M4A3 (76) HVSS just off the boat

[The Smythe Meister]

Just seen this,
Very nicely done Jakko,and an interesting idea too :thumb2:,
The figure,as the guys have said,is looking good,
Andy

[Guest]

Thanks I also sprayed the tank with the black crap after applying the markings, so here are the photos to prove it:

[ATTACH]410363[/ATTACH][ATTACH]410364[/ATTACH]

For this, I used Revell satin black acrylic, deliberately mixed not quite thin enough so it would spatter a bit. Unfortunately, this meant it eventually clogged up my airbrush nozzle so badly it wouldn’t spray at all anymore — not even plain water. After swapping the nozzle for a different one, I finished the spraying before that also clogged up beyond usability.

[Guest]

It took a while to get suitable tracks for this model. I’m not a fan of metal tracks, but there are very few alternatives for the T-66 track this tank would have been equipped with — the only ones I could find were AFV Club soft plastic single-piece; Trumpeter hard plastic separate links; and Accurate Armour resin lengths. I opted for the middle of those three, but then had great trouble tracking them down. I eventually found them listed as “in stock” on the site of a Dutch model shop, but after I ordered them, I was informed they had put them on order with their distributor … which meant that what I expected would be a couple of days’ wait for them, turned into more than a month.

Anyway, I did get them yesterday:

[ATTACH]411196[/ATTACH]

This is what you get in the box:

[ATTACH]411197[/ATTACH]

One bag of links, two to a sprue, and one bag of hinge pins, 24 to a sprue, plus a jig to assemble them on (the rectangular plate in the pins bag).

Putting them together goes well enough, once you get a routine going: clean up the links, put them onto the jig, insert pins on both sides and cut off the pins’ handles:

[ATTACH]411198[/ATTACH]

Here is a comparison between the Tamiya one-piece track, the Tamiya spare track links and the Trumpeter separate-link track:

[ATTACH]411199[/ATTACH]

The single-piece track is too flat, which is the main reason I wanted to replace it — the profile just isn’t deep enough and it shows when the track is on the model. Oddly, the spare links are much better, which makes me wonder why Tamiya didn’t manage to put the same depth into the single-piece tracks.

One thing you can’t tell here is that the Tamiya spare links have hollow guide horns, which the other two lack. They just have dimples on the front and rear faces of the guide horns, rather than holes all the way through. However, this requires the horns to be glued on to the spare links. Trumpeter could have moulded hollow guide horns, but with a much more complex mould, which probably would have driven up the price. Since most of this is hidden by the wheels, I don’t see it as a major issue.

Now all I need to do is put together another 154 links …

[Graeme C.]

I feel your pain Jakko, I did tracks on a Dragon M4A3E8, that had hollow guide horns, but as a separate part, all needing clean up!

[Guest]

I have a set of those same tracks, I think, from another kit I built 20 years ago and never finished — in part because I didn’t feel like cleaning up the tracks at the time I’ve been thinking of completing that model as part of this series of Shermans … maybe I’ll tackle those tracks in the near future

[JR]

Nice work on those numbers, neat way of doing them. Another tip to put into the note book , which is turning into a encyclopaedia !

[adt70hk]

Looking good Jakko.

ATB.

Andrew

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
All looking mighty fine have fun with the tracks.

[Guest]

Nice work on those numbers, neat way of doing them.

The flash of inspiration came when I remembered that sets of self-adhesive letters often come with a sheet of waxed paper onto which the letters just stick, so you can put them together the right way before putting some sticky tape over them and transfer them to wherever you actually want the letters. For these dry transfers it was slightly more difficult, of course, but the same method, essentially.

Another tip to put into the note book , which is turning into a encyclopaedia !

Glad to have been able to supply material for that

Looking good Jakko.

All looking mighty fine have fun with the tracks.

Thanks, both Not sure of fun as such with the tracks, I’ve already learned that you need to be careful cutting off the outer two bits, so you don’t damage the hole for the pin — if you do, the pin may come out and the track falls apart. I had to superglue them in on one link (so far) because of this, since my normal plastic cement doesn’t seem to want to dissolve this particular plastic. I thought it was ABS but the side of the box says PS, but if true, it’s a harder polystyrene than normal for model kits.

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Glad the track arrived. A frustrating wait but worth it. Maybe there was a delay somewhere along the line due to Covid? Tracks are never fun but you seem to have got into a system.
The black crap looks good but airbrushes hate thick paint :rolling:
Jim

[Guest]

Glad the track arrived. A frustrating wait but worth it. Maybe there was a delay somewhere along the line due to Covid?

That and the holidays, I suspect. I ordered them on [ICODE]/me checks e-mails[/ICODE] 6 December, from a shop that had them listed as in stock on their web site — if they hadn’t, I would have looked elsewhere. But then they apparently had to order them from their distributor, so why say on the site that they’re in stock?

The black crap looks good but airbrushes hate thick paint :rolling:

Maybe I should have thinned it a bit more still, in retrospect. But you (well, I) only figure that out by the time the airbrush stops working altogether

[stillp]

why say on the site that they’re in stock?

To get you to place your order!
Pete

[Guest]

To get you to place your order!

Well, yes, of course It was more a rhetorical question.

[Guest]

I finally sprayed the tracks yesterday, then washed and drybrushed them today so I could fit them. Here’s one done:

[ATTACH]413782[/ATTACH]

Spot the problem before I post the photo with both of them on …

[Guest]

Did you think, “It’s the wrong way round”?

[ATTACH]413783[/ATTACH]

It only took about fifteen minutes to cut one of the pins, get the track off and install them both correctly …