[D-Day] M32 ARV

[Ecam]

Perhaps not on the beach on the sixth, but soon after.





I wasn't even aware of this unit before Sassgrunt pointed it out in my M4A1 build thread. Yes there is a kit available but I like scratch building. I chose this because it has a functional crane (and I enjoyed building the DUKW crane).

Skip the rest of this if you don't care for some info behind the ARV.

These 1600ish M32 series were almost all rebuilds, so almost all of these were narrow hatch units (the exception being a few M32B2s built for the USMC - new production units).

The bulk of them were based on the cast hull M4A1, but I don't want to waste a hard to find cast hull on this one. All had a 60,000 lb winch that the cable could be sent out the front of the hull, top front of turret and the rear of the turret. The pilots were designated T5 series and a relative high number of the pilots were built. These are the approximate number of the four series:

T-------M-----Based on---Produced
T5-----M32-------M4-------163
T5E1--M32B1----M4A1----1085
T5E2--M32B2----M4A2----26
T5E3--M32B3----M4A3----344

[Ecam]

I chose the M32 based on the M4 (radial engine, welded hull). For D-Day, it is likely that these and the M32B1 (cast hull) were the only ones available. The others in the series probably showed up after D-day in the fall of '44 through the end of the war.

I got started early this morning. Have three Tamiya upper hulls, 47 degree wide hatch M4s. One of them I had robbed the fenders for a build several years ago, so I chose this hull. The Heng Long upper to Tamiya lower is a simple/easy swap. Tammy to HL is a bunch more work (mostly trimming the lower to fit the upper, then turret ring if using a non Tamiya turret.). Have not ordered my M4A3 yet so I will borrow the M10's lower for now until it arrives.

I've built several scratch builds but all have used plans of some sort to build. This time around, I will use pictures and what I can find on the net to construct this one (for instance I found measurements for the crane boom that when scaled to 1/16 ends up with 11/32 beams x 13.5 inches long).

To make the narrow hatch conversion the front glacis needs to be inclined/reclined back to 57 degrees from vertical compared to the 47 degrees of the later wide hatch units.

[Kaczor]

Great subject I hope that someday early Sherman hulls of any type will be available (some Chinese manufacturers have already announced this).

[Ecam]

That would be great. I'll do my best to convert this one.

[Ecam]

Trimmed out around the turret lip to get rid of the casting on the wide hatch hull. Simple 1.5mm card for the front glacis and then created the turret rings. Added some Bondo around the turret risers and added direct viewing covers. The applique armor is simply set in place in the picture (but were on most of these conversions). The Bondo color change is due to the new hardener I bought when I ran out of the red/pink (still the same gallon).

[ColemanCollector]

This should be cool. There's alot goin' on on that thang!

Mike.

[Ecam]

Yeah, I generally don't add much luggage to my builds, but this one kind of demands it. Herman Bix inspired this one with his Bergepanzer. And there are so many variations as to what they carried and where they were placed. They were used for a long while after 1945 and I'm sure that is part of the reason for the varieties.

Working on the "turret" now, may get some of those pics up later tonight or early tomorrow.

[MrChef]

You have already succeeded in getting me interested in a Sherman. That is a huge deal as I’m not a Sherman fan.

Keep it rolling. I look forward to your progress.

Anton

[Kaczor]

Nice job with small hatches!

[Ad Lav]

Great start and a cool subject