Yes, check out the Brass Knuckles Trench Knife molded on the figure.
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That, and add an antenna on the right hull front as well as make sure that the visible stowage in the sponsons is per the M36B1. However, what that is is not really all that clear.
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You can get pretty good deals on those old Tamiya M4A3 kits, but youâd probably want to use a nicer Asuka as the donor kit?
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Geez!! May have to get both of those
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The Asuka kit was what I was thinking. There is not many photoâs of the hull interior on the M36B1. Thats good and bad. The good is not being accountable if you put something in a particular location. The bad is you just guessed where to put it. Trouble is, are the hull interior doodads located as in the sherman or in the M36âŠor neither.
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There are a few photos of the M36B1 interior here. Plus some engine compartment diagrams
Just scroll down about halfway on the page
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The problem is the sponsons, there doesnât seem to be any documentation on it â at least not that can be found easily. The TM is online as well, for example, but it has pretty much no clues either.
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Photos from above show some areas of the sponson top but the areas are devoid of anything. Maybe nothing was attached there.
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Not sure if this helps, but I built an interior based on pics of a resin interior for the M36B1 that I couldnât find to buy at the time. Whether itâs accurate I cannot say, but I seriously doubt ANY tank had empty space!
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The TM book has a couple of interior images of the driverâs compartment area but nothing of the area that might be visible from the top. My guess is that it was a variation on what the regular M36 had, which was basically ammo racks in the sponsons, but with the hulls having different shapes the arrangements surely wouldâve looked completely unique to the B1. Sorry, Iâm not much help.
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I hope this helps out. The National Museum of Military Vehicles is restoring a former Yugoslav Army M36 back to WW2 condition. THey have two videos posted (below). WHere they start yanking out the Russian V55 V-12 engine in order to get the original Ford GAA V-8 engine back on, along with breaking tracks and removing the turret.
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According to the TM (see link above), ammo stowage is 36 rounds sponson, 11 rounds turret, so I kind of assume itâs simply eighteen stowage tubes on each side âŠ?
Thatâs an M36, not a -B1 (or -B2).
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Looking at the TM, fig 73 shows the batteries and aux generator filling the left sponson of the M36B1. That leaves the right one, where maybe half a dozen rounds could be stored in a single rack, and with care two such racks could be located holding a combined 12 rounds - the rest must have been stowed under the floor.
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It specifically says sponson, though. Knowing American TMs, if there had been any rounds under the floor, they would have been mentioned as such. It may be time to whip up a quick scale drawing of the available space to see how many 90 mm packing tubes will fit.
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Image from the TM linked in an earlier post
From a YouTube video:
Some webpage claimed that the M36 carried 47 rounds,
if 11 are in the turret rear extension there would need to be storage for the
other 36 somewhere else. The number 36 could be achieved by 4 x 9,
there are 4 lids with nice handles in that TM-image, could 9 rounds (3 x 3) fit
under each lid (in each bin)?
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It does. But the floor pic has a label for 90mm rounds underneath. And thereâs just no way to fit 36 rounds in the sponsons with the batteries, generator, etc. So some MUST be below the floor.
Even if we say thereâs six in the RH sponson and 11 in the turret bustle, thatâs a good 17 rounds before you have to find a place to hide while lifting floor panels to replenish. In its H-K role I seriously doubt theyâd get anywhere near firing 17 shots in a single engaement. (And when used as ad-hoc artillery theyâd just load shells over the top as they went.)
Bear in mind that youâd need the turret cranked to the 6-oâclock position to get at anything under the right-hand floor panels, as the gunnerâs half-floor covers that area when positioned gun-forward. That makes it odd that the left sponson has the batteries/generator, rather than moving them over to make space for ammo the loader can actually reach! I know it was about making the least changes to the M4A3 hull, but for the sake of an hourâs workâŠ
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