M4A1 Sherman

[RiskyR]

Hello everyone,

As this is my first post here, a short introduction.
My name is Rick and I live in the Netherlands. I started my R/C tank hobby way back in 2006 with the purchase of an 1/15 Bandai Tiger, which I slowly upgraded to a full option version with Tamiya electronics. I started to collect more models and also used to have a HL Tiger 1, HL Pantiger, HL Panzer III and a Wecohe Panther Hull.

Most of these tanks were projects which I didn't finish and sold as life progressed. I still have the Bandai Tiger (minus electronics) but it hasn't driven in over 10 years now how time flies!

Anyway, I've always liked the M4 Sherman tank, especially the models with the Radial engines (that sound!), but all those years ago I didn't have the money to buy the Tamiya version and the HL version came a few years later.

Skip several years, now I'm almost 31 years old and have 3 kids, but I always seem to come back to the R/C tanks because they are awesome


Now with the modern technology and my (minor) modelling skills, I started to have a go at modelling a Sherman tank which should be printable once finished.
I've chosen to do the M4A1 76mm variant.

Any thread is worthless without pics! So here are the first two... Still very early. It's a bit of a hybrid model, it contains parts from different models found on the net and also parts I made myself.

The green welded hull you can see in the pictures is a model I started about 2 years ago, but couldn't find the time and motivation to continue with it.
That said, several parts can be used on my new model; for instance the drive wheels (yes they are incorrect for the M4A1), which need to be modified.

Any tips and tricks are appreciated!

[Rob1970]

Hi Rick,

Welcome, this forum needs more mad Dutchmen! Especially if they are into 3D designing and printing. I am designing and printing some stuff as well, but nothing fancy and certainly not using your fancy software. Maybe some day I will have a computer that won't melt down when I use something heavier than Tinkercad...

Cheers!

[Kaczor]

Hello! Probably you know this site but it's always good to remind everyone about this fantastic source of information about the Shermans:
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/index.html

[HERMAN BIX]

All I can offer on Shermans is "go Verstappen": !!
The cast hull 76's look the best I reckon.

[lmcq11]

Hi,
You are 3D designing and printing a whole Sherman ? Not everything should be 3D printed though. I recommend that you purchase a lower chassis with running train and tracks of the quality you can afford (plastic or metal), and go up from there with your 3D M4A1 upper hull and turret design. It would certainly speed things up and de-risk the build.

[Kaczor]

To be honest if I would build M4A1(76)W I would buy resin hull:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133206820176?h ... SwX5lc2vcs
And turret from Taigen.

Or even plastic Mato (bit pricey tho).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/223506685425?h ... Sw0dZcqRAU

And left 3D printing for hulls not existing already on the market like M4 composite, early M4A2 etc

[RiskyR]

Hi Rick,

Welcome, this forum needs more mad Dutchmen! Especially if they are into 3D designing and printing. I am designing and printing some stuff as well, but nothing fancy and certainly not using your fancy software. Maybe some day I will have a computer that won't melt down when I use something heavier than Tinkercad...

Cheers!

Haha thanks! I don't have a fancy computer though, I use a 6 year old laptop and the program I use (Blender) isn't too heavy I think.
I don't have a 3D printer myself by the way, but my dad does, so I'm going to spam him with STL files in the future

Hello! Probably you know this site but it's always good to remind everyone about this fantastic source of information about the Shermans:
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/index.html

That really is a good site! Thanks for the link!

Hi,
You are 3D designing and printing a whole Sherman ? Not everything should be 3D printed though. I recommend that you purchase a lower chassis with running train and tracks of the quality you can afford (plastic or metal), and go up from there with your 3D M4A1 upper hull and turret design. It would certainly speed things up and de-risk the build.

To be honest if I would build M4A1(76)W I would buy resin hull:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133206820176?h ... SwX5lc2vcs
And turret from Taigen.

Or even plastic Mato (bit pricey tho).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/223506685425?h ... Sw0dZcqRAU

And left 3D printing for hulls not existing already on the market like M4 composite, early M4A2 etc

Buying a chassis and other parts would be easier, yes, but designing all of it myself is part of the fun!

[RiskyR]

So did some more work on the Sherman today. Started on doing the turret.
I've taken a before and after shot to show how much work is going into cleaning up, correcting and detailing the turret.

Overall it's starting to look like a tank. Even though it's far from finished, I'm very happy so far!

And just for fun; one of the parts I've made from scratch are the fuel caps:

[RiskyR]

I forgot to add the correct drive train, which I could use (although a bit modified) from my old Sherman model

[RiskyR]

Some more work done and gave it some colour to see how it would look
The whole hull has been changed and modified as this one looks a lot better than the other one!