RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hey, so I've searched the forum and am probably missing something obvious, but does anyone have a link to a reasonably well detailed "how to" on modding the Mato M4 Tranny cover to not extend out so far? I've seen bits and pieces of various discussions mentioning mods but nothing specific on how to do it effectively. I figure I will have to cut mine but the plastic is molded too far out (bad angles to work with) and short of possibly some form of heat and reform process (and how to do that safely?) I'm slightly stumped on the topic. I've already ground out the filler bits on the sides that Mato added.

Oh, and just curious, that G emblem on the front hull, I removed mine as I thought that was from the Montreal Locomotive plant that made the Grizzly? Maybe they did M4A1's as well, but mine is buffed off either way.

Ok, one more, I am not really wanting a plain green Sherman so have painted it dark green with black camo strips, I think the UK commonly used this pattern but I've seen US versions as well. Just wondering since I'm keeping it a 76mm variant, if the UK ever used them in black/green camo in Italy? Perhaps later when they were further up and I guess things were possibly greener? Just curious since it really would not make sense to make it from NWE. While I try to be somewhat accurate I do tend to make the tanks the way I want them to look in the end. I have the British Fire Fly decal set that I will scavenge assorted marking from to get an adequate looking UK version 76mm Sherman set up.

Thanks everyone!

BFT2002 wrote:Hey, so I've searched the forum and am probably missing something obvious, but does anyone have a link to a reasonably well detailed "how to" on modding the Mato M4 Tranny cover to not extend out so far? I've seen bits and pieces of various discussions mentioning mods but nothing specific on how to do it effectively. I figure I will have to cut mine but the plastic is molded too far out (bad angles to work with) and short of possibly some form of heat and reform process (and how to do that safely?) I'm slightly stumped on the topic. I've already ground out the filler bits on the sides that Mato added.

For that model of Sherman... I found the shape of the transmission cover to be very satisfactory... it's actually very close to the Heng Long's .... the odd one out being the Tamiya... talk about hard to fit...But if you have to mod the cover..just cut and extend then fill... thing is you will have to re profile the lower hull to make up the difference of your mod ..the one I did fit perfectly.. so no additional mod was needed

this is how I did mine... though it wasn't to change the looks...but to adapt the upper Mato to the lower Heng Long
Here's the thread
http://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/forums/v ... 7&start=40
the profiles were very close ... reason there was very little filling to do..

The final result was pretty good and probably one of the easier things to do in that build

BFT2002 wrote: Oh, and just curious, that G emblem on the front hull, I removed mine as I thought that was from the Montreal Locomotive plant that made the Grizzly? Maybe they did M4A1's as well, but mine is buffed off either way.

Ok, one more, I am not really wanting a plain green Sherman so have painted it dark green with black camo strips, I think the UK commonly used this pattern but I've seen US versions as well. Just wondering since I'm keeping it a 76mm variant, if the UK ever used them in black/green camo in Italy? Perhaps later when they were further up and I guess things were possibly greener? Just curious since it really would not make sense to make it from NWE. While I try to be somewhat accurate I do tend to make the tanks the way I want them to look in the end. I have the British Fire Fly decal set that I will scavenge assorted marking from to get an adequate looking UK version 76mm Sherman set up.

Thanks everyone!

The most common of cammo variant was the "Mickey Mouse" pattern... The Brits had several of their own as well..if you read further on that same thread I think there are a couple of them

Good Luck BFT

ALPHA

Yes, I saw that post, I like how that turned out, great job. I'll probably cut 1/4" or so out of mine somewhere around the middle and piece it back together, massaging what I need to as I go. The toughest part will probably be the curved section across the bottom. I suppose though if I don't really care about how the underside screw points line up (as in I drill new ones if required) I can maybe use the existing curvature.

BFT2002 wrote:Yes, I saw that post, I like how that turned out, great job. I'll probably cut 1/4" or so out of mine somewhere around the middle and piece it back together, massaging what I need to as I go. The toughest part will probably be the curved section across the bottom. I suppose though if I don't really care about how the underside screw points line up (as in I drill new ones if required) I can maybe use the existing curvature.

When I did mine.. I wanted to keep the screw points... so what I did was to attach the cover first...mark it with a magic marker then cut in the most strategic point...not quite sure how you are modding yours... but if it's something like Swamprat's build... that's easy... mount the plate...cut right above the indented area...raise it then fill whatever needs to be filled...if you actually want to shorten the snout... that might take a little more thought...as your gearboxes may not allow the clearance for what you want to do...sometimes when you mod something.. you can't just determine the mod by "looks"... as these are operating models...sometimes you have to mod or build around what is there

Good Luck BFT

Happy Tanking

ALPHA