M4A3 Easy like Sunday morning

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Jhaelen
Recruit
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2016 1:19 pm

M4A3 Easy like Sunday morning

Post by Jhaelen »

This build started out as the Tamiya M4A3 105mm HVSS and like many others I wanted to end up with an Easy Eight M4A3E8.

Well i initially had no idea where to get a T23 turret from and ready on various forums that either the turret from Nick Aguillar or the one from Schumo Kits were probably the best...unfortunately neither were available when I tried to get one

I manager to get a Mato turret quite cheaply and although its ok, the shape just feels slightly off and it sits a little too tall on the hull.

I also ordered the 3D printed T23 from DKLMRC. This arrived very quickly from halfway across the world and it does look good although it seem a little long in the overhang at the back (excuse my lack of terminology).

I was pleasantly suprised at the detail on it and the little extras that came with it for the turret roof. My main concern with it was the thickness of the shell in places and the surface tecture that you get with 3D printing.

I sorted the thickness issues by coating the inside with smoothed milliput and the out layer was given a couple of coats of mister surfacer.

While working on this turret i had found another T23 which was available in the form of the turret from SOL in Korea....again this arrived very quickly from Korea.

Now this turret is completely resin, the outer surface has some nice texture to it which gives the appearance of cast hull. It has casting numbers on it in multiple places the shape looks accurate to my untrained eye and sits nicely on the hull.

My only issue with it is where the mantlet meets the turret, which was solid resin with no hole and cutting one would give a very small appeture through which the barrel and gun mount would have to traverse vertically.

Plus i had never really worked with resin in quite this way.
BE48A5D3-A750-44BD-AA33-6EAF0F82AFD3.jpeg
So three turrets...which one to choose. Well i have "played" with two of them and the Mato one will get used on my son's henglong sherman once I get around to giving his tank "a huge big gun that can shoot the best-ist german tanks" (that is all that matters to an 8 year old...yes size does matter apparently)
1648F754-D391-48DD-BA88-EC86D81D8810.jpeg
I eventually cut a whole in the front of where the mantlet attaches and also while i was there decided to cut another whole out for the pistol port...I thought that if I could get it open then perhaps i could put the power on/off switch for the tank behind it.

Unable to decide as yet I put them both to the side and started on the hull.

Ok...there is the start of my build post that was promised.

TTFN,

Jhae
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Ad Lav
Captain
Posts: 4154
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:44 pm
Location: Kent

Re: M4A3 Easy like Sunday morning

Post by Ad Lav »

Nice build! Love a good easy8.

Having used the schumo turret myself I can say it's a masterpiece.

The sol one looks good and I'm sure you'll do it justice.
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B_Man
Corporal
Posts: 480
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:23 pm
Location: Yass, NSW, Australia

Re: M4A3 Easy like Sunday morning

Post by B_Man »

If it were me I would avoid putting the power switch in the turret. In my experience the less wires you can have running up there the better as they tend to get tangled and snag when it rotates. I'm putting the finishing touches on a Sherman build at the moment and I'm dreaming of the day someone comes up with a small, independently powered turret unit that runs all the turret functions and connects to the main board via Bluetooth. Mine has a Nick Aguilar resin turret that uses the Tamiya rotation unit and it looks very nice but it's not a very robust system when a lot of cables are involved.
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