Heng Long Sherman M4A1 (75)

[BarryC]

Excellent work sir!

Barry

[Son of a gun-ner]

You've done an excellent job there young man

[Estnische]

Thank you for the kind comments sirs. Waiting on some goodies from the ever-dependable Forgebear for the next step.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Thank you for the kind comments sirs. Waiting on some goodies from the ever-dependable Forgebear for the next step.

How are you doing for parts? Are you having trouble sourcing any?

[Model Builder 4]

Very nice work indeed, its going to look fantastic when finished with all the details you've added

Cheers, Lee.

[Estnische]

Thank you for the kind comments sirs. Waiting on some goodies from the ever-dependable Forgebear for the next step.

How are you doing for parts? Are you having trouble sourcing any?

It’s going ok. Missing a track link which is coming from Dave and Julie. I’ve also ordered an Aber 30 cal through my local hobby store to give them some business. That was also back in May, however I see most places don’t have them in stock, so supply may be an issue. However, it’s something that can be added whenever it arrives.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Lee.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Cool, that's good to hear
I asked because it has taken me a while to collect Sherman parts, and I've managed to get most of what I need, and found many reliable places to purchase parts from during my quest.

[Estnische]

This post has been a long time coming. I’ve had to wait for some parts, and then it wasn’t until they arrived that I found I needed more.
I wanted to add metal running gear especially as the Mato metal tracks have extensions and the plastic bogeys look a bit ordinary. The Sherman bogies have lots of bits that need paint coverage, so I had to dismantle them and prime and spray them. That’s where I found out how dark Tamiya’s Olive Drab come straight out of the bottle.



Once again Mato and Heng Long parts don’t play nice together. The bogey mounting systems are totally different. The Heng Long bogies screw on, but the Mato's have clips inside the hull. Nothing for it but to open up some holes. The original plastic spigot is on the left, the middle hole is the first Dremel trim, and then the right hole is the final result.



But even after carving out the mounting holes, the bosses won’t go past the gearbox cases. So, I had to trim them off and then glue them in permanently. No going back now.



Another problem was the Mato sprockets which had to be reamed to have the drifveshafts fit. Even then, the driveshafts are too long. The centre of the sprocket lines up with the outside edge of the wheel rubber, so I had to shorten them and redress the shaft's flat face.



In researching other Sherman builds, I found a Youtube clip of a Japanese builder fitting flanged bearings to support the drive shaft. They are supposed to be a press fit, but a light dress with a file was required to get them in.



Eventually it all went together and a quick test drive went well without any thrown tracks.

[Exhibitedbrute]

Sir looks like you have the same tracks as me except mine don’t have the duck bills, I don’t know about you but I feel these tracks look better than the others

[Estnische]

I prefer the chevron style tracks, as the ones I have seem to have been mainly used in the Pacific theatre. But for the price available here in Oz, I couldn't go past these.