1944 M4A3 105mm

[PainlessWolf]

62nd Day: Received a dozen grain of wheat LED bulbs in the mail today to 'possibly' replace some of the LEDs in the tank with smaller units. 'Possibly' since I haven't quite sold myself on the idea yet. Tank wise tonight, I painted more of the stowage, leaving myself only the Jerrycans to do in the daylight. Plus, I need some white paint to do the two watercans. Really looking forward to a couple of days of solid work on this Sherman. Pics:

[HERMAN BIX]

Love the wood/timber effect Mr Painless. The variation of the ammo cans is also a subtle exacting touch.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Afternoon,
Herman, thank you, Sir. I take credit for the wood effects and the pin wash to define the lids and pieces but the differing shades of O.D. on the ammo cans I owe all to Tamiya and Heng Long. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[cannedheat]

looking good old chap

[PainlessWolf]

63rd Day: Thank you, CH. ;o) I really appreciate the kind words. Got ready to work all day and went to get some white...Out of White...Get dressed and go into town in the middle of a snowstorm. Come back with White and a couple of other colors I will need and a new 3000mah battery. Get ready and do an hour's worth of work, realize that even tho' it is snowing, people are still coming to a local meet for Artists that we host. Get dressed and go back into town. Come home at 8:00 and fall right into an Online Thing I am supposed to attend. Get that over with and it is 11:00 and bedtime. See the Company out the door and work for another hour. Tomorrow....I'm not going anywhere. Pictures:

[cannedheat]

painless ....
nice work as usual, just dam wet and rainy over hear, a m50/51 a m50/51 my kingdom for a m 50/51........we live in hope
keep up with is excellent build all the intricate work is worthy......wot wot .....

[PainlessWolf]

64th Day: Thank you again, CH. I made good progress today and will keep it up this week. So, taking the tank apart, I put in new LEDs for the tail lights since the originals had stopped working. Upon removing the old bulbs with the aid of Debonder on the Guards, I found that they were blown. I figured that this happened when the original LED for the Searchlight went south and got out the torch and soldered some new ones in after testing them to make sure that they worked. Put everything back together and hooked up the new battery. Still no tail lights. I eventually traced the issue to the small board at the bow of the tank where the turret 3 pin plug and the plug from the RX-18 go. There is a small scorch spot on the solder for the ground leading to the tail lights. I will have to replace the board when I find one. Even then, I am in for a spot of soldering. At least everything else electrical is working fine. I spent a couple of hours painting the .50 cal and am pleased with the results. Lastly, I removed the armored periscope cover from the spare MATO M4A1 turret and it is a perfect fit for the M4A3's turret. Pics:

[ALPHA]

64th Day: Thank you again, CH. I made good progress today and will keep it up this week. So, taking the tank apart, I put in new LEDs for the tail lights since the originals had stopped working. Upon removing the old bulbs with the aid of Debonder on the Guards, I found that they were blown. I figured that this happened when the original LED for the Searchlight went south and got out the torch and soldered some new ones in after testing them to make sure that they worked. Put everything back together and hooked up the new battery. Still no tail lights. I eventually traced the issue to the small board at the bow of the tank where the turret 3 pin plug and the plug from the RX-18 go. There is a small scorch spot on the solder for the ground leading to the tail lights. I will have to replace the board when I find one. Even then, I am in for a spot of soldering. At least everything else electrical is working fine. I spent a couple of hours painting the .50 cal and am pleased with the results. Lastly, I removed the armored periscope cover from the spare MATO M4A1 turret and it is a perfect fit for the M4A3's turret. Pics:

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm interesting problem Painless... I don't think you need to change the board... because usually the front lights are connected to the same circuit.. so if the back doesn't work your fronts shouldn't be working either...you might try playing with the connecting leads on the LEDs ... I had experiences where just switching the connections solves the problem... but if you really feel it's the board ... try just jumping the rear with the front ....or do what I did and hook the rear to the firing circuit... as it could also be running five lights might be overloading that tiny board and is sending juice to the larger LEDs as a priority...leaving nothing for the rice LEDs you have in the rear

ALPHA

[palepainter]

Painless,

I noticed a similar issue when wiring up my Tiger. I had to run a small resistor on one of the lights in order for both of them to work properly. Like Alpha says, drawing too much and would take enough power to light up the first one in the circuit. I still do not understand it completely as I thought LED were very low draw circuits.

[palepainter]

Forgot to mention how awesome it is looking. You must be quite satisfied with all the work you have put in it.