur War was in October 1973, so the interval between the third and fourth wars is only about 7 years. Has the IDF’s equipment evolved considerably in that time? The M50 Super Sherman was used on a limited basis during the Yom Kippur War, but since it was not a main tank, its use was limited. After all, it is more interesting from a model point of view to think on the assumption of Third Middle East War.
I was thinking like that, but I like the IDF tank crew modrn helmet, so I decided to put that figure. If it is wrong from a historical point of view, let us set it as a tank that served in the Yom Kippur War.”
(2025/05/15)
I’m working on the basic painting of Super Sherman. If it is a bright color, if I make a mistake in painting a small part, it will stand out when black supplies are painted. If it’s dark green, it won’t stand out so much, so if it’s Sandoz type, I might want to paint it a little more carefully.
The uniform of the IDF infantry, dark green mixed with a little khaki is good. So it’s olive green after all. I painted it in my mood while mixing appropriate colors of Vallejo. I heard that the bulletproof vest worn by Israeli soldiers is generally olive drab. For the model, I painted it in dark green to distinguish the appearance. But as I was painting it, I couldn’t tell if it was olive drab or dark green, and by the end, it was almost the same color. Bulletproof vests worn by SWAT and other special forces units can be distinguished because they’re dark, but they’re all black. The color specification illustration of the Dragon manual is gray, so I might misunderstand it.
I also attached a decal. I think it’s part of the unit identification or company symbol, but I’m not sure. I put a decal on it and painted the skin color part of the figure with oil, so it would be better to dry it a little more.
(2025/05/21)
According to the manual, the M50 and M51 tanks, combined with the high level skill of IDF tankers, have played a major role in the 3 Middle East wars of 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Only the M50 was used in the Second Middle East War. Later, when the Super Sherman became obsolete, the M4 Sherman medium tanks, including the M50 and M51, were used as the base for tank recovery vehicles, self-propelled guns, and special tanks. Eventually, the M50 and M51 were given to Chile and Lebanese Christian militias.
In terms of main armament, the M50 is an M4 Sherman equipped with a 75 mm tank gun CN-75-50, the main gun of the French AMX-13 light tank, and welded and extended turret. The CN-75-50 was a French-made 75 mm gun originally mounted on the AMX-13 that quickly modernized the archaic Sherman firepower. It was said to be able to compete with T-34 and T-54/55 made in the Soviet Union at the time with high initial speed. Since it was originally a gun for light tanks, it was lightweight but had enough penetrating power to be easily mounted on the body of a Sherman. By 1964, production had exceeded 300.
After World War II, Israel urgently needed to develop its own tank forces to counter the hostile nations around it. The development of the M50 was inspired by the attempt to create a modernized tank that suited the needs of Japan by refurbishing the M4 Sherman provided by the United States and Britain at the time. The M50 is the “first fully refurbished Israeli tank” and the starting point of Israel’s own armaments industry.
The M50 and M51 are commonly referred to as “Super Shaman,” but this is not the official name of the Israeli military, but a convenient designation by Western fans and military researchers. However, the name is widely used in the modeling world because it sounds so impressive.
Since it is a desert, I tried to reduce the rust and add more dirt and dust.
The headlights were coated in silver, but the texture was not good, so I used the clear parts left over from the Tasca Sherman I made earlier. The size was slightly different, and the finish didn’t improve as dramatically as I expected, so I felt like something was wrong. A later Dragon Models kit would have included clear headlight with vertical stripes. This kit is a little old, so it can’t be helped.
This time, it came with a 1/35 scale “Israel Airborne” figure set, so I made it. This kit recreates four IDF paratroopers from the Middle East War era.
The figures are varied from charging, marching, waiting, and sniping positions, and each is equipped with different equipment, revealing the different roles of the members. He carried Garrill, UZI, FN MAG light machine gun and bazooka. Especially from the back, the detail of the communications soldier’s large radio and bazooka bullets stands out.
The paint is based on IDF’s unique olive drab, and the weathering creates a moderate feeling of use. The face is painted with a little ingenuity to create a sense of field. The equipment is carefully painted so that you can feel the difference in texture.
The Israeli paratroopers, which have a different historical background and equipment from modern warfare, can be combined with AFV and made into a diorama. It’s especially good with the M50 Super Shaman and Centurion.
The Galil AR is an Israeli automatic rifle introduced in the early 1970s, designed to combine the reliability of the AK-47 with the accuracy of the FN FAL. The UZI was widely used in previous generations and was popular for its portability in special missions and paratroopers.
It carries a large radio simulating the PRC-77 and its variants on its back, with a wire antenna on top. The IDF emphasizes radio cooperation even at platoon and company level, indicating the importance of field command communication.
Some soldiers are equipped with light machine guns, presumably FN MAGs. In IDF, it is customary to deploy machine gunners to reinforce the firepower of each squad. The posture is squatting and gives the image of a quick response posture. The overall mold is somewhat loose but I emphasized the texture by weathering. It took a lot of effort to complete both the tank and the figure, but I’m glad I managed to finish it.
(2025/05/24)
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