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Dragon M4A3 'Pimp My Ride' Kit Bash
pseudorealityx
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Posted: Sunday, June 02, 2013 - 07:15 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Calvin, Thankyou, Sherman's are a lot of fun, they throw everything at you, bolts, welds, flats, curves, all kinds of crazy nonsense, that makes it fun, I'm having huge fun with all the bolt stuff, so I have a sneaky feeling that I might do something with a lot of bolts and rivets next.




Feel free to do a M3 if you want a hand at building a full upper hull. I would certainly watch.

junglejim
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Posted: Sunday, June 02, 2013 - 05:09 PM UTC
Great work on the idler mounts; fwiw, I did get a photo and you look to have it bang on. And the left and right tension adjusters are definitely different (upside-down) left and right. Your inner monologues can rest at ease...






(ignore the M4A2 exhaust!)

Jim
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pseudorealityx
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Posted: Tuesday, June 04, 2013 - 01:10 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Calvin, Thankyou, Sherman's are a lot of fun, they throw everything at you, bolts, welds, flats, curves, all kinds of crazy nonsense, that makes it fun, I'm having huge fun with all the bolt stuff, so I have a sneaky feeling that I might do something with a lot of bolts and rivets next.




Feel free to do a M3 if you want a hand at building a full upper hull. I would certainly watch.




It would be kinda fun, but I fear the build log would turn into something like this -

Snuggles - "Dad, let me count the rivets,..please, I'm good at counting rivets dad."
Kharkov - "Ok, but it needs to be right,..those rivet counters, they don't miss a rivet."
Snuggles - "Don't worry dad, got it covered,..1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,...dad, I can only count to 10."
Kharkov - "Just do 10's, over and over."
Snuggles - "Awww that's a plan,...1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,..1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,..1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,..1,2,3,4..."
Kharkov - "How you getting on ?"
Snuggles - "Oh,..Son of a bi,..you did that deliberately dad."
Kharkov - "Would I..."
Snuggles - "Dad, you do the counting,..I'll go write a poem about rivets,..but I need,..inspiration dad."
Kharkov - "Just think frogs."
Snuggles - "Frogs??"
Kharkov - "Frogs..."
Snuggles - "Frogs,..rive...son of a bi..."
Kharkov - "Careful."





The actual number of rivets isn't the issue...
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pseudorealityx
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Posted: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 - 11:23 AM UTC
In the new Son of Sherman book, it says the welded arms were installed on tanks produced by Fisher, and "may" have been issued as replacement parts. There were also at least 2 versions of that arm, the biggest difference being the lack of the large void area behind the wheel.
pseudorealityx
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Posted: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 - 12:15 PM UTC
Check it again... looks like Fisher never built any M4A3(105mm) tanks, so you better go with the cast version.
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pseudorealityx
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Posted: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - 03:36 AM UTC
FYI: https://click2detail.com/products/7d/M4A3E8-Flame-Cut-Suspension-Arm

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165thspc
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Posted: Saturday, June 15, 2013 - 05:48 PM UTC
Gina has been following your blog as well.

rfbaer
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Posted: Monday, June 17, 2013 - 08:15 AM UTC
Matt, I agree with your conclusions about the plate and its mounting method with one small exception: I believe the lowest piece of armor, that covering the final drive cover, was simply braced by the two triangular tabs welded to the cover itself. Reason: the additional armor had to be removed to access the bolts holding the final drive cover to the base of the front hull/glacis in order to allow for servicing of the transmission and final drive units. The entire final drive assembly is serviced by first unbolting and removing the cover as a self-contained unit.
This lack of welds at the base of the additional armor to allow for servicing might also explain why the entire piece of additional armor was "removed" by the hit to the front of the tank. The few pics I have of this area do not show evidence of a weld there.
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165thspc
#521
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Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 - 05:57 AM UTC
Don't know if this helps but I found this image on the internet while searching for something else entirely.


Is the idea of using the Pershing 90mm turret out the window? I'm sorry but I went back and tried to re-read your pages to figure this all out but I was unsuccessful. Just which Sherman chassis and which turret are we now using?
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165thspc
#521
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Posted: Monday, July 01, 2013 - 08:56 AM UTC
I very much like your idea to use the slightly oversized bolts to stress what you're trying to do here. And I agree the bottom plate is welded on because there are no bolt heads showing on that plate.
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shermaholic-king
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Posted: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 - 06:12 AM UTC
An M4A3 was used to test the feasibility of combining the 90mm Pershing turret. This M4A3 had the HVSS. Any one with the Hunnicutt tome can find the photo.
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