Tamiya 1/35 M4A3 Sherman

[A_J_Rimmer]

The thread is thin for rope, but not for the kind of string that people usually tie stuff onto tanks with :smiling3: Also, I bet that no matter how many models you build in your life, you will have about 99% of that bobbin left when you’re done …

Yeah I bet, I don't see me ever running out!

[A_J_Rimmer]

Okay so executive decision made, I will add some wire stowages racks etc. but in the interests of moving forward I've decided against messing around with all the hatch handles. I'm almost certainly going to make another one of these kits and I'll sort them out on the next build.

With that in mind I hit it all with a coat of Tamiya Primer - feels good to get some paint on it.



I then had a play with the Humbrol #166 I picked up for this build. It's not a particularly good paint but I've used worse. It's as thick as hell from the bottle but I added a fair bit of Hataka thinners to a few drops in palette and it went on quite nicely. I'm only really painting up the rear part that goes under the stowage rack so I can fit it - when I paint up the rest of the build I'll get my wet palette out - with some thinners the paint should go on well.

Note: I know Jakko mentioned the starting handle shouldn't be there - but it helps support the stowage rack so I'll leave it be - it'll give me something extra to glue it onto.



I'll add another coat to the rear plate before I glue the rack into place.

Cheers!

[scottie3158]

Arnold,
Another great source of wire is off cuts of cable I have a selection of all types of cables that i just cut to length and strip off the insulation.

[A_J_Rimmer]

Arnold,
Another great source of wire is off cuts of cable I have a selection of all types of cables that i just cut to length and strip off the insulation.

Thanks Paul!

[Waspie]

I stripped out the wire from a standard 3 core UK cable. Removed the plastic outer core. Then through trial and error, removed several strands of the wire until the thickness needed was attained. Then twisted them between a hook on the bench and a hand drill. Cut to the required length, the ended sealed with CA or solder. Somewhere in my Chally build thread I mentioned the number of strands for a 1/35 tanky thing!!!! I'll check and get back!

Managed to edit before my 10 minutes lapsed.
I removed 4 strands of wire from the brown or blue wire!! That achieved the correct thickness wire for me on a modern 1/35 Challenger 2. Don't know if WW2 armour used thicker or thinner tow cables!!

[Guest]

Another great source of wire is off cuts of cable

If you come across an old TV or computer monitor, with a picture tube instead of a modern flat-panel one, there’s tons of wire in there, and different models/makes may have different thicknesses. Just open it up at the back, take off the gubbins on the rear of the tube, and remove the wire.

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It’ll never work again if you do, but most people won’t care anyway About 15 years ago, I spent a couple of years at a place where computers were refurbished, so got the opportunity to take a few of these apart, and am still using the wire I got from it.

Another good source is broken (or unwanted) electric motors. If you have an broken electric toothbrush, there’s also usually very fine wire in the bottom where it slots into the base for recharging — but opening one of those things is a lot of effort unless it has the cap on the underside (most don’t anymore). If it does, just hold it in your hand with the metal spike, that the brush slots onto, pointing down. Then slam that spike down on a hard surface, like a brick or a paving slab or something. Presto (Though you may want to warn people nearby to wear a hard hat before you do this …)

[Guest]

Don't know if WW2 armour used thicker or thinner tow cables!![/I]

It depends a lot on time, place, vehicle, and probably more. For a Sherman, though, in 1:35 scale the standard tow cable works out to 0.8 mm or 1.0 mm diameter (there were two thicknesses in use) and about 17.5 cm long including the eyes. It was stowed on the left side of the hull, but Tamiya has missed almost all of the clamps and notches that kept it on the tank — they only included the one alongside the turret

[A_J_Rimmer]

It depends a lot on time, place, vehicle, and probably more. For a Sherman, though, in 1:35 scale the standard tow cable works out to 0.8 mm or 1.0 mm diameter (there were two thicknesses in use) and about 17.5 cm long including the eyes. It was stowed on the left side of the hull, but Tamiya has missed almost all of the clamps and notches that kept it on the tank — they only included the one alongside the turret :smiling3:

Yes I'd noticed that after looking through the book you recommended. It does look a bit odd without one.

Thanks for the tips on wire - it's been years since I've seen a tube TV!

[Lee Drennen]

Looks good in primer Arnold. Looks like the boys are giving you some good advice on wire resources too.

[A_J_Rimmer]

Looks good in primer Arnold. Looks like the boys are giving you some good advice on wire resources too.

They are indeed!

Thanks Lee! It did indeed :smiling: , but the lower hull has had it's first coat of OD now - should look good after a couple more thin coats.

[Guest]

It does look a bit odd without one.

The omission of a tow cable in the kit is very odd, IMHO. All they needed to do is supply two eyes for the end and a bit of string, like a lot of other Tamiya kits do. Which makes it hard for you to add one, because I suspect you won’t have any suitable cable eyes in your spares box, so it’s probably best to just leave it off completely.

it's been years since I've seen a tube TV!

Same, to the point where I would almost consider it destruction of cultural heritage to get the copper wire out

[A_J_Rimmer]

Slow progress on this as my foot issue means I can't sit at the bench for too long before my foot hurts.

However I have given all but the barrel three coats - detail painting to follow...



Cheers and thanks for looking in!

[JR]

Looking good Arnold, nice flat, and even paint work as well.:thumb2:

[A_J_Rimmer]

Looking good Arnold, nice flat, and even paint work as well.:thumb2:

Thanks JR. It's not always easy brush painting such a large area a single colour - but it came out better than I expected. I'm looking forward to seeing what a wash does it it.

[scottie3158]

Arnold , looking good.