1944 M4A3 105mm

[ALPHA]

Yep cloth belts were around too, usually for the .30Cal. Nowhere near as common as the metal links, and I suspect by '44 they were really very rare indeed. More common in the USMC early campaigns I believe. A bit of a hang over from WWI when nearly all MGs used a cloth belt.

Thanks for verifying the cloth belts Scalawag ...I knew they used them... ...it might not be "period" but at least a viable solution for Painless to make some nice belts for that Tamiya 50

The draw back is it still would be a lot of work...I can't even imagine working down 5 200 rnd belts

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

By the way Scalawag... nice Photo... your own collection?

ALPHA

[scalawag]

yeah making 200 round belts would be time consuming .

Fortunately you only need a belt long enough to cover from the loading gate on the M2 and across one layer in the tin. I think the longest I have made is about 25 rounds. That was the 7.92mm for the MG34, it needed to be a bit longer because of the extra distance from the gun to the gurtsack.

Unless of course you want to display a loose belt, but they are very awkward things when out of the box, so I don't think would be taken out very often

I wish they were part of my collection, but sadly no . Just research pics i have picked up along the way

[palepainter]

Strips of black or metallic vinyl, or even electrical tape would possibly work to simulate the metal links.

[sassgrunt]

I have tried different solutions for .50 cal ammo. One of the more promising was to use 1/6 scale 5.56 ammo, which comes with separate links.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TB63-03-1-6-Dr- ... 1e85d1d3f3

It seemed like a pretty good idea at the time, but the links are grossly oversized, and didn't look good at all. There also used to be an accessory pack for 1/18 figures, and it had a separate ammo belt for an M2 in that scale. It wasn't bad, but it still looked like a string of rubber/plastic linked ammo. Impact also makes individual rounds, and I asked them if they were also considering eventually making the links for them. But, they said no.

And the search goes on...

[PainlessWolf]

46th Day: Tonight was electronics night and sadly, I was limited to an hour when I needed two. I satisfied myself with swapping out all the plugs on the two RX-18s and unscrewing all of the switches and the pot so that they could be remounted in the back under the engine bay grills. It was interesting to set aside the receiver board with it's attendant antenna wire and crystal. I now have a complete RX-18 set with #1 crystal that I will have to think up a use for. I do have two old Tiger 1s and my Pershing which could all benefit from an almost direct swap out. More thought required. Back to the Sherman at hand, I will try to mount the speaker in the back there as well to make the best out of the clearer sound from the Taigen speaker. We will see, I have to sleep on a mounting plan and come back to it tomorrow. Pictures:

[PainlessWolf]

47th Day: Some items anticipated in the post now, optical fiber rods to complete the bow .30 cal and yet one more bit for the turret. Tonight was Electronics Night #2 and I spent it cleaning up the lower hull and sealing off the slots for switches and the pot. I have figured out a way to mount the switches, now I need to make sure that the airgun will clear the components off to either side of it when the main gun is elevated and the turret rotating. The fan on the RX-18 is a nifty idea but it makes the board more cumbersome than it should be...Pictures:

[scalawag]

Hi Painless,

I have fitted one of these systems in two shermans and found the best way to mount the MFU with the fan on is to pop off the bottom plastic cover and replace it with insulation tape. It will then fit in the same gap that the old rx18 did between the battery box and hull side.

This is actually a ploy that Taigen use to fit one of these into their Pzr IV where space is very limited for the MFU. They come from the factory with no bottom plate on the MFU and with the bottom of it hot glued directly to the hull.

Another way would be to leave the bottom plate intact and remove the fan. The fan looks great but I have run these units with no fan with no problem what so ever. They don't seem to overheat anyway. I wonder if it is perhaps a bit of a sales gimmick or only necessary for the very heavy tanks which will draw more current when moving. It is all extra draw on battery power whether it is serving a purpose or not

I suspect other solutions may require removing the battery box and having some sort of quick release system for the upper hull to remove the battery. I have moved on now to other control systems but this still seems the best option for MFU mounting.

With the switches I swapped the main switch for a mini toggle switch which is positioned in the rear hull plate above the left track. When the top hull is in place the switch cannot be seen at all, but is still relatively easy to operate. The smoker switch I don't need now as I am using the IBU2 board which has the smoker controlled from the TX. The speaker pot I upgraded to a better quality one with a metal base and hot glued it direct to the hull.

Hope there might be something you can use there

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Scalawag,
Those are all excellent ideas. I will end up going one of those directions . It was that or lose the airgun capability which I kind of like having. This gun is a good one. Thank you, Sir.
regards,
Painless

[scalawag]

My Pleasure Painless, glad to of been of help.