RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Amazing work! Keep it going! I am following!

Hello and thank you for your interest and encouragements.


The following posts are for the front of the vehicle and the tracks


View of a M4A3E8 mudguard from Prime portal.



The Takom mud guards are meant for static display, glued to the upper hull by a narrow thin plastic strip, that attachment is too weak for RC purposes. I decided to attach the mud guards to the lower hull instead.



Close up of the Takom parts for top and sides.


On the side, the small base plate is too thick and the overall height seem high.


View of a 1/16 Tamiya Sherman that i built as a young man in the early 1990s, the prime candidate for an upgrade with the Trumpeter kit, showing a much lower side part because of the higher transmission cover that gives more room for the gearbox underneath. The Sherman being built will have a similar pattern.


To make the frontal mud guard resist manipulations of the tank for RC purposes and maybe some hits, a thick brass plate will be used to stiffen the connection between the guard and the lower hull, and covering half the mud guard itself. It will not show.

The parts are given deep grooves done with a blade to create anchors for the glue, providing a much more resistant connection.


Mud guards are installed to the lower hull.


A quick test of the side Takom part show that it won't be usable on this build, the Tamiya Final Drive Assembly cover that i used is at least 3.5mm higher than the Takom part. As shown earlier in the build, the Takom part does not fit the Tamiya lower hull because of the gearbox and metal tub that would have required much grinding and refitting. Something had to give and this is it... New side parts, similar in size to Tamiya are required to be scratch built.


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Before finishing the sides of the mud guards, realistic texture as seen below on Prime Portal must be added to the Final drive assembly, with seamless joint between top and bottom parts, cast texture only on bottom.


Done with 3 coats of Mr Surfacer 1200, applied with a short brush and a hard hand. The joint between the top attachment plate and the cover gave me some problems and needed a lot of putty for a seamless joint as per ref picture. Looking good now.


The side plate is not too complicated. Before adding more details, i decided to add the hooks.


I was able to fit the Takom hook mounts to the Tamiya base, but it was a real pain. It takes a lot of little adjustments to get it right, for the holes to align and installed at the proper height.


Looking good. Overview of the finished cover with the sides and the base for the tow cable. I did not put a small apparatus base that Takom provided for the right top side, i need to do more research on it.



View of the horn guard from Prime Portal.


View of the Mato Sherman horn guard, needing much cleaning up and polishing.



After clean up, the Mato guard compares well to the Takom part which is much weaker and comes in 3 parts. Touch it and it will break.


Horn guard installed. The Mato mount points are different than the Takom parts but they seem accurate when looking at ref pictures. The holes were filled.


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The Takom horn and mount are extremely well detailed, a pleasure to the sight.


View of the lifting hook and base for the rearview mirrors from Prime Portal. The Sherman lifting hook had different positions during its production, mine are located closer to the edges. As for the rearview mirrors that we can see the mount here, they were never really installed by the crews, or did not last long in the field.



I only used the base mount, and created the hole for the bolt.


As this Sherman is starting to become my ultimate Sherman, i decided to invest on a set of metal T-84 tracks from Manheader. There is no brand listed but i have seen guys calling them Kenny Kong tracks.

These are different than the T-80 coming with the Tamiya and Takom kits. The T-84 are post war tracks with rubber pads. It's good for Korea but they should not be used on a WW2 model.

I am glad these come pre-assembled. Just adjusting the length to fit the model took me 45 minutes… I remember buying similar but more expensive unbuilt track for the Leopard 1A5 build from AFV-Modellbau and it took me 24 hours elapsed of metal grinding, polishing and assembling time.

Next to the Tamiya plastic tracks with metal connectors. Not that the Tamiya tracks are not good, they run well, they just look like plastic and the previous owner shortened them and were too tight, missing at least two links per tracks.


A local test was made with a gun bluying solution and it shows that the metal of the tracks is reacting well to the solution after a first coat. They will likely require 4 applications to become black.


The larger center pin fits the Sherman suspension better than the Heng Long Pershing tracks with thin open center pin.


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Side mounted first aid kit, for post war versions only.




The functioning gun travel lock is in position. Made of 9 parts, it is a little gem on its own.


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Frontal overview



Next step is the turret.

Overview of the electronics assembled for this build, and to support the turret operations.


My new best friend, Heng Long TK 7.1.



Remote with the sideways button for servo operation.



Heng long recoil unit



Gun barrel smoker with flash.



The model as it stands today.

Regards, Louis

Here's my attempt at what you're doing, using the AHHQ kit. Mine uses the Tamiya kit electronics. You're much further along with the details. I've focused on getting the mechanical aspect working first. The work you've done thus far is superb.

Thank you, Louis, although I am proceeding on a much simpler level so far as detail is concerned, your Easy Eight build has already helped me identify some simple details suited to the Pershing, too. Like you, I find the new HengLong MFUs to be quite fine, perhaps up to the level of some aftermarket boards at least as far as speed control and flexibility go. But what to do about the sound limitations..?

Herr Dr. Professor wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:07 am But what to do about the sound limitations..?

Oh, I think I am a pretty good modeller but when it comes to engine sounds, I would not know the difference between a Continental, a Ford or a Maybach engine. As long as it does vroooom, I’m good.