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A few months ago, I bought a set of Sherman parts, conversions, updates and more that another modeller put up for sale. Among other things, it included a Tamiya M4A3, except that the whole of the turret was missing … Building this as a serious model these days is not in the cards for me, but what could I do with it? Then I remembered I had an Italeri Sherman turret somewhere, but once dug up, it proved to be so far from complete that I couldn’t really use it
After asking on a few forums, somebody came to my rescue with a complete one, and after a little more searching through spares boxes, I hadeverything I need!
[ATTACH]495980[/ATTACH]
The complete hull from a Tamiya M4A3, plus the turret, tracks, a few spare track links and one wheel from an Italeri M4A1, and a muzzle brake that — if I’m not mistaken — comes from a very old Italeri Pz.Kpfw. IV, and that has been fitted to a painted model before.
Add some reading material that I already had:
[ATTACH]495981[/ATTACH]
… and you’ve got everything you need to built a Sherman like we did when these two kits were the only 1:35 Shermans you could buy. (Well, OK, there was one from Nichimo as well, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Nichimo kit in a shop, and certainly not in the 1980s.) Not that the modern modeller needs Verlinden as a guide, but let’s pretend it is indeed the mid- to late 1980s, so no modern stuff but build this one with what you would have had back then, in terms of both materials and knowledge. And that means for inspiration, you read this:
[ATTACH]495982[/ATTACH][ATTACH]495983[/ATTACH]
(I grant you, this is in Dutch because that’s the way I read it back then, not to mention I don’t have this book in English
)
That chapter finished, let’s start building per the instructions (more or less), with the ones from Tamiya. First, the running gear:
[ATTACH]495984[/ATTACH]
It’s Tamiya, so it all fits nicely even though the original model is 42 years old, but it’s pretty obvious that the molds are getting a bit long in the tooth. Each of the roadwheels and idlers had a seam that was so big that to really get rid of it, you would be best off using a lathe. I used a file instead, but even then half the wheels have a seam that will probably still be visible after painting, but my fingers ached and this is supposed to be fun.
I replaced one wheel by one from Italeri, that I had to bore out so it fits over the Tamiya axle. It also turns out that the Italeri Sherman wheels are 7 mm wide (measured over the hub) while Tamiya’s are only 6 mm. Luckily, the Italeri wheel can be narrowed by filing and cutting down the hub on both sides, so it will fit nicely. Incidentally, I didn’t glue any of them to the axles, as being able to rotate will make them easier to paint.
Next, the lower hull:
[ATTACH]495985[/ATTACH]
Very quickly, then, the upper hull can be added too:
[ATTACH]495986[/ATTACH]
Tamiya wants you to stick all the details on first, but the experienced modeller knows that doing this is just asking for broken parts. For that reason, I only started on those after:
[ATTACH]495987[/ATTACH]
As you can see here, the previous owner had for some inexplicable reason filled all of the very nice weld beads and holes for the tools, so before I started, I scraped as much filler out as was feasible … The spare track links are Italeri, to fit with the track that will go round the wheels. I only had two links left, so I’ll probably put a jerrycan between the brackets on the other side.
A few months ago, I bought a set of Sherman parts, conversions, updates and more that another modeller put up for sale. Among other things, it included a Tamiya M4A3, except that the whole of the turret was missing … Building this as a serious model these days is not in the cards for me, but what could I do with it? Then I remembered I had an Italeri Sherman turret somewhere, but once dug up, it proved to be so far from complete that I couldn’t really use it
After asking on a few forums, somebody came to my rescue with a complete one, and after a little more searching through spares boxes, I hadeverything I need![ATTACH]495980[/ATTACH]
The complete hull from a Tamiya M4A3, plus the turret, tracks, a few spare track links and one wheel from an Italeri M4A1, and a muzzle brake that — if I’m not mistaken — comes from a very old Italeri Pz.Kpfw. IV, and that has been fitted to a painted model before.
Add some reading material that I already had:
[ATTACH]495981[/ATTACH]
… and you’ve got everything you need to built a Sherman like we did when these two kits were the only 1:35 Shermans you could buy. (Well, OK, there was one from Nichimo as well, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Nichimo kit in a shop, and certainly not in the 1980s.) Not that the modern modeller needs Verlinden as a guide, but let’s pretend it is indeed the mid- to late 1980s, so no modern stuff but build this one with what you would have had back then, in terms of both materials and knowledge. And that means for inspiration, you read this:
[ATTACH]495982[/ATTACH][ATTACH]495983[/ATTACH]
(I grant you, this is in Dutch because that’s the way I read it back then, not to mention I don’t have this book in English
)That chapter finished, let’s start building per the instructions (more or less), with the ones from Tamiya. First, the running gear:
[ATTACH]495984[/ATTACH]
It’s Tamiya, so it all fits nicely even though the original model is 42 years old, but it’s pretty obvious that the molds are getting a bit long in the tooth. Each of the roadwheels and idlers had a seam that was so big that to really get rid of it, you would be best off using a lathe. I used a file instead, but even then half the wheels have a seam that will probably still be visible after painting, but my fingers ached and this is supposed to be fun.
I replaced one wheel by one from Italeri, that I had to bore out so it fits over the Tamiya axle. It also turns out that the Italeri Sherman wheels are 7 mm wide (measured over the hub) while Tamiya’s are only 6 mm. Luckily, the Italeri wheel can be narrowed by filing and cutting down the hub on both sides, so it will fit nicely. Incidentally, I didn’t glue any of them to the axles, as being able to rotate will make them easier to paint.
Next, the lower hull:
[ATTACH]495985[/ATTACH]
Very quickly, then, the upper hull can be added too:
[ATTACH]495986[/ATTACH]
Tamiya wants you to stick all the details on first, but the experienced modeller knows that doing this is just asking for broken parts. For that reason, I only started on those after:
[ATTACH]495987[/ATTACH]
As you can see here, the previous owner had for some inexplicable reason filled all of the very nice weld beads and holes for the tools, so before I started, I scraped as much filler out as was feasible … The spare track links are Italeri, to fit with the track that will go round the wheels. I only had two links left, so I’ll probably put a jerrycan between the brackets on the other side.
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