Hi Guys. I am building Tamiyas early M4 and its the first sherman I have ever built. I have it sprayed and now want to do the detail. I dont know what I should paint on the wheels.
Ive seen models with the whole wheel the same base colour and others have the rim painted black(ish). Do the return rollers have to be painted black? Does the idler wheel rim have to be painted? Pictures Ive looked at all seem different. I have used the spoked wheels by the way. Thanks for any help given.
Frank

The wheels in question have a band of rubber surrounding the wheel. The spokes are either cast, or stamped steel, painted the base color. I usually paint the rubber with flat black with a tinge of brown. The outer edge of the rim often contacts the track, and gets worn. Try to highlight this with a little bit of steel.

John

Each wheel's rubber part should be painted black. (a dirty dark grey if weathered). The road wheels or the ones you have as "spoked" have a rubber tire on them. Look closely you'll see the tires on the rim's which should look like seams around them. The idlers did not have rubber tires on them unless it was from the HVSS configuration. As far as the return rollers go, I could certainly use a definite on this too. I've seen plenty w/o any explainations. Some I've looked at are nearly all rubber with a small metal wheel, and others are like the road wheels with a "tire" on a rim. The HVSS's return rollers did have a tire on a wheel.

Don't forget that the rubber wheels were not of the same quality as today.

I always cut some dents in the road wheels to simulate broken of rubber

Thanks guys. Thats 100% what I needed to know. I went to paint them this evening and when I looked at them and then some pics of models I have saved, I got a bit confused.




In your opinions, considering that this is the Tamiya kit, would I leave them the base colour or colour them totally as rubber. There are no rims on them to simulate tyres, just two little holes/circles on each return roller.
Could somebody explain briefly what the "HVSS configuration" was and when it was used?
Thanks once again for any advice given. Sorry for being a nuicance
Frank

BP, The HVSS config. was used on the later models of the Sherman and looked like this,



your early M4 has the VVSS config

Sherman return rollers (VVSS) are made of metal and not rubber coated. Basically a big metal bearing.

Thanks Rob.
I continued searching till I could find a pic to go with the caption. I searched till I found, and find I did.

Throughout the production of the Sherman, the return rollers were made from steel, not rubber.

Like that wheel dolley they are using. sure wish when I was in we would of had such a nice thing instead of the plywood and 5 gallon of grease (:-)

A big thank you to all you guys for your help. Bow I can continue painting with a little confidence. Cheers!!
Frank