Sov's 1/16 RC M4A3E8 (Tamiya/AHHQ004)

[SovereignZuul]

Hey all, it's been a while. Looking back, I started on this forum in 2012... Never finished my Tiger, I'll get back to it eventually. Wow has the tech changed over the years, scratch building originally, and since I went in big on 3D Printing, even being a top global supplier for awhile for model bits.

Starting something new. Hopefully a lot easier than the (WIP) Tiger. Not looking to extend this build 13 years ongoing like the last one...

I've had this Tamiya Sherman kit on the shelf for many years (decade?), along with Nick Aguilar's E8 kit. Seeing lmcq11's instructions on the amazing Korean War model he's done and being inspired, I'm going more than route. Full credit to lmcq11 for this. You'll see a lot of common connection to what I'm building vs what he has! Once this build is complete, I think I'd like to pass on my kit from Nick Aguilar and other spare Sherman bits on to someone in need.

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Combining these two kits.

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Basic Tamiya assembly began. The molding on the Tamiya plastic isn't amazing, required a lot of scraping mold lines and sharp edges of plastic for all those wheels.

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First real challenge/hiccup, which front transmission/cover to use and how to fit it. Stock fit of the AHH/Takom part is not great, this is after shaving some plastic away on the inside. It's pretty tight.

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I felt determined to use the AHH/Takom front section and carved out some holes/slots to match the Tamiya mounting options.

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Also carved out a channel to fit the metal hull a bit smoother.

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Here it is mounted to the hull with just some screws to hold it in place for examination.

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Had to tilt the upper bolt bracket that mounts the Sherman transmission to the upper hull due to the fit and gaps. Held and gap filled with epoxy to make it look less obvious.

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Upper Hull meeting the chassis and transmission.

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Had to do some filing to get the metal chassis to fit the upper hull. There's a beveled edge on the metal, it fits quite nice now.

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A bit of a fast forward, but it matches the progress. Here is the entire nose permanently mounted, with epoxy and gearbox covers. It's solid now, no gaps, nice tight fit and looks natural enough. I used a heat gun to slightly deform the transmission/cover to fit this Tamiya chassis better and it worked great. I'm quite happy I decided to use this cover, even though it was more struggle to make it work than I can properly represent.

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Next episode.... the back of the chassis major overhaul. It's good to be back working on a model again.

[tankme]

Well, welcome back to the fray. Should be a great project. Right now there is more available in 1/16th scale than there has ever been and the variety of vehicles just keeps expanding.

[Martin2556]

Welcome back, interesting build, I will be following your progress

[Herr Dr. Professor]

I noticed your comment that "It's good to be back working on a model again." I hope the intervening time was nonetheless pleasant. I am impressed by your willingness and skill at fitting together two kits.

[SovereignZuul]

Well, long time between update posts but at least it's going a bit.

Completed much for the bottom hull.

Added these lower hull extensions from the plastic hull to the metal Tamiya hull. This is so the plastic upper hull will properly meet the lower hull when the two halves join.

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Next I wanted to get the lower rear hull in order. Some minor modification to the rear hull plate and the exhausts so that I can make a smoking engine. Brass tube into the exhaust pipes.

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Next I wanted to use the late/post war style exhaust diffuser. These were solid plastic and not designed to actually vent on the static model, so a lot of grinding, cutting and filing to open them up cleanly was in order. This will make more sense once mounted.

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Here are the two diffusers mounted. You can see the thin slitted exhaust pipes venting into them. I used some plastic strips to secure it more solidly for RC operation that you won't see when fully assembled.

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And then fully covered the diffusers and exhaust to keep the smoke flowing in the correct places.

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Here is a view from below, with the upper hull test attached showing the nice fitting of the two halves. The diffuser props are here now as well as the rear axle sections glued on. The floating rear idle wheel axle is adjustable on the Tamiya, so I lobbed the plastic ones in half and filled them with filler. They are not a perfect show piece, but more convincing than not having them at all, and leaves the rear idler still adjustable for RC. I'll save the more delicate bits to glue on later when the model is more functional.

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And the rear view test fitment. Very nice and accurate fit so it will look nice even without gluing the two halves.

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Finally I went into the wheels, perhaps the most repetitive single step of this model. Sanded and softened many edges that were overly sharp on the Tamiya molds, including the metal parts.

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I used the Takom oilers here on the piston. I also preferred to use the Tamiya bolts here "backwards" with the nut on the outside, as I don't like the look of the exposed Phillips head screw on the outside. To me it interferes with the sense of scale.

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All the wheels complete and mounted, tires will come post painting. I realized I have a few pistons in the wrong orientation after looking at it later and will fix this soon. I lubricated all the wheel shafts before gluing the caps on during assembly.

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And one more shot, feeling happy that the two hull sections meet nicely.

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Next up, I have to figure out how the radio equipment actually works. There are a lot of engineering things to work on for how the turret and hull will play nice for RC as well. These are my personal biggest challenges as I've never really gotten deep into how the radio stuff all works. I may need to obtain some extra equipment and we'll see how well the newer Tamiya control box does or if I need something that'll be an upgrade.

Thanks for reading!

[PainlessWolf]

Sov!
Good to have you back yet again! Excellent work in making the Static Kit bits work with the Tamiya RC Kit. Following along!
regards,
Painless

[MrChef]

That's some artwork right there. I almost appreciate the whole process of fitting and mating the different parts to get it just right than a completed project. I cant wait for your next update but I hope its sooner than 3 months

[Stormbringer]

This looks like its going to be an incredible build

[Martin2556]

Interesting build, coming along nicely, following your progress.

[HERMAN BIX]

Jeez Mr Sov, I'd almost given up !
Hows about you finish that Tiger........................soon
viewtopic.php?t=10204

And we shall overlook the attendance record on the school roll !!