Apparently all large hatch M4A1 hulls had a small slope/angle in the upper rear hull. I don’t recall now what page of the “son of sherman” book mentions it in passing. I must’ve forgotten or just glazed over that when I started this thread because the Border Models kit comes with the angle and I erroneously removed it, one of the things BM got correct and I botched it up! Then when I became obsessed with building all the different large hatch M4A1 hulls from different companies, I noticed that the Tamiya, Academy, Italeri, and the DML all have it too. Only the Asuka is missing that angle OOTB because the new Takoms have it too.
The theory was that when Asuka made that mold, that they must’ve taken their small hatch M4A1 and their M4 hybrid hull and combined the two halves to make a large hatch M4A1 hull. I don’t understand how they could have done that because I don’t know how these guys make their molds. It was an oversight that hurts the kit big time. If you build one you will see that there isn’t enough room back there for the filters to properly fit under the overhang, the upper hull needs to be modified in the back to make it accurate. I love Tasca/Asuka so I was really dissapointed when I built mine and instead of correcting it I just threw it together without fixing the problem and I regret it now.
Here’s a thread posted about an aftermarket resin hull that you can buy to make the kit accurate.
I plan to either disassemble mine or just build another one to fix the problem. I have a couple more in the stash. I think my reason for leaving it incorrect was to show it the way it came out of the box, I don’t recall now. It’s a shame that the Asuka is inaccurate OOTB because otherwise it’s up there in terms of overall looks and probably would be tied with the Tamiya for accuracy if not for that defect. Granted they portray upper hulls from different foundries. The Asuka is a General Steel upper hull and the Tamiya is the Continental with the asymmetric hoods. If you want to build “In the Mood” you need the Tamiya hull.
Paul Budzik discussed this on his website years ago when the Tamiya kit first came out. He called it making the ultimate version of these tanks and I think he recommended using the Tamiya upper hull with the Asuka lower hull. I just forgot about it until after I had already started doing this.
I too think that there is something really aesthetically pleasing about these unique Shermans. Combined with their “orphan” unwanted back story, the different hedgerow devices added to them, the black camo, Pool’s story, and just the kick ass nature of the campaign that they’re known for, all of that makes them an important and favored Sherman subject to me.
This guy posted a fun video where he summarizes Lafayette Pool’s book. Unfortunately the book is only available in electronic download version.
The book is title “Blood and Fury” and is available in kindle and audio book formats on Amazon.