hey,

are the tracks on this M4A3 ,T-56?

Hi Joe

The tracks look like T49s

http://web.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/track_vvss.htm

and the tank is probably an M4 (as in the Tamiya one) not an M4A3.

David

Yup, T-49 for me too. the T-56 had three small square holes aligned right under the long cleat of each track link, and they aren't visible in the photo.
Brad

hey,
Thanks guys,my knowledge of Sherman's isn't the best and I still have trouble I.D. the M4 from the M4A3,that site on the tracks was what I had looked at.and wasnt sure if these tracks where T56's.I can't recall ever seeing this type.Where they common?does anyone make these as AM?(hopefully,not killer expensive),Iam hoping to start on my M32B3,real soon ,and was looking for different idea's for it.

Joe

Hey Joe,
AFV Club make a set of one piece, glue-able rubber-band T49 tracks # AF35027.
They're nicely done, not as fiddly as indie tracks and won't dent your wallet
Cheers

jjumbo

In theory, it would be hard to distinguish an early M4 from an M4A3 from the front. However, the M4A3 with the early 56-degree hull front and cast drivers' hoods was used almost exclusively for stateside training. By the time the M4A3 was committed to action, the 47-degree hull with wet ammunition stowage was in production, and these got priority for shipment to combat zones. Only a few early M4A3's appeared in Europe near the end of the war, to make up the losses suffered during the Battle of the Bulge, so nearly every early welded hull Sherman you see in US service would be an M4. The M4A2 and M4A4 were used by Commonwealth and Free French forces in NW Europe, but not by the US Army.
At least some M32B3's based on the early hull were deployed to Europe, as a captured one is shown in "Tigers in Combat," by Wolfgang Schneider.

It is actually quite easy to tell an M4 apart from the early hooded M4A3 (unless you are Tamiya). The M4 hoods are quite different in shape to the M4A3 hoods which look almost identical to the M4A4 hoods as portrayed on the Tamiya M4. The M4 hoods and the M4A2 hoods are hard to pic apart though.
Definately T49 track. Sources:
AFV Club rubber band
RHPS (good luck finding them) Indy links
Academy with early M10's
DML - First one piece set comes with the USSR M4A2 76

Cheers
Al

Definitly M4 sherman