RFM 4A3 76W HVSS Early

Started this recently. Not much progress yet, just 3 sets of bogie assemblies. Rather complicated assembly. Twelve parts per not counting 2 axles for each and 2 wheels.

Thanks for looking.

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Looking at the instructions for that kit, those bogies seem like a clone of Asuka’s, except that the RFM axles are thicker in the middle than at the ends, while Asuka’s are the other way around :slight_smile:


I realise that they would be likely to produce similar parts for the same items, but this looks suspiciously close to me. I wonder how many parts are actually interchangeable …

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Slow progress on this one. Lower hull and running gear painted, weathered, and attached. Tracks painted with Tamiya dark iron, but I do have a question about them. The outer surfaces are all steel but I’m not certain about the inside. It doesn’t look like there are rubber pads, no obvious bumps or edges but not being a Sherman guy I’m not really sure.



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T66 tracks like you have here were entirely steel, inside and out. The later T80 tracks had steel chevrons on the outside and rubber running surfaces on the inside, but not these.

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Thanks.:+1:

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Without a doubt RFM copied Asuka — indeed, they copied Asuka (Tasca) error with the oval loader’s hatch. Asuka has the builder placing the inside locking hardware and hatch pad incorrectly – 180° in the wrong direction. RFM never noticed the error had did the same. Here’s how the oval hatch inside face SHOULD look

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Nice progress.

This stalled for a bit. Wasn’t happy with the kit supplied brush guards, either the plastic or PE, for the lights. Had a friend 3D print some and finally got them attached. Also got the upper hull and some of the other fittings on.


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Pictures or it didn’t happen :smiling_face_with_sunglasses::wink::grin:

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Painted, gloss coated, decaled, and gloss coated again. Next up an overall oil wash, pinwash, and some dry brushing.




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Almost finished but need to put it on hold. Hoping to find some stowage at IPMS Nationals next week. Another great offering from RFM. Aside from stowage needs flat coat and a bit of mud and dust. Would like to find some crew figures as well. Seems to me there are lots of crew figures out there but the majority of the offerings seem to be crews outside the tank.




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That looks spectacular!

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Probably a bit late to ask (and notice), but is there a particular reason why you put the commander’s cupola with the hatch at 6 o’clock instead of at about 3:30? I’m not really up to speed on this individual tank, but in the well-known photo of it:

… it doesn’t look to me like the hatch is at 6 o’clock. (It also looks to me like the name is Flat Foot Floosie instead of Floogie, BTW.)

What’s more, the cupola on the 76 mm turret was not oriented with the front viewport straight ahead, because that would have afforded the commander a great view of the back of the gunner’s sight :slight_smile: It was actually turned slightly so the frontmost viewport looked to the left a bit.

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COs hatch-oops. Probably can fix it. Thanks for the catch.

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It is Flat Foot Floogie, after a 1945 top jive hit song.

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RFM also produces kit 5028, M4A3E8 with markings for “A Paper Doll”, also a 40’s top hit song in the US.

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Yeah, Leife Hulbert pointed that out to me as well on Missing-Lynx when I asked about it :slight_smile: It’s slightly from before the time I think music got interesting, so I had never heard of it.

Here’s a good photo from the Sherman Minutia Website of how it should be oriented: