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Armor/AFV: Allied - WWII
Armor and ground forces of the Allied forces during World War II.
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Sherman Questions
PeterW
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England - South East, United Kingdom
Joined: January 11, 2006
KitMaker: 30 posts
Armorama: 18 posts
Posted: Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 04:27 AM UTC
Being fairly new to tanks and tank building, I am struggling with the name and function of a few of the items that appear on some of the sprues.

The model I am currently building is the Tamiya M4A3 75mm (Frontline Breakthrough) kit. The 2 items I am struggling with are as follows.
1. part no. B42 I am guessing it is something to do with the exhaust system but why is it so big compared to parts B22 and B23 which I assume are inlets for part B42 also what colour would this part end up after use would it be black due to exhaust fumes?
and 2. B39 this item I am guessing is probably to do with barrel cleaning but again what colour would they be.

I know that these are probably very basic questions but everybodys knowledge needs to start somewhere.

Thank you in advance.

Peter.
ericadeane
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Michigan, United States
Joined: October 28, 2002
KitMaker: 4,021 posts
Armorama: 3,947 posts
Posted: Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 04:48 AM UTC
Welcome to tanks and Shermans in particular. In actuality, Tamiya has the parts about the right size. Part B42 was the exhaust deflector -- it disappated the stream of exhaust gases from parts B22 and B23. B42 could be raised up and out of the way to access the exhaust pipes and other areas.

B39 are the cleaning rods for the gun tube. They can be painted Olive drab with metal end connectors or, people sometimes like to paint them wood color to give some contrast.

Two simple corrections you can make are 1) smooth in part C20, the pistol port on the left turret wall. It should look like this when finished:


2) OMIT C9 and C10. They are completely incorrect for this variant.

For more tweaks, look here:
http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/articles.html

Good luck to you and come back with more questions.

GeraldOwens
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Florida, United States
Joined: March 30, 2006
KitMaker: 3,736 posts
Armorama: 3,697 posts
Posted: Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 02:38 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Being fairly new to tanks and tank building, I am struggling with the name and function of a few of the items that appear on some of the sprues.

The model I am currently building is the Tamiya M4A3 75mm (Frontline Breakthrough) kit. The 2 items I am struggling with are as follows.
1. part no. B42 I am guessing it is something to do with the exhaust system but why is it so big compared to parts B22 and B23 which I assume are inlets for part B42 also what colour would this part end up after use would it be black due to exhaust fumes?
and 2. B39 this item I am guessing is probably to do with barrel cleaning but again what colour would they be.

I know that these are probably very basic questions but everybodys knowledge needs to start somewhere.

Thank you in advance.

Peter.

The M4A3 was a gasoline engined version of the Sherman, not a diesel, so the exhausts wouldn't be black, just a dingy gray like the inside of a car's exhaust pipe. And the exhaust gases in the deflector would be diluted by cooling air, so it may not be discolored much at all.
As for other tweaks, Tamiya's turret shell also needs the thickened armor on the front right quarter, and the flange on the inner gun mantlet on the right side with the countersunk screws should be removed--late Shermans didn't have it (narrow the opening in the turret front with some scrap styrene).
Steve Zaloga's Osprey book on Modelling the Sherman Tank is a gold mine of information, and well worth picking up.
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