I'm not a Sherman guy but... Jussek's M4A3(76) 'Soul Reaper'

[Jussek]

hello sirs

I've been thinking about a Sherman for quite some time, you know, you have to feed the "cats"!

seriously speaking, in my club we have a lot of German tanks and vehicles, and there are only three Shermans (all 105mm), three M16, four jeeps and one Dorchester ... so once we finish the scenery of the Panzodrom, we will need allied tanks to accompany the infantry

i hope not to offend anyone here, but the sherman is a tank that seems terribly ugly to me, only one seems 'acceptable' to my eyes , the M4A3E8, or at least, the M4A3(76)W

I don't want to do major investment or surgery, the way for the E8 seems a closed route to me, having to look for a lower tamiya etc...

i've been thinking seriously on the Hooben E8, but all the reviews are desfavorable, not to mention the muzzle brake fault... so... what can I do?

I'm inclining myself toward an all plastic heng long M4A3, so i hope this will be ok to use all the components except the turret, and swap it with this one:

https://www.rctank.de/Sherman-M4A3-76mm ... tem-Taigen

issues? I think that a metal turret over a plastic hull and drive train & tracks could be problematic.

so i ask you sherman gurus... is there any turret like the above posted but in plastic?

oh, and also any idea, suggestion or possible combination that i have failed to consider will be wellcome, of course!

best regards chaps!

[Tiger6]

The Taigen upper hull is considerably reinforced compared with the Heng long, and the turret socket is deeper. If you want to go down this route, I'd recommend getting the entire Taigen upper and turret from Forgebear rather than try to use a Heng Long upper hull. The Mato plastic turret will fit, its a little hard on the eyes for some of us, but guys like Frankie can make it look presentable.

If you want to go "full masochist", I have done an Easy 8 by fitted Tamiya bogies and idler to a Mato plastic chassis, with Heng Long steel gears and Pershing sprockets and tracks, a Heng Long upper hull and a Nick Agular turret (fitted over the top of a cut down Heng Long turret base). Expensive possibly, but I had a lot of the parts to hand before I decided to do it.

Bare minimum effort would be a 2nd hand Tamiya (but not the really old ones, they don't last long when driven!) with a Nick Agular turret. Replacement Engine decks are available to convert M4 to M4A3, angling out the rear hull is strictly optional - I only did mine once I had a couple of HL hulls in the fleet and it got noticeable

If you want pictures of the last 2 options, I can post plenty, otherwise look at some of Frankies threads for the Mato and Taigen routes

[Tiger6]

Reread your post - if you want a straight M4A3 76(w), The Henglong chassis is fine, I kept the plastic gearboxes in both my Mato and Heng Long non-E8's as the weight is low and the narrow tracks slide over grass in a turn much better than the wider types like Pershing, Panther etc.

[Jimster]

Tiger6, that second to the last post was most impressive! That list of manufactures and modifications sounded awesome. I’m gonna go back and read it again.

[Tiger6]

Some pictures from a club meeting a few years ago:

[Jussek]

thanks you very much for your replies! (and nice looking tanks mate)

then it's ok the heng long hull + mato metal turret for a M4A3(76)w, cool

i will have to reinforce the upper hull to withstand the weight of the turret, and maybe finish all the projects i've lying around first!

thanks again!

nest regards

[Tiger6]

thanks you very much for your replies! (and nice looking tanks mate)
then it's ok the heng long hull + mato metal turret for a M4A3(76)w, cool

Thank you
I think you misread the part about the Mato turret tho - Mato do not do the 76mm turret in metal (known as the 'T23 turret'), only in plastic. I was thinking of this one:
https://www.hayaltd.co.uk/MATO_Sherman_ ... 65742.aspx

Not to be confused with their metal one, which is an M4A3 75(w):
https://www.hayaltd.co.uk/Mato_MT176_Sh ... 35361.aspx
(If you want to do a 75(w), just get a mantlet and 75mm barrel and convert the Heng Long )

Hope this helps?

[Ad Lav]

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[Tiger6]

Another excellent reference

Given that the Mato turret is in short supply and getting quite expensive, Nick's resin turret is looking more and more like the better option, even with the dollar exchange rate being less than favourable right now

[Jussek]

hello sirs

First of all, let me beg your pardon, I read all your answers, but for some reason I missed answering you and thanking you for your time to reply to me! My bad.

In all this time, I’ve been thinking about this project. Unfortunately I’m that type of guy who runs several projects at the same time but hardly finish them!

The Panzodrom construction and all the figures and defensive positions is swallowing almost all my free time for several years (and in occasion the ‘no free’ too)

I’ve the sdkfz 251 & the wirbelwind at half building stage in boxes, the swapping of the BB guts for recoil in my tiger and KóTi... heck! If even the turret of the KöTi is not attached to the hull for 3 years!

Fortunately, I’m in the verge of finish all the figures, doing right now almost 100 US GIs, so in a few weeks I can focus on finishing the tanks.

Returning to the Sherman project, the more I read your replies, the more my eyes remain glued and transfixed in this comment from Tiger6:

If you want to go "full masochist", I have done an Easy 8 by fitted Tamiya bogies and idler to a Mato plastic chassis, with Heng Long steel gears and Pershing sprockets and tracks, a Heng Long upper hull and a Nick Agular turret (fitted over the top of a cut down Heng Long turret base).

OMG... my brain started to spin, and to think and rethink about the possibility to returning to my first desire of an E8... you know, I do like big guns and big shoes!!

So, let me rethink this project.

For my birthday last December, my wife's gift was a HL M41A3 Sherman. The basic model.

So... rereading the full masochist route...

Tiger6, do you have any link to a thread with the building of your tank?

You said:

- fitted Tamiya bogies and idler to a Mato plastic chassis.
I suppose this is doable on an HL plastic chassis too.

- Heng Long steel gears and Pershing sprockets and tracks
You mean also HL pershing sprockets & tracks, right?

- Heng Long upper hull and a Nick Agular turret (fitted over the top of a cut down Heng Long turret base)
Maybe I’ve located an alternative? RCTANK.DE has a SOL resin turret

So I’ve to source:

- Tamiya Sherman idlers (and track tensioner too?)
- Tamiya Sherman suspension
- HL Pershing sprockets
- HL Pershing tracks (metal or plastic...?)
- SOL or Nick Aguilar M4A3E8 resin turret
- HL turret base (I can use the base of the actual turret, right?)
- Some type of elevation and recoil for the gun...

Anything else?

Tiger6, if you have any guide or info or building report in this or another forum I will be immensely grateful!

Best regards