Greetings all,

I've been looking at the Italeri M32 ARV and doing a bit of searching about the various Sherman AVREs of which the British seemed to have the Mk I, II and III.

As far as I can see the Sherman ARV Mk III was based on the M32B1 which had the M4A1 chassis and would resemble the current Italeri kit.

So a couple of questions. I understand the problem with the Italeri kit is that the hull has the large hatches.

Therefore could I used the Dragon hull from the M4A1 to overcome that problem? Or, is ther another easy way to fix that?

I could then use the turret from the M4A1 for the second of my Mk Vs some of which had the early gun mantel right?

I asked this question before and I remember someone saying there was a problem with the turret on the Italeri M32 kit - can anyone give me a bit more information about how that might be fixed? There were two types of turret on the M32 an early one (shape I'm not sure of) and a later horseshoe shaped one.

So I'm trying to find out what problems there are with the kit and how easily they might be over come. I've been thinking about this vehcile for some time and regardless of the issues I think it's a really neat vehicle and the only one on the market that I might be able to make a reasonable job of at the moment.

Any information about time periods of use would also be helpful, I was thinking about March 45 and the Rhine Crossing time period.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice you may be able to provide, it would be good to do a REME vehicle, even if not perfect, close would be good!!! LOL, LOL.

Here's a link to one the REME are think of restoring which doesn't look that far off the Italeri kit, that looks like it was liberated in Kosovo.


http://www.rememuseum.org.uk/recent/sherman.htm

Cheers

Al

Not that I'm a real help on what is wrong or not and what you should fix etc.... simply because I don't know it. And my knowledge about Allied vehicles is not that great

but this is a walkaround that I made a couple of years ago which I think is the same vehicle.. Maybe it is of some use for you
http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=13601&password=

Also found these walkarounds
http://www.tanxheaven.com/dmk/M32A1B1/m32a1b1.htm

http://www.tanxheaven.com/mbo/M32Recovery/M32Recovery.htm

http://www.tanxheaven.com/map/M32B1arv/M32B1arvbrussel.htm

Don't know if you already know these links


With Friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Hi Robert,

Many thanks for those links.

The last one showes the M32B1 which is the version I'm interested in. The others show the later versions with the HVSS suspension and I believe the one in you gallery is the M74 Sherman ARV BE.

There were lots of versions but the last link should be very useful, so thanks for your time and trouble there.


Cheers

Al

Edit; I was looking at the walkabout Robert send, the last one, and the drivers hatch looks pretty big to me so maybe that's not an issue afterall?????

Hi Alan ...there were two types of turrets seen on the M32 s but the Italeri one is fine if you want to use it for the time period...BUT you will need to change the hull for the early small hatched M4A1 ..if you look at the pictures Robert linked ,even the late version M4A1 has the small hatches .












hth
Rick

Hi Richard,

As always, brilliant feed back, thanks for the pictures.

I'll use the hull from the M4A1 then which has the small hatches and 'make' the Italeri turret fit or is there a better alternative?

Thanks again.

Would the Brits have had the 81mm mortar on the front? Probably not?? I want to show the kit as the ARV Mk III

Cheers

Al - got the pictures thanks.

Not too sure about the mortar ..I doubt it too ...If you need any info on the M32 let me know either here or in an e-mail and I'm sure I can help you out ...

all the best
Rick

Hi Rick,

Thanks again - will do, time to order up the kit and amputate myself from this machine. LOL, LOL.

Cheers

AL