Sherman M4A1 with cast in appliqué armor using photogrammetry

[Exhibitedbrute]

Top work, watching with intent interest as I’m sure the other Sherman guy here is.

[MonsieurTox]

Thank you very much guys!

I'm close to the end - I believe but I still have some problems to solve like the barrel. I printed one but it warped over time. I have an Aluminium barrel leftover from my Easy 8 ( I used the plastic one because it was hollow). I will have to shorten it and reduce the diameter of it to convert it from a 76mm to a 75mm. Taper seems to be the same, of course I'll have to shorten it. All that is easy, the hardest part will be to drill a perfectly centered hole and that's not the best thing my lathe can do, I can't fine tune it to do that.

Terrific work on so many details, but the one that stands out to me is that siren guard. Even a full size one is tricky to get right. That has always been a a super hard soldering job. Keep up the great work Mr. Tox.

Thanks Eric, yeah it was not easy, I was holding the parts with one hand, as perfectly as I could while I was soldering them with the other, trying to not burn my finger tips haha. First attempt was the good one, that does not happen very often with me.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

MonsieurTox: Vos compétences sont remarquables. Merci de montrer un travail aussi excellent dans des photos claires. En voyant chaque photo, je suis stupéfait par ce que vous pouvez accomplir.

[MonsieurTox]

MonsieurTox: Vos compétences sont remarquables. Merci de montrer un travail aussi excellent dans des photos claires. En voyant chaque photo, je suis stupéfait par ce que vous pouvez accomplir.

Thank you very much Herr Dr. Professor ! Your French is fantastic, I wish my english was that good !

The conversion of my 76mm aluminium barrel into a 75mm one turned out to be successful. I'll post pics tomorrow if I have time !

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Oh, Monsieur Tox, I know English somewhat, German less, a tickle of Classical Greek, and a smidgen of Latin. But the French was the work of DeepL Translate. I wanted to honor your work in your language. After all, you effectively use our English so often.

[MonsieurTox]

Oh, Monsieur Tox, I know English somewhat, German less, a tickle of Classical Greek, and a smidgen of Latin. But the French was the work of DeepL Translate. I wanted to honor your work in your language. After all, you effectively use our English so often.

It seems that DeepL Translate works great, it's usually easy to spot when it's a translator but in that case that was perfect !
I should use that so I could write longer posts in english haha !
Anyway I appreciate the French reply.

I worked on the gun barrel, the last big step of this build.
As I told you earlier, I did a 3D printed attempt but it warped after a few days. I suspect I did not UV cure it evenly. I tried to reshape it with a heat gun but it did not work too well haha.

I had an aluminium barrel leftover from my Easy 8 build, the idea was to convert it from a 76mm to a 75mm by shorten it and reduce the diameter. And also drilling it as it was solid.
Was a bit affraid to do it but that work and the hole is not that much off center ! Almost perfectly centered. I did not drill it all the way through as my drill bit was not long enough and I could not hold the barrel in the lathe the other way.

The original barrel :

M4A1_115.jpg (148.84 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

After machining :

M4A1_116.jpg (228.23 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

Hole is not that bad :

M4A1_117.jpg (126.96 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

Attached to the M34A1 mount :

M4A1_118.jpg (166.86 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

M4A1_119.jpg (172.39 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

And a comparison with the original HL 105 barrel which is not quite right but I guess they had to make it work for the 6mm BB :

M4A1_120.jpg (155.4 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

M4A1_121.jpg (133.81 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

Now I have to finish the tiny details and make the rotation and elevation system. No recoil for it this time. Of course I had one of those small HL turret gearing laying around for ages but can't find it ! So I ordered a new one, waiting for it to arrive from China.

[MonsieurTox]

Hey guys, I have been 4 months without access to my workshop and we had big house work done so I was not able to work on my models as much as I would have wished. The good thing is that, in addition to my shop where I have all my tools (3D printers, CNC mill, manual mill, lathe), I now have an additionnal room for my office and my small hobby jobs.

So a small update on the M4A1, the 1/16 Archer resin casting foundry marks were too big for the VVSS bogies, so I bought the 1/35 ones. They are maybe a tad too small but they do the job.

I tried to vary the manufacturers and matched their own casting style (they did not cast the part the same way that's why the mold line is different from a manufacturer to another, like for the turret).

M4A1_122.jpg (1.16 MiB) Viewed 1274 times

M4A1_123.jpg (1.52 MiB) Viewed 1274 times

M4A1_124.jpg (1.75 MiB) Viewed 1274 times

M4A1_125.jpg (1.37 MiB) Viewed 1274 times

Each figure and symbol was cut and applied separately. I did not always use the right foundry mark because it was just not on the decal sheet, but they are so small (1.2mm) no one would notice !

[Desertrat99]

A really nice build with a great part designer.