My experience with M3 and M4 medium tank kits with working suspension, is that the best way tends to be to first build all twelve wheel arms with wheels, and then build a bogie bracket (the Π-shaped part everything else sits inside of) including the springs and levers (the arms that sit on top of the wheel arms), but leave off the wheel arms and wheels. Once you have the bracket built, hold it in one hand and insert a wheel arm with the other hand and click it into place; repeat for the other wheel arm.
Then leave the whole suspension free to move until you’ve glued the bogies to the hull. At that point you can flow liquid cement into the wheel arm joints and set the model on a flat surface (or a contoured diorama, of course) to get everything lined up properly.
Turret test fitted. Kit gives you the option to add duckbills or groussers to the tracks, hence the brackets on the turret. Placing the brackets is a bit of a challenge as there are no locating marks to help you position them. Did the best l could using the Mk1 eyeball. Also opted to show the .50 cal stowed. Kit does come with a metal barrel as well as a 3d printed muzzle break and periscope guards. PE for the brush guards for the lights and siren, but I have some printed ones left over from another build that I will use. Except for the bogie assemblies no other issues thus far. Thanks for looking.
Are the grousers in the turret pic just being used as spacing tools? The real ones were only applicable to the T51 smooth rubber block track, not the T48 rubber chevron tracks in the RFM kit, so your tank wouldn’t have had any grousers in its field kit. Instead those turret bars would be re-purposed to hold all sorts of other stowage!
Use of the duckbill EECs was more common, to improve flotation on soft ground, but you need to add them AFTER assembly as they don’t fit in those weird assembly jig side pieces. (Been there, found out the hard way…)
[EDIT: corrected my error on the kit tracks - they are T48 not T54E1…]
Thanks for the info. Not a Sherman guy so I didn’t know that about the grousers and their use. You are correct about using them for spacing but I was planning on hanging some of them. Guess I won’t now . Thanks again.
The normal stowage place for them was in compartments in the rear corners of the hull, except that large-hatch M4A3s didn’t have covers for those. On all Shermans with those little air scoops on the back (so M4, M4A1 and M4A4), those scoops can be taken off by undoing the bolt on top. The M4A2 and small-hatch M4A3 had steel plates there instead, that could be removed the same way. Under it was a compartment into which the grousers went, and it had vent openings to its front, through the hull rear plate:
This is the right rear corner of the engine compartment of an M4A4, on which the restorers have unfortunately cut open the side of the compartment in order to be able to paint inside later (the opening on top having been welded shut decades earlier). I’m not sure the -A2 and -A3 would also have had those openings in the rear plate, though, as the purpose of the air scoops was to draw cooling air over the fuel tanks (which were in front of the rear plate) but the -A2 and -A3 didn’t need that.
Each tank was supposed to have 26 grousers, so thirteen per track. I don’t know how many RFM supplies with this kit, but I have their T48 track set, and it has close to a hundred. Enough for almost four tanks! (No complaints from me, it gives plenty to stick on other models that don’t come with any )
Another update. Slow going on this one. Tracks assembled, painted, weathered, and installed. Upper and lower hull mated and some of the hull details added. Kit includes a nice 3d printed .30 cal. Also used 3d printed brush guards left over from another Sherman build for the lights. Applied the PE strip along one side of the hull. Nerve wracking process. Very little surface on which to glue the 3 pieces. I ran a strip of .020 rod along the lower edge of the hill to increase the gluing surface. Need to get into the proper frame of mind to do the other side. Rear stowage each supports are PE but I managed to pooch them so they were replaced by strip styrene. On to the turret. Thanks for looking.
Really nice progress DV. I’m at the same point on mine. Did the bow machine gun fit the opening? Mine passed right through it, the hole is too large. I had to CA the gun to the hole and fill the gap from the back with putty. Still an outstanding kit though.
Did you remember to attach parts E41 in step 5 to the inside of the front glacis? That piece is supposed to backstop the MG. Having said that even with part E41 I also had to glue the .30 cal in place.
Painted and gloss coated. Decided to go for the black camo patches. Painted some of the tools. Next up decals then another clear coat before weathering. Thanks for looking.
Got the basics done. I’ve got some touchup work to do, and then it’ll be time to break out the stencils and the airbrush. Markings, some wear and tear weathering, and dirtying up to follow.
Decals applied and hull details painted. Initial weathering with a dark oil wash. Light mud, dust, dirt, streaking and spills to follow. Thanks for looking.
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