I was wondering if anyone could tell me when the A3E8 antered into service. I have the Hesagawa 72 kit of it ready for painting and want to put it on a display base but have no idea of what theater to place it in.

The Hesagawa kit comes with a long barrelled gun tipped witha muzzle break, HVSS suspension and side skirts. Would this be appropriate for the Battle of the Bulge or the Pacific theaters?

PS I have found some pics of and read over the review of the DML's "Irzyk's" Sherman-the gun looks the same but the sides are different-the hull is welded but has the ribbed support for sideskirts.... and now I am completely lost....

The M4A3E8 started production in March of '44 but the first photos in theatre appear in Dec of '44. Small nos. started to be available as replacements for the American counterattacks during the BoB.

The tank you have is the 76mm armed version. This version was not slated for the PTO at all due to the fact that its gun wasn't needed against the paltry Japanese armor assets.

the M4A3E8 had and extended fender to accomodate the wider track. THis was typically secured by metal bars that secured the extension to the hull side. For more pics, look here:
http://toadmanstankpictures.com/m4a3.htm

Or for an HVSS M4A3 105
http://toadmanstankpictures.com/m4a3105.htm

The Hasegawa version was also used in Korea, so you could do a display based on that war as well.

Thank you guys, this helps greatly. Thank you for the links-great help as well... now I may tear off a few pieces of the tank and try to make some wired ligh braces etc.

BoB it is then... some snow covered ground and a Shermie advancing through it!!! Yippe.

Thank you guys.

PS. Mr. Sabot, as to the Korean War... I thought of doing that at first but for whatever reason I think I am discriminating against it-I have no idea why-perhaps my exposure to the theater and the history of it was always very limited.
But I think I will begin looking into it-time to get some good books on that matter (I have the Tamiya Walker Bulldog which I belive would be a good choice to put in the Korean theater). Once again, thank you very much.

Make sure your scene is towards the German fallback and not their advance. The M4A3E8s were replacement vehicles for those lost in the initial repulse of the German thrusts. Not too beat up either since they would have just entered service.

BTW, the M41 Bulldog didn't fight in Korea. The only battle that tank saw was against Godzilla in movies. I don't think it fired a single shot in anger.

The M41 did see service in Vietnam.


Jeff

Thanks Jeff for the correction. I'm pretty ignorant about post-Korea stuff frankly.

Rgrds,
RC