1944 M4A3 105mm

[cupoftea]

Brilliant build Painless. The speed at which you work puts me to shame! I am looking forward to your next post of this build,

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, cupoftea,
*chuckles* I don't see myself as being one of those all-nighter fellows anymore. I need my few hours of sleep so I can function at work the next day. I do try to do a step or install a part every evening after work tho' Hence my day by day posts. I see this as settling back and enjoying the build. I am really enjoying the work that you do on your M4, COT, I plan on incorporating your neat turret ring wire guide as Alpha did. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[ALPHA]

Good Morning, CH,
I dunno, I am enjoying your Sherman Composite Hull build a great deal. I didn't even know such a thing existed before you did it, CH. I read through the site that Scalawag linked to and it was fascinating all the things that could be built with a Sherman tank. Equally fascinating was all the information on changes brought about during the production cycle.
warm regards,
Painless

Man Painless... you and Canned sure are making it hard not to catch the SHERMAN fever ...even though the KV is near paint stage... and I still have one more T34 to do... I can't help but think of modding a SHERMAN now...not to the extent of expertise you two have shown... but at least enough to fit my collection..add to that...the outstanding site Scalawag posted.. I have to admit.. in the back of my mind now has ideas of a new version of the SHERMAN... for me anyway

ALPHA

[PainlessWolf]

Alpha,
I know that CH shares my interest in watching you work on a Sherman M4, a new version like the one in the show. I've seen a thread on here where the three piece transmission cover was either modded or located in resin. I'll be watching to see what you do with one of these Shermans.
regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

16th Day: Received an utterly amazing full set of late war, dished road wheels today. These are built upon the stock HL road wheel by Sassgrunt and are so well done that once again I have had my road wheel plans binned and am considering how to use these. Work tonight was supposed to be build and mount the Schumo late glacis barrel travel lock but laughably was reduced to 'build' the Schumo late glacis barrel travel lock when one of the tiny arms that clamps over the barrel made a wild leap for freedom as I was pinning it into place. Long story short, we found the arm and the Office floor under the desks needed a wipe down anyway. Pictures:

[PainlessWolf]

17th Day: Nothing in the mail today. Plenty to do here thanks to excellent Vendors and very nice Friends. I took the time to finish the mount on the Schumo barrel lock. I sat the turret on the deck and measured for the holes with the barrel clamped by the lock. A pretty good fit and quickly installed. Then I took another look at Sassgrunt's dished road wheels. They just look better every time I eyeball them. I went to some trouble to get a full set of the Mato bogies and road wheels for use on this Sherman and had figured out a way to use just the road wheels. Now, I have this excellent set of _not_ hollow HL road wheels. There was a question of width in use with the T-74 tracks but as I had noted in a previous update, there really isn't that much much difference where the wheel meets the track. I mounted a set of the dished wheels beside the Mato wheels and will think about this while I work on other things. Right now, I'm really loving these dished road wheels. They were built for heavy use on the real tanks and certainly project that same air of toughness with Sassgrunt's scale creation of them. Pictures:

[scalawag]

Hi Painless,

I have two HL M4s which are running T74 track sets on HL wheels (one set of tracks has the duckbills). I just changed the sprockets, and on one of them the idlers, the other is still running the HL metal idlers as well. There is a quite a bit of sideways movement on these tracks but it does not seem to cause a problem. I suspect the Mato wheels would be quite similar in terms of the amount of lateral play having looked at your side by side comparison of the width of the wheels.

I have not had much opportunity to run them outside on grass as the weather has been quite poor here. They run fine on the hard floors and short carpets I have at home though. Tend to run them more indoors anyway.

I am toying with the idea of swapping the wheels over to the Mato ones but purely for aesthetic reasons, as I don't think they will have that much effect on performance.

I really like those dished wheels, they look great.

[sassgrunt]

Hi Scalawag. After Painless showed how easy it is to swap the Mato wheels onto the HL bogies; I jumped right in and did it also. I like that they have rubber tires, but they are bigger than the stock HL wheels, and made the stock idler look too small. I debated about going back to the HL wheels, but then decided to cut down the HL idler and fit it into the back half of the metal Mato idler (the part that has the outer rim). Now it all looks proportional, and I'm happy with it. (And, that's how I ended up with an extra set of wheels that I could modify for Painless). -Mike

[ALPHA]

Boy painless.. you have a tough decision there..MATO rubber ... or custom HENG LONG.... both look good.. but if you don't mind my opinion.. I like the custom HENG LONGs ...they are totally something you don't see everyday

and I have to say .. that schumo barrel support is "sweet"

ALPHA

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Gentlemen,
I slept on it and am going with Sassgrunt's excellent dished road wheels. This will also enable me to keep the HL metal idlers in place and only have to swap out for the Mato metal sprockets which came with the T-74 tracks. I'll have an extra set of Mato bogies, road wheels and metal idlers now for my Mato Sherman or for another HL Sherman down the road if I go that route. Thank you all for the good advice. ;o)
Happy Holidays!
Painless