1/35 Asuka US Army WW2 M32B1 Tank Recovery Vehicle

Lenny Li
For some reason I was under the impression that Asuka has/had the best kits for the Sherman families. This is my first build for this brand and to be honest I am not very impressed.

1. Firstly the instructions are very messy. Parts from several spruces are needed in one step.

2. It's really difficult to follow the instructions as they are not shown in a logical way - you may need to go back to work on the rear after finishing the turret.

3. Illustrations in the manual are not clear, sometimes misleading. You will notice some parts shown installed in illustrations are not to be installed in later steps. For example you will see a full completed rear deck in the illustrations in early steps. If you don't read the whole manual thoroughly (like I did...), you'd end up with building those steps in an early stage, which will actually impact the later build if that makes sense.

4. Overall quality of the kit was quite normal. Lots of flashing need to clean, lots of holes need to expand. Over-engineering/ unnecessary breakdowns of details. Lots of pushing holes to fill.

5. Lots of spare parts for other Sherman models. It could be a good news for many but if you are not a super Sherman fan than it means all of these would be waste of money (remind you that this kit is not cheap).

As a summary I don't recommend this kit to beginners even people with middle skills. I will leave this model as it is. I may do the painting later but it won't happen after some time. At this stage my patience and interest in this kit have been used up in the building stage.