The Kit

The 57-ton M6 was designed as a tank able to respond to Germany’s all-dominating Panzers that had previously swept through Europe in the Blitzkrieg, and approval to produce four prototypes was given in February 1941. The type proved unsatisfactory in testing, however, and in the end only eight M6, twelve M6A1 and 20 M6A2 tanks were built by Baldwin from 1942-44. The M6 had a crew of six and was armed with an M7 76mm gun, M6 37mm gun and no less than five machine guns. The M6 was distinguished by its cast hull. (From Dragon USA website).

The parts for the M6/M6A1 kits are completely new molds and carry-over no parts from Dragon’s previous M4-family of Sherman kits. You will find the following inside the box:

Brengun has been producing some interesting PE accessories to dress up the area around your model. I’ve seen examples of this type of container, lots of them. All painted Caterpillar yellow, in East Peoria, Illinois.

The steel container is a standard item around any industrial plant. They’re used to hold parts, subassemblies, junk, recyclable materials, and anything else that needs storage around the plant. They’re usually stackable, about 2 or 3 high, and can be moved with a forklift or overhead crane. The boxes are tough, almost indestructible. Almost.

The Kit

You get enough parts to make 4 steel containers. Each one consists of the box body and 4 corner legs/supports. The instructions don’t match up with the boxes. There’s only one fold required for each side.

Construction

The PE parts are nicely set up and laid out to allow each container to be separated from the fret, and then each of the 4 corner pieces to be removed.

Thank you to Unique Master Models (UMM) for generously providing an excellent tool for “field testing.” Thank you as well to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for letting me be an evaluator.

The gluing is a two-part aluminum block with 90-degree intersections. The two parts are screwed together with two flat-head machine screws on the smaller end. The whole unit is about 2 ¼ by 1 3/16 inches.

There are many uses for the jig. I used a simple frame assembly example to show how a complex joint could be quickly glued. Three parts were placed on the jig and one application of CA glue secured the assembly in one step. The first attempt was a failure, since glue was applied a little too heavily, with the assembly being firmly attached to the jig! But a light application of thicker CA worked well. I suggest waxing the interior jig surface a bit to reduce glue adhesion.