Tamiya Sherman How could they have got it so wrong

[971wright]

Hi Guys Just a question for debate with regards to Tamiya sherman .How could they have got it so wrong lets start with the suspension enough said ,but the upper hull is all wrong as well ,Have spent most of the afternoon going though all the pics and drawings of Shermans .If they had to fit hvss suspension the could have done the upper hull to suit all my drawings and pics of the hvss have differant turrets and the hull is differant in a few ways from the  rear panel to refueling points engine covers  .There are many differant models they could have done but they seem to have picked one M4A3 105mm .The question why this model when it wasnt the largest number made or most modified ,they should have gone for a 75mm or 76mm and vvss.


regards pete

[fleshpedler]

Never mind Pete, treat as a challenge, one can suppose that they had access
to this model in the late 1960,s as this would be when they took all the measurements etc,
as the first  we know was on the market in 1974!
Pete...........................

[Gigantohawk]

As far as I know the Tamiya Sherman was modelled on a Tank used in Korea and I didn't know it was that far wrong.
Pete, post some pic's of the errors so we can discuss this more.

[971wright]

Hi Nick (bloody computers just spent 30 mins writing then it dumped it into hyperspce)
        Thats where they went wrong most modelers want a WW2 tank not one from the 1950s they have made alot of money from this tank and could have spent some of there profits upgrading it did they NO I dont mean the electrics I mean the actual tank they must have known we wanted the suspension changed and differant hulls and turrets have they done anything about it NO ,will they maybe when Heng Long bring out there Sherman and sell bucket loads of them ,but by then it will be to late .The changes you have to make to say a firefly is alot more than the changes to a Heng Long Tiger from early to late .See the changes needed take a look at Septons post in the Tamiya builds Its more like the changes needed to make a pantiger into a Jagdpanther I would say about the same amount of work .

regards pete

[FireflyKeith]

Here is a good pic of a WWII M4A3 Sherman with HVSS, the turret is different from the Tamiya one but the hull looks the same, obviously you cant see the back so i wont comment on that but i dont think its that bad a model, although i am a little biased because i prefer the HVSS to the VVSS, i just like the wider track it makes the tank look like it means a bit more business. 

p.s. just my opinion

[971wright]

Hi is that the t23 turret and it looks rather like an easy 8 to me

regards pete


P.S thats one of the things why dont Tamiya make the turret and put it in the kit along with another barrel so you could have a different model .so you could buy more of them and build differant tanks with parts supplied.

[Rocketman]

If you think all thats complicated I ve just started cutting an old dumb 1970 version up to make an Isherman M-50. The variants are mindboggling!

[Gigantohawk]

I've been trawling through a load of pic's too and the work involved in converting this tank into a "Normandy" or "battle of the bulge" tank is huge . I never really looked at it that way before, as I knew it was a Korean Sherman, but the differences are immense. Let's hope HL's Shermans are much more WWII accurate.

[971wright]

Hi Nick I didnt till I started the Sherman rebuild I wanted to do a firefly .Have rebuilt gearboxes and added a home made reduction unit which might make it a bit hard to alter the angle to 33deg I am just measuring it all to see if it will go ,also have turret drive motor at front so things could get a little tight.Wish Id bought the cast hull Septon was selling would have solved a lot of problems .

  regards pete

[BREL]

I am Happy with my Sherman.

I don't really care that it is based on a Korean war example. to be honest I would not have known what era the Tamiya Sherman was modelled from.

I am going put marking on it from sept 1944 because That I believe was when the T66 track type was used with the HVSS suspension and don't care if it looks wrong to some people out there, because I don't care much for rivet counters, because I had enough of that with railway modelling.

I also prefer welded upper hulls to the cast rounded type