[D-Day] M4A3E8 up armoured version

[Ecam]

Looking good. I always forget how LARGE that speaker is when space is usually at a premium. I often sacrifice sound for room and modify or switch speakers.

That is going to be a terrific looking Sherman!

[Ad Lav]

Thank you

I have debated changing the speaker for one from a Tamiya KV1 but alas it’s £40 and no available.

I’ve solved my recoil woes so now I need to sort the turret out.

[Ecam]

For the record, the only unmodified speaker/housings from Tamiya are the Pershing and Tiger I. Sound is not as important to me as space is. On a few of my builds, speaker only, no housing.

[tankme]

They look like KV1 tracks

They only look similar when dirty. Those are definitely Sherman T66 tracks.

[Kaczor]

Interesting fact: SOL makes an up armored set, but the price for several tiles that you can make yourself is not encouraging.
https://solmodel.com/product/116-m4a3-7 ... ay_group=1

[Ad Lav]

That is a lot of money for some flat panels and two wheels!

[MrChef]

That is a lot of money for some flat panels and two wheels!

$140.? WoW and I thought the stuff I gathered was expensive.

Hey silly maybe not silly question. Why Is the Resin stuff I see so much anyway? Is it purely supply and demand? Or just Demand from modelers who will pay? Or is it difficult to make or an expensive medium?

[Ecam]

This might answer, but perhaps not. I was helping start a business to build Jeep lighting systems. Originally I built a master housing that fit the switches to the Jeep. Then I learned to make molds for resin. Built 4 molds and poured each. About two hours later pulled the housings from the mold and cleaned up the castings. I was able to sell them to the business owner for $20 ea. Later as the brand took off, he had an injection mold made and was able to crank them out 250 per batch. His cost dropped to $1.10 ea (not counting the expensive injection mold. I could make about a dozen a day. He has sold over 1000 systems...

There is a fair amount of hand work in casting and cleaning resin molded items

[MonsieurTox]

That is a lot of money for some flat panels and two wheels!

$140.? WoW and I thought the stuff I gathered was expensive.

Hey silly maybe not silly question. Why Is the Resin stuff I see so much anyway? Is it purely supply and demand? Or just Demand from modelers who will pay? Or is it difficult to make or an expensive medium?

Working in the FX industry, I use to do molds and castings so I can reply. But prior to make the molds, as Eric said, you have to do a master pattern. Making a good master pattern can be hard and time consuming, you don't make it the way you would make a one off. Then you have to mold, sometimes it's an open mold, but most of the time it's a 2 (or more) parts mold. Doing the castings is messy, time consuming and, depending on the resin, can take some times to cure. Quality resin (like the Smooth-on brand) is quite expensive. You also need some specific equipment like a vaccum chamber to remove the tiny airbubbles of the RTV (so your molds last longer, and every detail is captured) and to remove airbubbles from the resin and to be sure there no trapped air between the mold and the resin in the smallest details. You can obviously only doing a pull at a time.

But the SOL armored set isn't worth $140 IMHO. I would sell it $30 at max, it isn't worth more and $30 would already be expensive for what it is. But I'm not surprised when a upper hull of a 1/16 tank is sold for $150 or $200.

[Ad Lav]

Currently selling the M4A1 resin cast hull, they aren’t cheap but very well detailed!

$140 for some flat resin panels is daylight robbery.