RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

So I recently got my grubby hands on Heng Long's M4A3. I announced my plans to build Oddball's Sherman from Kelly's Heroes:



Something that I've started work on.

First I got into contact with Nick Aguilar, after seeing this picture of a mantlet and barrel he sold some 8 years ago:



Turns out he's still in business and still sells those parts. So I ordered a mantlet and barrel from him for $50 including S&H from the US to the NL, and I was very, very pleased to find more than I'd bargained for in the package when it arrived:



A barrel, muzzle device, two mantlets, a set of mantlet mounting brackets, two back packs, an M1919 .30 cal and a Thompson SMG to scale. Very nice!

So I set about disassembling my Sherman until I had this:



The front of the elevation mechanism of the HL turret with the hole the 105mm barrel fit in to. Don't mind the slight damage around the hole, that's just me removing a raised strip of plastic that would interfere with my new barrel. Note the green paint color coding on the plug, it's how I remember where each plug goes even if a lot of time passes between dis- and reassembly. Plus, 'pretty colors' seems appropriate to the subject matter, don't you think?

Unfortunately the back end of my new 76mm barrel was slightly too thick to fit in that hole. But, fortunately, I know someone who works on the shop floor of a metal working factory, and he turned down the fist 15mm of my scale 76mm barrel on a lathe:



Friction fit in the turret:



The fit is a bit loose but that's nothing a drop of superglue won't fix. The barrel is too thin for the BB function to work, but that's no big deal, not a fan of the BB function to begin with. Besides, if I want to annoy my cat by shooting small yellow balls at her I still have my Leopard 2A6, StuG III and JagdPanther that still have a functioning BB unit.

And the mantlet and muzzle device friction fitted:



The half-round brackets right behind the mantlet aren't quite the same as in the movie, but it's close enough for my goals. I'm not looking for a 100% rivetcounting, to-the-millimeter accurate replica, just looking to have a fun time building a fun model.

Next step, front fenders. Then painting and weathering. Then sourcing and scratchbuilding a looooot of stowage. Still a long way to go ...

I'm planning to just keep the HL internals, it's 4th gen and I fitted a better speaker, so the sound is ok.

This is a long term project and work will be slow due to RL circumstances, but I'll update this thread when there's news.

This is very coolfollowing along

So I found a mod for World of Tanks that visually replaces my Fury with Oddball's M4A3E4. The accuracy of this mod is not quite 100%, but good enough to base my build on.





The next thing on my to do list was fabricate and apply front fenders and rear mudflaps. To this end I had to prepare my upper hull.

Unfortunately mine has a small casting error in the rear quarter:



But that's easily fixed with some milliput fine. Just need to get my hands on some.

To prepare the hull I partially cut away the HL's front fenders, leaving enough 'meat' to superglue the new fenders on, also sanded the top of the 'meat' to assure a better bond:



I took two pieces of remnant resin sprue and cut them to shape, then superglued them to the inside of the very rear of the upper hull, to have more 'meat' to superglue the mudflaps on to:



The fenders mounted:



And mudflaps:



I know I said I'd leave the internals standard HL, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't do any work on them. No longer being able to use the BB function because of the thinner barrel I decided to cut away the majority of the BB unit, leaving just enough structure for the elevation mechanism. I also filled up the forward end of what remains of the BB unit's structure with coarse milliput for a better fit of the barrel when I put the whole thing back together again.



This also left enough space in the hull to move the electronics block on top of the battery housing, instead of tucked away to the side of it.



This makes maintenance a lot more efficient since now I can reach every cable without needing to remove the electronics block from its snug hiding place wedged between the battery compartment and hull side wall.

I've also removed the smoker, I do this with all my HL tanks. I strongly dislike the HL smoker, way too noisy, not proportional. This gave me enough space to fit a better speaker, too. So the sound is a lot better now.

This is going to be a shoe-string budget build, so no recoil unit or flash, no proportional silent smoker, just basic HL electronics, etc.

<Edit>

I managed to put bypass the BB unit motor wind-up and contact switch trigger of the firing sound / track recoil by just disconnecting the BB unit motor and permanently closing the contact switch circuit. The 4th gen HL electronics checks for a combination of the contact switch circuit and the 'fire' command from the remote before cycling the firing sound and track recoil, so this way I bypassed the BB unit entirely and still have the firing sound / track recoil when giving the 'fire' command on the remote, just without the annoying 2 second whine / grind sound of the BB unit winding up.

Lert , any updates mate?
Really looking forward to this build , can't beat an Oddball Sherman build.

Aussie wrote:Lert , any updates mate?

Yeah, it's going to be a real slow build though over a long time period.

Anyways ...

Checking that WoT remodel and screens from the movie it's evident that many of the tools the model came with don't feature on the movie tank and the gun travel lock is in an entirely different location. The movie tank does have the 'Sherman shelf' hanging from the rear but doesn't have the spare track holders that the HL Sherman came with.

So the next job was to remove certain tools and the spare track holders, fill the peg holes with modeling putty and see about fixing the casting error on the rear quarters.


(Sorry about blurry quality)


And rear quarter.

Next, some cheap ass primer from a rattle can from the local discount store:



(Not pictured: some pre-shading done in black)

Base coat fitted plus tools painted and fitted, some decals fitted:





Still to do:

- Detailing
- Finish painting running gear
- Weathering tracks
- Dry-brush edge highlights
- Dry brush worn paint / metal showing
- Washes for weathering
- Pigments for weathering
- A buttload of stowage, either sourcing or scratchbuilding

Like I said, this is going to take a while.

Bonus: out for a prowl on the concrete flatlands of Dutch suburbia:

Very nice!

Nice progress , looks good so far.

Lots of positive waves coming off this build, Lert.

You've done a great rendition of an iconic vehicle, keep it up!

Got some work done today, always the part I hate most.

First though, I cut up the four-link spare track segment that came with the Sherman, cut some brackets from plasticard and attached them to the sides of the turret like where in the movie spare track is kept



Very crude and not very detailed, but meh. It'll do.

Then finished applying the base coat, after putting on the additional decals courtesy of Sun of a Gun ner:



Dry brushed some gun metal:



Black wash:



Sepia wash:



Not pictured: The tracks were dry brushed heavily with gun metal, then a bit lighter with rust color, then a heavy sepia wash was applied.

I liberally applied all washes to simulate all the dirt, Oddball said in the movie he liked to keep his tanks dirty so it looked like they came directly from the front lines.

And that's where it sits now.

Absolutely beautiful workyou're weathering skills are exceptional