COBI 2569 – Rocket-Artillery Tank – M4A3 Sherman & T34 Calliope (Speed Build Review)

This Sherman isn’t just another variant of the kind you’ve seen from COBI lately. There are additional structures that make it special.

Manufacturer:	COBI
Set-Number:	2569
Theme:	Military
Release:	2022
Parts:	1230
Figures:	3
Dimensions:
Scale:
Age:	8
Building Time ca.:	3 Hours

Instructions

Construction

The build starts out rather unusual for a Sherman. Several substructures are combined with plates to form a chassis. Then come the usual recordings for the rollers. The front and rear are of course built separately again and attached to the hull by reversing the direction of construction. Now it’s not just going up. The upper part of the hull is built completely separately and then plugged onto the lower part. Only the front area has a connection to the ground. There is a large gap between the two assemblies, which at first glance looks wrong. But since I couldn’t find any mistakes, I continued to build with a bad feeling. In the rear is a fully built engine. The tracks run reasonably well on paper, but just as poorly on slippery surfaces as any other Sherman. After the tracks have been mounted, you can also see the reason for the gap. The space is needed for the tracks so that they do not protrude too far.

The turret is built quite quickly and does not offer any special features. He is put on the hull without a gun. In the coming construction steps, 60 pipes must be built, which are then placed on top of each other in 4 layers. The entire structure is then connected to the gun barrel and placed on the turret. As with the original, the barrel also moves the attached rocket launcher. A few chains, hoses and 3 minifigures complete the picture.

Conclusion:

Even though I already own a number of Shermans, this one is a very special model. The Calliope is probably less known to many. Both the tank and the launcher are very stable. The tubes form a really solid block. The Executive Edition was worth it. The standard version can also be built at any time with the spare parts.