model stash 1970 NIB 1/35 Tamiya motorized Sherman
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:17 pm
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.
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.