Hi guys,

Here are some pics of my Sherman M4A3 which is meant for the "One of our tanks is better then 10 of yours"-campaign.
It's Tamiya's older M4A3 kit, with addition of some Dragon parts out of the scrap-box, and a Cullin device and sandbag armor, which are from Trakz.
Hatches in the hull and some spare tracks are still to be done....

Lemme know what y'all think,
John.

Coming along fine john,is it the tamiya howitzer?check my post above its a 1/16 sherman howitzer.cheers

Nicely done! Looks like a Sherman bunker :-) BTW, can you post some close-ups on the sandbag armor on the sides and how it connects to the hull? I am planning to add one to my Sherman but can't buy aftermarket ones (pretty expensive, scratchbuilding would do).





Doesn't look like a howitzer to me. The 105mm has a wider but shorter barrel.

Here you are Shonen....


And indeed, this is not a 105mm Howie, but the plain 75mm.

HTH, John.

I will mention that the searchlight - from my pictures - goes in the opposite direction. It should be on the right side of the post. However, it should be noted that in some very close pictures of the light, it appears it may to possible to have on either side?



I see you added the .50 cal barrel holder in the down position: good. You may, given the amount of detail you've already put into it, want to add handles in place of the "strips" that tamiya molded on. Also, you could add a wire guard on the loaders periscope, but that isn't mandatory.

Otherwise, you are very much on your way to a great model, especially such an old one.

Jeff: That searchlight swiveled around and could be in lots of different positions. It was also removable and was often stowed inside the tank. Lots of times it was turned so it faced down and didn't reflect light.

John: Looking good, but that added armor should not be on the turrret.. The turret applique armor was only used on earlier low-bustle turrets -- your tank has a high bustle and would have a "bulge" on the turret cheek, but no applique.

Yeah, I figured it moved around into other position. Disregard the above in my previous post.

You shouldn't add the add on armor plate on the turret for these late M4A3's there should be rather a cast in piece ...Also don't forget to add the periscope details on the inside of the commanders hatch.

Rick.

You can use the applique armor on the cheek and add putty to the sides. Just cover the applique armor with putty and you'll have a good bulge on the right cheek

When you gonna slap some paint on that baby! I want to see how the sandbags turn out

http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/articles.html

On this site are three particularly useful articles:

General M4A3 corrections
Tamiya M4A3 turret bulge instructions
Tamiya M4A3 rear deflector corrections

As other posters have stated the welded on applique armor is incorrect (use the bulge instead).

Also, I highly doubt any Culin/Rhinoceros hedge prongs were mounted on any M4A3s (as they were fielded in late autumn '44 -- well past the time the prongs were mounted on Shermans of the Normandy campaign).

hope these help