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model stash 1970 NIB 1/35 Tamiya motorized Sherman

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:17 pm
by modler
Sherman #1
I have 2 of these models. The first one I have owned since 1978 and is the SUPER RARE DUAL MOTOR REMOTE CONTROL VERSION with a special narrow gearbox with 130 motors as opposed to 140 motors in most other Tamiya kits. I believe this is the smallest footprint metal gearbox Tamiya had available. I removed this gearbox from the Sherman #1 almost 20 years ago and used it in a 1/25 Tiger. Recently, I decided I wanted the Sherman #1 to run again and used a gearbox from a 1/48 scale Tiger radio shack model and that worked OK but the front hull cover would not fit back on correctly and finally I could not stand to look at that anymore as it spoiled the beauty of the Sherman Hull so found a 1969 Tamiya dual motor Donor Tank on ebay and bought it to use its gearbox. That is when I realised that the Sherman has a special narrow gearbox with 130 motors. I made the ebay gearbox work with a little grinding and modification to the inner hull of the Sherman so it can be done but of course it is not stock and from the underside you can see some modifications. One of the original drive sprockets got damaged and was unusable so I had to use the donor Tank sprockets and tracks to get the Sherman going again with its new 1969 gearbox (which was never used) so the sprockets,tracks are not correct for this model (at this point) but work very well with the ebay donar model parts. UPDATE I have repaired the broken sprocket and hope to replace it soon. My goal is to restore Sherman #1 back to scale condition. As outfitted now It does run and climb obstacles very well and has the best mobility of any Tank in my collection but the non scale sprockets spoil the Tank. I plan on rebuilding the broken drive sprocket and reinstalling it and the correct tracks back on Sherman #1 which will complete the restoration.

Sherman #2
With all that in mind, I decided to remove the special Sherman gearbox from the 1/25 Tiger (I will replace it with a less rare Tamiya plastic gearbox that is available on ebay)) and decided to build up a "motorized single motor "Sherman into "motorized dual motor". So I pulled a NIB sealed motorized Sherman from my stash and now am building it up into a RRC Tank. This one will be stock Hull all the way. No cuts,grinding etc. I will feature Sherman #2 in the next installment to this thread.

Re: model stash NIB 1/35 Tamiya motorized Sherman to RRC

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 5:43 pm
by modler
Decided to try one more time to repair the broken sprocket on Sherman #1 and this time success! I used a M3 sprocket (see avatar) and cut the sprocket front\rear teeth from from the narrow M3 sprocket spool and grafted them on the wider M4 spool (right side). Some how it works and looks much better than the non stock sprocket. An expert on Sherman tanks would notice the M3 sprocket teeth on the right side if they were looking for that. Looks pretty good to me and as far as I am concerned, Sherman #1 is restored.

Re: model stash NIB 1/35 Tamiya motorized Sherman to RRC

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:15 pm
by modler
Sherman #2 is a NOS Vintage 1970 Tamiya model and has a date on the bottom of the Hull (1970)

This is a NOS model that I brought out of my stash to build into a dual motorised radio remote control Tank. Along the way, I rebuilt Sherman #! and brought a parts Tank back to full RRC. I am not sure what Tank it actually is. It looks a lot like a German Leopard and has the same exact chassis as a Leopard but has a different upper Hull. I bought it used on ebay and the ad said it is a US M103. Any way back to Sherman #2.

This NOS Sherman came as a "motorized kit" which means single motor. Well, these can easily be upgraded to dual motor gearbox as the kit includes the special sprockets that are used for both models. Sometimes Static Tamiya kits include the the special sprockets especially if the model has a motorized version available otherwise those sprockets are not included. I can modify most sprockets for motorized use but it is time consuming and difficult.

Sherman #2 is going to get the ultra rare "narrow" gearbox which by the way will work in the M113 APC. I wish there was somewhere to get these narrow gearboxes but the are near impossible to find. I will be using an original narrow Sherman gearbox (42 years old) in this NOS Sherman. It still works very well after 4 decades. Of course the motors have been replaced and I am using a set of rare 7.5 ohm 130 motors in the GB so that I will have a wide range of options as far as speed and batteries used as even a 2 cell lipo pack could be used. As shown in the video below, it is powered by a 1 cell 250mah lipo.

https://youtu.be/NGaQMT2NvIo


Sherman #2 continued here
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=29449