1944 M4A3 105mm

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
Pale, thank you very much! I am looking to see what has been cooking in your own Modeler's Kitchen here soon, Sir. Jeff, that is right!, those little mounts were for a cover to keep rainwater out. I got the inspiration to use them from Phil's excellent M4A3 (105) build he recently completed. Even tho' it looks like a solid piece of steel, the gun mount must move on it's trunnions so that means a little space between parts so rain and splash from fording was always a pain for those guys. There were many covers that they had to install while traveling and not directly in battle, the Mantlet, one for the Hull MG, periscope covers for heavy rain, a cover for the pintle mount .50 cal., the list is almost endless. Scary to contemplate but bullet splash was also a problem and one of the driving reasons that the Sherman Mantlet went through so many design changes in the operational life of the tank. As for the spacing of the mounts, Schumo helpfully provided a photo schematic of what the final arrangement should look like. They used the Tamiya 105 turret as their template so it was a close fit to the HL 105. The actual application was a leftover from a skillset I employed for 11 years spent as a graphics designer. *chuckles* It helps to have an 'eye' for these things.
warm regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, CH,
Thank you very much for the compliment's Sir. I plan on having this tank depict one fresh out of a Field Repair Depot so she will be fairly clean and with obvious new parts installed. The Sherman behind the turret in the photos? That is my VS Tanks 1/24 scale airsoft M4A3 (105) It looks like what I want this HL 105 to turn out looking like so I keep it stationed on my Laptop there for inspiration.
It is a great runner but as discussed before, is better suited to indoor and light outdoor use. There is a lot of metal used on it and the tracks I have are pinned plastic, just like the HL. The suspension is fully workable as well. It even depicts the large hatch version of the Sherman tank selected by HL to model, the 'Houston Kid' (The Walterson's Version at any rate) I have recommended the VS tanks and the Tokyo Marui ones on the Forum before in a couple of threads. They are very nicely done right out of the box and sweet to have sitting on your desk.
warm regards,
Painless

P.S. CH, I took these photos and dropped them here this morning to cheer you up. Sherman models, like the real tank can stand up to a lot of abuse and come out shining.

[cannedheat]

pretty decent,from the box ? ....cheers

[PainlessWolf]

CH,
Yessir, as is, from the Box. I just added the stowage and spare road wheels that came with it.
regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

39th Day: Tonight was a fun night. To begin with, I remembered I had a Tamiya Sherman headlight ring in Spares. I pulled it out and it was a perfect fit for the lens on the spotlight. That should not have been a surprise to me. It was a Tamiya Sherman headlight lens after all that I had searched out to fit the spotlight in the first place. I get those lightbulb moments every now and again. Next thing I attempted was to make up an extra spare dished road wheel out of the component that Sassgrunt had sent me. He had made me up a spare with the set but I had an extra hollow HL road wheel on hand and thought it couldn't hurt to try to add another spare. While the results are not close to those of the Master, it is good enough to mount up on the tank I think. ;o) Lastly, I added the rest of the late War tow shackles that acted as both steps up on the tank and shackles. I also add the welded step strips up front, the field modification ones that I had seen on an M4A3 (105) in a picture on the site that Scalawag kindly linked to us. This tank had the late War shackles and the welded steps so I add both as well. Pictures:

[Dietrich]

Hi Painless,
Stunning level of detail on the Sherman.... The time and care that you have taken on the turret is amazing..... The canvas cover mounts would have driven me mad.. one little hand shake and your perfect row of 'gaped teeth' suddenly has one out of line !
Great work.... keep on going when you are up to it

[scalawag]

Hi all,

As we were talking about Schumo Kits and Axels Modelbau Shop a few posts ago in this thread I thought this might be of interest to those looking for Schumo bits and bobs.

I have just received an order from Axels which included a Schumo Pazer commander kit (which is excellent by the way). On the bottom right of the box it says

"SCHUMO-Kits is a part of Axels-Modelbau-Shop"

So Schumo Kits are made by Axels which explains why these parts are always more available from this vendor. I had not realised this before

Another faultless purchase from Axels by the way, as usual not the quickest but I can live with that. Ordered from the UK 30/12/13 delivered 9/1/14.

[ALPHA]

Boy Painless that turret of yourn looks really sharp....though it looks good now.. i'm sure it will look even better once painted
and thanks for the 411 on welsh

ALPHA

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Dietrich,
Thank you, Sir for the encouragement. I hear you on the canvas cover mounts! ;o) The glue I use has about a 5 second delay for you to move things slightly. After that, it's Debonder time. If you smear your paint with it, it's scraper and sandpaper time. *chuckles* On the upside, apart from it's great hold strength, since it is a gel, you can make a nice mini-weld effect around small parts if you hurry and use a toothpick on the excess. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Scalawag,
I noticed that on the paperwork from Axels and on the instructions from Schumo but my mind did not make the connection about them being the same entity. That certainly explains why Axel's seems to generally have all those kits in stock.
regards,
Painless