Another SAUNDERS SHERMAN

[HERMAN BIX]

Go on, I dare ya
you enjoy your weekend in Hawaii mate, Im sure I would

[ALPHA]

Go on, I dare ya
you enjoy your weekend in Hawaii mate, Im sure I would

Boy I'm going to have to start finding some odd Jagd Panther pics

Those mine sweepers are kind of interesting in design... more so because whatever contacted the mine never suffered enough damage to cancel the operation... now the question that lay at hand ....why didn't they just make the tank out of the same material as those rollers lol

You have a good one too Herman... I'm sure it's as sunny there in Australia as it is here

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

LOL you're not helping...
....orrrrrr...there's always the scratchbuilt turret option... I'm off to lie down

Hey frank ...on this one you'd be better off waiting for the Metal Matos to come out ... ...with that said... I wouldn't mind watching you do it from "scratch" the series of tank killers ...were some of my favorite variants... though I tend to like the look of the tapered hulls on those

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

Sorry gang..not much progress to report... did get the transfer of goodies from the HL turret to the Mato.. a little more work than I thought but I think everything went ok.. though I have not had chance to test it yet...getting to the transfer of Hull electricals... where I am finding the Mato glue Monkey...is more zealous than the HL glue monkey ... the Mato monkey has two types of glue..and globs it with generous abandon all over the place...which probably adds a few ounces of weight to the overall tank

ALPHA

[PainlessWolf]

Alpha,
Slow and steady will see that this work is only done once. ;o) Have fun, my friend.
regards,
Painless

[ALPHA]

Alpha,
Slow and steady will see that this work is only done once. ;o) Have fun, my friend.
regards,
Painless

Slow and Steady she goes Painless...Long story short...this conversion is just as intense as the one I did on the FoV Sherman...only it's in plastic...the transfer has problems of it's own though...as the Mato is totally different than the Heng Long...sure it's only Pos and Neg...but Mato uses different bulbs as well as wiring... so after looking over both... total extraction and replace is the best way to go...I'm not sure how Mato has done their wiring in the past...but the new system looks a little better in many ways... as everything is plugged into the mini board on the upperhull.. making for easy access for removal of things like the turret and such...an improvement over the HL for sure

The Mato glue monkey's handywork is the biggest obstacle... as Mato has chosed to run really short leads to the LEDs... hook up the wires.. then glob a good glob of hot glue over the whole thing making Pos and Neg Identification difficult ...the machine gun is totally different from how HL does it..amongst other things
it's interesting to compare the two... I know they are two independent companies ...but how they could differ so much in how a simple circuit should be done is mind boggling

Anyway... Complete transfer seems to be the best and most logical way to do it...crossing my fingers...it will go without incident

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

Finally ... after a week of mulling over the electrical switch over from Heng Long to Mato... the Job is finally finished... found that Mato's Glue monkey and it's assistant who did the wiring were culprit.... seems Mato will put any old color they want should Red or Black run scarce.... in this case the simple wiring of the tail lights ...which I now like to hook to the firing mech as I find it cool

After digging off a glob and a half of hot glue the Monkey had put over the leads of the LEDs found that Mato had Red on the negative and Blue on the positive ...so I took off all that Mato had done... and replaced it with correct colors... so Red is Positive...and Black is negative...hooked up once again with a micro connector salvaged from some scrapped helicopters I have

What can I say... it's onward and upward once again... details and paint coming soon

ALPHA

pS... Anyone interested in creating a Safari Hunt for that elusive Mato Glue monkey and company.. let me know

[ALPHA]

YES YES YES ....after sorting the electricals... made a new antenna for the face lifted Valerie 1...played with her for about an hour or so just to work out the bugs... what can I say..."SHE'S A RUNNER"

Now for those dang little details ................
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmxpAqb7ELY
ALPHA

[ALPHA]

Following some good advice from a fellow modeller... I was able to lock down one of these from Ebay


a 1/18th scale 21st century Sherman...the plan is to take the five spoke Hollow road wheels for this build..I found the Mato rubbers off their road wheels are a perfect fit..I am also considering exchanging the gunner's Hatch... as the Stock Mato is a bit large


ALPHA

[ALPHA]

A lot of you know I haven't been doing anything on my build...seems something was bothering me about the general "look"
I kept referring to this picture

this one

this one of fynsdad's

painless's from crazy Joe's

and what I did

the problem... the mantlet... stock the Mato mantlet is already "funky" ...it is too tall...and too thin...Mato's is square edged...the real one and the one in the anime are rounded...the pivot is also in the wrong place...what fynsdad and painless have done makes it look a hundred times better...great if you are modelling Historical..as the details help give the illusion of rounded edges...I am not... doing it that way wouldn't be prototypical to the anime.... I have to make it look like the factory fresh Sherman depicted in the B&W photo

What to do?

ALPHA