The oil pan of my 1/35 Sherman engine is hitting on the lower part of the rear hull, all other parts are matched up to each other like they should. Is this normal or do I need to thin out the lower rear valance to provide for extra added space?

Just wondering if it's anything like the 1:1 thing.

The engine hangs just above the floor (a negligible gap in 1:35 scale), but definitely shouldn't crowd the rear wall. See this website and scroll down for a cross-section drawing of the GAA engine placement in the M4A3 hull. (That's the engine in your pics, right?) Note the flywheel end sticks through the firewall into the fighting compartment.

The flywheel end is sticking through the firewall like it should and the mounts on it are situated corresponding exactly to a cutaway picture found on Google. Could maybe squeeze a fraction of a mm out of breaking the driver side motor mount on the flywheel assembly off and rework it to sit a little better.

Either the drawing in your link is off, Verlinden made the engine a fraction too big because all the other bodyparts match up well to each other, or it really is supposed to look the way it does.

This is how it looks right now, firewall opening has it's definitive shape and the floorpan is ready to be glued on.

The Tamiya part near the oil pan has been slightly sanded down to make the pan and hull plate with vertical access door sit flush against it, was too thick before but is better now. The thing is a pain to sand, lol. And yes the engine does hang just above the floor pan I made sure that it sits nice and level.

Just had another look and even the tower mounts at the rear of the engine sit exactly according to a photograph of the real thing.

In comparison with pictures it "looks" like the engine is indeed ~0.5 - 1mm too long right at the back of the valve covers, at the point where engine block meets flywheel.

Yep. MUCH better clearance, actually resembles pictures of the real thing now and the water pump will no longer be squeezed to death. Onward ho!

Ah the joys of Verlinden parts! They can be a tad overscale, but then the hull might be too short - is it the Tamiya kit? Still, glad you got it to fit!

Thanks! Tamiya lower hull is mated up to the Formations transmission housing per an exacting factory drawing so that part is good

The interesting thing is that both sidewalls and firewall from Verlinden are good, just the engine is too long and the rear tower mounts look a little off when compared to the real thing, will have to check the height as well.

The peculiar thing is, between the top and two bottom engines there seems to be a difference?