Hi all,

I bought Italeri's M32B1 today:



I may want to build it as an M32 in korea, mounting a recoilles rifle M20 instead of the normal .50cal. In the concord book "tank warfare in korea" I see two different M32 types, the M32A1 and the M32A1B3. The last one looks very interesting but it costs me too much money and time which I don't have. So I'd go for the M32A1

The kit however is a M32B1. Now what's the difference between a M32B1 and a M32A1 !?!?

Greetings,
Martin

What I understand is that B1 means that the base tank is an M4A1 (so B3 is M4A3), and that A1 stands for HVSS.....

But the tank in the book I mentioned, doesn't have HVSS, and it looks like an M4A1, so I don't understand it anymore....

As far as I recall the Italeri kit M32 is not a real version. It's a hodge podge of their various existing parts plus a boom to get something that sort of looks like an M32. It is build on the large hatched M4A1 hull and no large hatched M4A1s were built. Plenty of people get a resin small hatched hull to fix this error.

The A1, A3 still refer to the basic tank (A1 is gas powered cast hull, A3 is a different gas powered welded hull)

So Italeri's M4A1(76) has the same error with the large hatch?

Anyway, I don't have that much money for modelling, school, sports, ensurance etc costs a lot of money So I don't have no money for resin kits. I'm a OOTB builder for that reason, although I'd like to build accurate kits!

Btw, I'm beginning to show symptomes of Shermanism.....want to build many Sherman variants/Sherman based tanks. :-)

Here is the M-32B1 I am building during the Mud Sweat and Gears campaign:


I used the DML M-4A1 which was just released.If you could get a Tamiya M-4 or M-4A3 these would be acceptable upper hulls to use for an M-32 variant (small hatches).

The hull is correct for the 76mm gun tank. It's wrong for the M32.

While we're on the subject of the M32, maybe somebody can answer another question. I've been trying to find out if the M32 was allocated down to the "letter" (i.e. "tank") companies of the battalions in the Armored Divisions, or were they only in the Maint Platoons in the battalion HQ Company. I've got one that has been sitting around mostly done for quite some time that I want to put on bumper numbers, and am not sure what to use. I don't think they were in the letter companies, as that was not the practice with tank battalions in the 70's. And I can't seem to find a detailed enough TO&E to answer the question, or any photos either.

Anybody have a clue??

Tom

Tom:

According to George Forty's "US Army Handbook, 1939-1945," there were 2 M32s in the Battalion Maintenance Platoon of the Service Company of each Tank Battalion. Hope this helps.

And this is the M-32,based on the M-4 (early) hull.I used the Tamiya M-4 for this.

Ah ok now I understand about the shortcoming of the kit....

Could I also just use the hull of the dragon M4A3E8 to build a M32A1B3?? (M32 based on M4A3 with HVSS)

Greetings

Martin

Yes you could Martinnnn,
But there might be some scratchbuilding in your future,the army made a special "towhook" for the later M-32's.Especially if you are doing a Korean war variant.
As a side note,Zod sent me a picture a while back of a large hatch,M-4 or M4A3 as the base of an M-32,so you could be legal using large hatches on an HVSS variant.

(++) (++)

http://www.usarc.army.mil/88thRSC/other_units/history_museum/collection_images/M74%20Recovery%

That's exactly what I need. I'll have to guess at what number might have been used, but at least it'll be marked as Service Co.

THANKS

Tom

Tankcarl you have a passion for M32s

mm I think I'll still build OOBT, just because I don't want to spend so much money on 1 tank....gonna get into trouble if I spend all my money on scale models :-)

Reading all those posts about the M32. I had good thoughts about it when I bought it a year and a half ago. It'll be too expensive to kit bash and resin etc.... and I don't think I have the skills for that yet.

Like Martin, I'll build it OOTB and nevermind the inaccuracy.

It's good to know about those stuff.

A litttle help for you,Martin,re your PM.

Thanks!

I decided to use the M4 early hull after all, because I can use the turret to make a M4A4 on the dragon firefly hull, and I'll use the firefly turret for a Dutch turret bunker....

So I can combine all those kits! :-)

Hi MArtin

I am building two IDF versions one with and one without HVSS. One thing you will need to concider when doing the Hvss version is is modifying the 'A' frame so that the angled part on the front right is wide enough to pass the wider track. I believe this would hae had to be done on us vehicles as well. I also belive the mounting points for the 'A' frame are different on the welded hulls than the cast hulls. At least based on the one in Aberdeen and the yafo museum in Israel.

Joshua,
I think the attachment points for all versions would be the same.The hull remains the same,the new HVSS track is wider,and wider side fenders are put over it,in the place of sandsheilds

Hi Carl,

I've posted in my armorama photo section a pic of the M32 at APG and the one in Israel. They don't use the uright mounts like on the m4A1 but welded plates instead.

notice also how the trianle armature on the right side is reinforced and stepes out to pas th ewider HVss track

Justclick on the My photos button below to see the pics