Based on drawings and photos, the front section is of the right length and the rear needs to be shortened. I thought at first this would be a simple job of sawing off the bit that sticks out behind the hull, but if you look closely at photos, you’ll see that the supports on either side of the joint between the sections are much closer together on an M4 HVSS than on an M4A3. I first cut about a millimetre and a half off the front of the rear section, then cut down the front section (that I had already glued to the hull) so everything lines up nicely:
The small ones were easy: just above the bogies, and centred on those. The large ones need to be 7.5 mm above the bottom edge of the hull, I found by measuring an M4A3 HVSS model I had already built. This puts them lower on the hull than the small ones, but that’s correct because the rollers on them are larger, too.
Thanks — I should be able to start adding details to the hull soon Though probably not before I build a wading trunk for the hull rear. I was debating whether to add that, but since the best-known photos of M4 HVSS tanks with T66 tracks on Okinawa all have one, I guess I’ll put one on the model, too.
All of these mudguards, both on the sides and the front, came on the Asuka sprues I purchased, except for the little vertical bits between the front mudguards and the final drive housing. Off the top of my head, those are on the Asuka sprues that also contain the final drive housing, which I didn’t buy, but luckily I had some spare from previous kits so I didn’t have to make them myself. That would not have been too difficult from some plastic card and strip, as the shape is straightforward, but it is more work, of course.
And a quick picture to show how much shorter the M4 HVSS mudguards are than those on the M4A3 HVSS:
After several days of searching for pictures, looking at them, measuring on the model, making some sketches and finally asking on a forum, I built the lower part of the deep-wading gear.
These are seven pieces of plastic card, plus a length of sprue as a brace. I made the large front plate from 0.5 mm card, and also the upper two parts on both sides. The lower ones are 0.75 mm card, to give some extra strength. When this dried, I glued an oversize piece of 0.13 mm card to the back/bottom:
When this had dried enough, I glue it along the bend and underside too, but then discovered that it’s better to curve the plate a little here first. So, I took it back off, then pulled the centre area between a ruler and the edge of my work surface a few times, and glued it back on:
This because the back and undersides bulge outward if you don’t make a curve in the plate first. They still do, but a lot less than on the first attempt. The bulge that’s still there will get fixed when I add the framework that will go around the top. Once the glue had dried, all I needed to do was trim the plate to size, which is much easier than making it the right size first:
After puttying and sanding the seams, I painted the inside matt black — the duct will have been full of soot from the exhaust, I would imagine — and then started on the edge along the top:
First I put thin strip flat along the upper edge, which also straightened out the bump on the back because it got glued to the strip, and then a narrower strip vertically on top of that, both aligned with the outside of the duct. The top strips still stick out here, because once more it’s easier to make it like this and only trim them down after the glue dries than to try and cut everything to the right length first. It will save you having to cut a new strip because you made one slightly too short, for one.
Some strip inside the top opening for the reinforcing bars you can see on the real thing, some more strip for the fittings that the upper trunk hooks into, and an angled piece on the underside to cover the engine access doors in the hull rear. The shape is entirely conjecture because I couldn’t find any photos that actually show this part.
The plastic strip along the side of the lower hull is the exhaust for the auxiliary generator, which on late-model Shermans runs on the outside like this. It’s just two pieces of strip glued together to a 1.5 × 1 mm cross-section, then the edges rounded off and the end opened up with the tip of a knife.
Thanks The little thingies that hold the upper part on were tricky to make, I must say. Each of them consists of three squares of 0.5 mm on a side, 0.25 mm thick. They didn’t all go on exactly as I wanted to due to my slight lack of fine motor skills, but I’ll just say they got dented
The guards over the headlight and horn are 3D-printed — they came from the big box of Sherman parts I bought, but once I was cleaning them up I soon began to feel that it would have been easier to just use Asuka plastic parts from my Sherman spares box. These printed ones are no thinner but are a lot more work to remove from the plate they had been printed on. The horn itself is from Asuka, from the aforementioned spares box, the bracket on the nose for holding the tow cable came with the resin M4 hull, as did the periscopes, while the covers over them are from Asuka again The lifting eyes are Dragon (I think) and placed “inboard”: most M4 (105 mm) HVSS tanks had them “outboard” on the edge of the glacis plate, but very early ones had them as I put them here.
All of the green plastic is Asuka once more, both the tools and the air scoops on the back deck, but the gratings in the latter are from the RFM Sherman VC. The grey shovel is as well, I think, but it still needs brackets added over it. I’m not sure if I’ll add any more tools, because I’ll put sandbags over the engine deck, which can cover some of those tools, and I see no point in putting them on in that case.
The olive drab paint is in areas that will be hard to reach with an airbrush later on. The overhang on the back of the turret also got a coat while I had the paint out.
It’s still loose here, but sits on the hull so I can work out the angle for the howitzer barrel. I was going to model the tank as “in action” with open hatches and the commander and loader visible inside the turret, but as it fits so poorly on the hull, I’m instead going to build it with the barrel in the travel lock. I attached that with some Blu-Tack so that I could determine how the barrel has to sit and then flow glue into the join between gun shield and turret.
This is really an exceptional model Jakko. Your perfect attention to detail are making this a show stopper. What are you using for your main reference to get all this stuff right? Son of Sherman? Sherman Minutiae?
Both. I’ve taken book 2 of Son of Sherman up into my hobby room, so I can easily check the sections about the M4 (105 mm), and most of the time also take my iPad there to consult the Sherman Minutia site and to try and find photos online. (And to take the pictures, of course )
Even then, some of it is educated guesswork. Neither of the main references have a perfect timeline for the various features, so I’ve assumed that the inboard lifting eyes combined with the narrow splash guards (in front of the hull periscopes) and the late-type horn is a plausible combination. Inboard lifting eyes are definitely possible for an M4 (105 mm) HVSS — Son of Sherman has a photo of Polish ones like that, but I can’t tell from the Okinawa photos:
(source) whether the three 105 mm tanks in those have in- or outboard lifting eyes, nor the type of horn fitted. So I just went with what seemed plausible for what are described as early production tanks.
Excellent job Jakko, the details are falling into place for you it looks like. The turret has very nice detail on it, I’m looking at the .50 cal mounting bracket which I scratch built for mine since I did not have one and I’m liking the job I did. I may have to redo it.
The one over the rear ventilator, you mean? Like the grey paint, that was already on this turret when I got it Happily I won’t have to make my own, because it’s not a shape I would look forward to scratchbuilding. (TBH, it’s one of those items that makes absolutely zero sense to me in the first place. Sure, the ventilator is in the way for the pedestal, but why go to all this trouble instead of just shifting the pedestal a little? And/or the ventilator?) But yes, now the gun is glued in, I can properly start work on the turret.
Though probably not before I build a wading trunk for the hull rear. I was debating whether to add that, but since the best-known photos of M4 HVSS tanks with T66 tracks on Okinawa all have one, I guess I’ll put one on the model, too.
