RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hello fellow tankers! Happy New Year! Just to update you on my Tamiya Jumbo Sherman restoration and conversion to a M4a3e. I've been done with this project since just before the holidays yet failed to keep up a build thread here to show the process. Shame on me !! Quick back story on this one. I picked up this Jumbo as part of a group purchase of 3 tanks over the summer. A Jagdpanther, Jumbo Sherman and a King Tiger. Thr Jagdpanther was the first tank I redid which I was very happy with. While ordering parts for the JP from websites in Germany a friend was collecting them in England before shipping over the pond to me to save on the ridiculously high postage prices from Germany. In doing so he mentioned how he had an henglong upper and a mato turret for a sherman for sale. So it worked out for everyone! So the plan was to get ride of the Jumbo upper and mate the Tamiya lower to the henglong upper. Seems simple enough But first off this need a good cleaning and decreasing. Not sure exactly how long this has been sitting in someone's basement or storage shed but long enough for even the spiders to leave their mark lol.

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The upper and turret arrived from the other side of the pond with a nice assortment of accessories. Marrying the 2 have together I knew I would have to do some trimming. In the process I did end up having to lose the Tamiya speaker box as it sat too high. I used some styrene 1/16 inch square tabbing to attach magnets to in order to hold everything together nice and tight. I turned my attention to the turret. I used a Clark 3D printed servo elevation and recoil set up which operats very smoothly. I applly a 2 part epoxy putty to hide the seam line before using Mr. Surface 500 to give the turret more of a authentic cast texture. The same technique was used on the transmission cover and then thinned down the Mr. Surface primer for a smoother but yet still textured appearance for the rest of the upper hull. I used a small piece of styrene rod and the fine tip of a hobby knife to bore out the end to give the appearance of a coaxial machine gun in the front mantlet.


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Once Mr Surface had been applied a shadow highlight coat was put before various shades of OD green to blend everything in. Uses a popsicle stick up front that I plan on placeing some more stowage on once I find some more. Decals were applied and then some light weathering. I did find a great figure set on ebay that fit perfectly on top. Even howled out the bottom of the gunner to fit perfectly over the apple base.

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Some final pics. Hope you all enjoyed!

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Excellent work as always my friend

What upper hull did that start out as? In the very first picture, I don't recognize that engine grill. And that turret was plain ugly before you started. Nice build.