That’s because on a regular Sherman they did face forward; Dragon is correct. On the Crab they were sometimes reversed to, I’m sure, keep thrown up debris from getting inside. But they weren’t reversed on all Crabs - look at some of the period photos in this discussion and you will see some are not.
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I have the Asuka Sherman V(c) tracks lying around if you want…
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thanks mate, i will keep that in mind when i have ago at tracks that come with the kit.
in the meantime I’ve changed them.
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Hey golikell are those tracks the rubber band type if so I’m very interested in getting them from you. i spent an hour tonight trying to get these kit tracks together and achieved nothing at all so you can imagine I’m a tad bit hacked off with them.
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i thought Fruil had closed down, what track type are you going to get…i might get some instead as i have used them in the past?
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To my knowledge Fruil will now only supply to wholesalers or shops, not individuals
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I already have them. These are the ones I have:
Word was indeed that Friul was going to stop, but a new owner has emerged. The previous one stopped because of his age. I already spoke to the new owner in Lingen. Seems a nice man…
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i think i need a different type of track as the top section looks to have a thinner tread.
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T-48 is rubber chevrons, the one at Bovington (images above) has metal chevrons, looks like T54E1.
Other photos show other track types …
Pick and choose:
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/tracks/vvss_tracks.html
… and what Jakko writes below
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How do you mean?
The tank at Bovington has T54E1 track on it, with a steel chevron, @golikell is going to use T48 that has a rubber chevron. He is offering you a set of T62 track, which is also steel chevron but with a more wavy shape than the angular T54E1.
The Sherman Minutia Website has a good overview of the types that were used. Any of these could be on just about any Sherman or variant, though, so just pick one you like. However, T62 and WE210 were really only common on British/Commonwealth tanks, not American ones, and both T41 and WE210 were early-war types that were very unlikely to be around by the time your tank would have been converted into a Crab. Unless you’re building a specific vehicle, T62 track would be fine for your Crab, but so would T48, T49, T51 or T54E1.
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Thanks Jakko for the explanation, god i long for the days when you could just build a model lol.
the T54 type looks like the one in box and I’ve found some on ebay so i might have a chance after all.
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Shermans can be a simple but yet complex design to narrow down when trying to build a certain vehicle.
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With your kit comes T62 track, with the wavy chevron and three rivets. This is the same as the two-piece tracks golikell is offering to send you.
BTW, if you want to replace the kit tracks by soft plastic ones, you need to make sure they’re long enough to fit an M4A4 hull. Those T62s are, because they’re from an Asuka M4A4, but tracks from an M4, M4A1, M4A2 or M4A3 kit, or any M3 medium, M7 Priest, M10 tank destroyer, and so on, will not fit because they will be too short by about four links.
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I’ve pulled the trigger on the Fruil track because they do look nice and i have some experience with them in the past.
i have now added the rear lights and guards so that’s the assembly over except for two parts for the turret antenna one part is PE which i hate working with. i also need to wrap it around a 4mm drill bit and then bend four legs to attach to the plastic antenna.
i will need to re-read this thread to work out where to attach the fire extinguishers and possibly where a first aid box goes on the rear of the vehicle. the main problem i am facing is that there aren’t many pictures of the Sherman Crab on DDay but there are pictures of post DDay operations, so i think this is going to have to be ‘best guess’ as to what goes where.
all this will have to wait until after the Scottish IPMS show this weekend.
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I presume that you know about annealing PE to make it softer?
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The first-aid box goes on the right rear, to the right of the stowage box:
I have no idea where or when this photo was taken, but this is a Crab that has been prepared for deep-wading (you can tell by the angle iron to either side of the engine doors and the inward-turned eyes on the sides of the lower hull) so I’m guessing it took part in the Normandy landings.
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yes thanks Robin, i have heated the part up with the help of candle.
@Jakko thanks again for another great reference picture, i don’t know how you find them but you are better at internet searches thsn i am.
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I just asked Google’s image search for Sherman Crab hull rear or something similar, and then set it to only show black and white photos (click on Tools near the top of the page and then Colour, or whatever it might be called in English). That last bit is important, because else you’ll get tons of modern photos instead of wartime ones.
BTW, I don’t know if you intend to add the marker light containers¹ to the rear hull sides (Lanmo fails to provide these, but they are fairly straightforward to scratchbuild), but I only now noticed that this photo shows an important detail about them that apparently nobody realised until there was a discussion about it on Missing-Lynx last year: the block-type things on the inboard sides, between the container and the track. Inside these is the mechanism that releases the marker lights.
¹ The angled boxes are not chalk hoppers, as we’ve been told since forever. They held marker lights of as-yet unknown type.
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Yes the marker boxes on the side would tend to support your theory too.
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