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I've a couple tanks that sort of cover this, but I always wanted to do a Late - Early M4A1. This is the 1943 heavy duty M4 bogie, cast tranny and 75mm with the full rotor shield (M34A1) version. I have the 76 version and the composite.



My brother gave me the hull and I have no idea of the origin. It was set up for the Tamiya turret so first off I cut a turret ring out of an HL spare hull. Out of the dozen HL Shermans I have built or building, only three have used the HL upper. One of those was the Jumbo. Though the Priest is using the back half of one. The resin hull had a high point in the center of the ring so I added a spacer to the top of the turret ring and trimmed the lower to fit the HL turret and drive ring. Yes the nose will get some work for the narrow hatches (and other hull mods), but that may be a bit down the road. Today's work was really a stall waiting on the last of the DUKW parts to show (tomorrow).





Thankfully I have a supply of upper hulls and turrets to play with.



On to some turret mods. Low bustle, modified turret vent and early commander's hatch.

















I bought this lathe for tanking.





This is more of the aluminum .020 that appears in the Priest thread. Epoxied in the hatch and the small ring will slip on from the bottom to hold hatch in place and allow it to turn. Some guys print these, others order them but I wanted to take a shot at making one.



I also sanded down most of the blister that was on the later turret to fit the larger late commander's hatch.

I admire your work but I would go the easy way and buy Mato low bustle 75mm turret In my case loader's hatch and pistol port was removed.

Looks good! I love the M4A1s with cast hulls.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G970F met Tapatalk

Rear wall. Have three tanks with square air cleaners so I thought round ones would be nice on this one.



The shape of the cast hull makes it hard to deal with the upper trans cover mount, so I rigged this up.



It took several attempts to get the front end to my liking.



Thinned down Bondo and dabbed on with a stiff brush. It was also about here I realized I forgot the ventilator on the front right of the hull...



That's better!



A bunch of sanding and some primer...



Light guards and lifting rings.



Tools and barely peeking out, the exhaust tips.



Up next the hatch hinges and details....

i forgot, in that last picture... On the engine deck. black out lamps, I ran out of clear lenses for the Tamiya head lamps.

Really impressive work Eric, it's a hell of a conversion. I'm not usually much of a Sherman fan, but that small-hatch cast hull looks so sleek. The cast effect is top-notch, it conceals how serious and in-depth the surgery was.

Not a big deal but I did manage to make the periscopes able to turn. The periscope mounts came from my brother and I think they came with one of Nick's turrets.



A few details and some weathering to do yet, but this is just about complete. I moved the HL elevation mech to the opposite side of the turret giving room for the commander.

Hell yeah, now THATS a Sherman. All "back-o-da-bus" rough cast hull.
Love it.

Looks superb!

Nice curves!