Building and detailing the M4A3 Sherman tank in 1/30th scale (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth Osen]

I have been working on a small group of M4A3 75mm armed medium (Sherman) tanks for a collector friend using the Campaign Miniatures resin kit I developed while was still working at W. Britain. Now that I am retired I have the luxury of spending time building and refining these vehicle kits to a much higher standard of detail than was intended with the original release. The original thought was to make these easy to assemble and finish kits that would allow collectors to add more than one vehicle to a diorama marked for the same unit. I suppose I always felt that was the advantage of building and finishing your own vehicles, but I also understand that some folks just don’t have the time. I included a few photos of the vehicle as it would look if built as-is right out of the box. It really looks the part just with a nice paint job, and when used with figures and scenic accessories it fills an important gap in many WWII collections in 1/30th scale.

I also suspect that some may be intimidated trying to build and paint their own vehicle after seeing some of the excellent models routinely showing up on various modeling forums. But I think that with just basic modeling skills and a little practice almost anyone who wants to built a kit like this can get pretty nice results. I have been posting progress photos on my new Facebook page since retiring and moving to North Carolina and thought that some of you might be interested in seeing this build. I am weaving a story together that includes historical information combined with the techniques I am using during this project. I know that there are some very specific products now available for every possible step along the way, but I decided to proceed using fairly general products. I will try to post a new segment every few days, but for anyone that wishes to see everything to date feel free to visit my facebook page, Kenneth Osen The Gentleman Soldier.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Ken,

They look fantastic!

 

[Kenneth Osen]

A couple of years ago while working for W. Britain we decided to add some vehicles to our growing WWII collection. It seemed like everyone else in the collectibles industry was concentrating on every kind of vehicle the German army used, with little attention to the Allied armies. As we were focusing on the last few months of the war in western Europe it was pretty obvious that we should consider offering an M4 Sherman tank. Although we could have chosen any one of several models in that series that were deployed in combat at that time, the M4A3 with the new Ford GAA V8 motor seemed like the best choice. It became the preferred US Army version of the tank in both the 75mm and 76mm armed tanks, would see all the improvements and be the first hull type to take the HVSS suspension system into combat. The first production run of the GAA V8 engined M4A3 tanks were small hatch versions built by Ford, with most being used in the USA for training. With higher than expected tank losses during the Normandy Campaign some of these vehicles were rebuilt and sent to Europe and soldiered on to the end of the war side by side with newer variants. When Ford turned to other war work and the production was shifted to other makers the front hull was redesigned incorporating larger hatches for the driver and assistant driver/bow gunner and a change to the angle of the front plate to accommodate this new feature. This final variant of the hull would become the most iconic late war M4A3 armed with both the 75mm and 76mm guns and turrets. The M4A3 was produced in three factories with all turret types and armament with a total of 12,596 being built between June 42 and June of 45.
But back to modeling and how this project is a little different than the conventional approach. Part of our new product development process at W. Britain was to review the final components of any new project and then assemble them for painting in our studio. This allowed us to see how they worked with other parts of our collection and also allowed principle photography for packaging and website use. I have included one of those photos I took in this posting, and I think the various components worked together pretty well. When my co-worker Jef and I looked at the preassembled sub assemblies of the Sherman tank our first reaction was that the running gear assemblies looked great and we wished many of the 1/35th scale kits we had built could have been that fast and easy to complete. I am pretty sure that we are not the only modelers that hate removing parts from the plastic runners that kit components are molded on, and then cleaning them up before they can be put together. That is exactly what lead us to experiment with a 1/30th scale kit and the photo shows the result. This concept of pre-cleaned subassemblies eliminated the majority of the bench time required to identify, clean and assemble a tank model so you could get to the detailing and painting sooner, which honestly is the best part to me.
Some time after the finished models were released, I was commissioned to redecorate three of these M4A3 models to represent vehicles of a single unit operating together. I realized that building the kit versions for this project rather than stripping decals and redecorating finished models would allow me the opportunity to add additional details and individualize the stowage. The good news is that now that I have retired, most of the daily deadlines I had to deal with for over 30 years have been lifted. The benefit of this new reality is that I can now spend more time researching and incorporating the more creative elements of the process that I really enjoy. As this project advances I thought some of you might enjoy following the build, revisions, painting, weathering and the rational behind my choices. You can see that I have already applied new casting textures and am working on the hull welds with more details to be applied soon. I have to confess that I am enjoying this project so much that I am already thinking about detailing one of these kits for my own collection along with a fully realized scenic base. More to follow this week…

 

[Terp152]

Beautiful, thanks for posting.

 

[Kenneth Osen]

One of the first areas I wanted to detail on these Shermans was the suspension system. Although this party of the kit is nicely modeled, some omissions were made to facilitate production casting in Polyurethane resin. Thinking about it when you look at many models in smaller scales we have an omnipresent view which accentuates the upper surfaces, but as a result the lower areas of the model are not always as prominent. However it is very different when viewing the real vehicles as we are typically at ground level looking up and that lower area is far more visible. The M3 and much of the M4 series used three bogie assemblies per side consisting of a central casting that held two road wheels on suspension arms, vertical volute springs, a return roller and in the M4 series, a track support skid. There were four stages in the development of this assembly but visually they are very similar in appearance. This type of suspension is known as the Vertical Volute Springs System and this is the system that will be represented on this model. I have included a photo of a page from the WWII US Army maintenance manual TM 9-748 showing all of the components in the VVSS bogie for clarity.

I have been fortunate to watch a few M3 Stuarts and M4 Shermans traverse relatively soft ground and I am amazed how fast damp soil will collect on certain parts of the running gear. To illustrate this detail I have included a wartime photo of a muddy M4A3 and a close up of a restored Sherman Firefly that was parked on the square in Bastogne during the 80th Anniversary.



I want to replicate this subtle collection of earth on these models and to do it justice I decided to remove the resin web that was cast in the center of the track skids to facilitate the removable of parts from the silicone production molds. This was actually pretty easy to do using an electric hand piece and a carbide milling bit. The preassembled tracks have enough flex in them that I was able to put a piece of 3/32nd brass tubing in between the skid and the teeth of the track to provide clearance for the hand piece bit when milling out the resin web. After the inside of the skid was cleaned up I simply removed the tubing and the track returned to rest on top of the skid. While working on these kit components I noticed the omission of several nuts and bolt heads that I wanted to add to each of the bogie assemblies. That ended up being straight forward by using plastic moldings originally made by the well know model railroad company Grandt Line. Each one was super glued in the correct location and when painted and weathered will enhance the realism of the running gear. I had to scrounge thru my parts to find enough for all three models so I decided to order some more only to find out that the company is now owned by San Juan Details. The order is hopefully on the way so I will have parts for my next round of tank detailing.



I know that there are some fantastic kits ranging from 1/48th to 1/16th that may be far more detailed, but these tanks were specifically designed to work with the pre painted metal figures currently available in 1/30th scale. This is not to imply that any one is better than the other, but this one works for its intended market and most of the hard work is already done. I think that when these kits are detailed and finished they will look every bit the part too. As far as when I build my own Sherman, I think I will construct some German village building facades to depict a tank with supporting infantry entering an older town, maybe with a medieval town gate, but that is still up the road a bit… more soon…

 

[Kenneth Osen]

Here is a photo of the model bogie assembly with the skid web removed, the bolt heads added and in the case of the road wheels the Zerc fittings and relief hole depressions added. I added this detail to the C85163 Stamped Spoke wheels but in some orientations you cannot see them because that section is hidden by the support arm. Much of the suspension will have mud applied so this may have not been necessary to add but I know they are there. They were pretty easy to simulate by using a small round burr in my electric hand piece to create the depression and drilling a small hole in the center to accept a .20 round headed rivet head made by Tichy Train Group. I still need to add the simulated grease fitting to the idler wheel.

Apparently there were six different types of road wheels used during the war on vehicles equipped with Vertical Volute Suspension Systems and this is the style we chose to use in the W. Britain model. We did include a type D52861 Smooth Concave wheel in one of the accessory sets for some variety and I will add the same fittings to those if I use them as spares on any of the tanks.

The Zerk fitting is something my dad introduced me to when I was a kid as he explained to me how to use the grease gun he had. The unusual name came from the inventor Oscar U. Zerk who was granted a patent for the small ball check valve used in the high pressure lubricating system of the Alemite Manufacturing Corporation. This small fitting was less vulnerable to dirt and because of the shape was more forgiving to an angled approach of the flexible steel grease gun tip. These were pretty universally used in vehicles built in the mid twentieth century, and on tanks they are often easy to spot because of the grease stains left around the relief valve. I included a couple of photos showing both of the wheel styles mentioned on restored vehicles, and I think the telltale grease stains will make a nice detail on the finished models…