The Sherman was the tank that won the war by being good enough, and there were always more of them. American industry turned out nearly fifty thousand M4s — reliable, fast, easy to repair, and simple enough for citizen-soldiers to master — but in a straight fight it was outmatched by the heavy German armor it met in the Ardennes. A Panther or a Tiger could kill a Sherman at a range where the Sherman's 75mm gun could barely dent it, and early models brewed up so readily when hit that crews and enemy alike had grim nicknames for them. They won anyway, the way America fought the whole war: with numbers, with air power once the skies cleared, and by never letting the enemy fight the battle he wanted.

K&C's limited edition — 250 sets — is a full-metal M4 finished in improvised winter whitewash, the thin white distemper US crews brushed over olive drab to blend into the snow, here worn and flaking to show the green beneath. Marked "47" with a .50 calibre Browning at the commander's hatch and three partial crew figures, it has moving tracks, working suspension and opening hatches. Rushed toward Bastogne like the armor of the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions, it belongs with General Patton, whose Third Army drove to relieve the town; the infantry it shielded, like the Standing Rifleman; and — across the line — the German armored spearhead it was there to stop, Joachim Peiper. As the centerpiece of a Bulge diorama, a whitewashed Sherman is hard to beat.

Model: BBA109(SE) / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / limited edition of 250 / tank with three partial crew figures