M4 (105 mm) HVSS

1
October 28, 2024
Many of the parts for this model: Asuka HVSS suspension and tracks (ordered direct from their web shop), Armoured Brigade Models M4 late upper hull, Formations M4 sponson fillers
2
October 28, 2024
Most of the rest of the parts: Asuka M4 Composite lower hull and HVSS mudguards (again purchased as spares), Armoured Brigade Models 105 mm turret, and Formations final drive housing (though I may end up not using that).
3
October 28, 2024
Lower hull constructed with some modifications: I first filed chamfered notches into the lower edge, which HVSS tanks had, and then removed the plates that the VVSS bogies mount on. Because of trying different ways to do this, I ended up with holes in the left side, and those needed filling a little with plastic strip.

However: the smart way would have been to buy an Asuka M4A3 HVSS lower hull instead of that for the M4 Composite. I picked the latter because this model will be of an M4, but it needed so much work that changing an M4A3 into an M4 would have been a lot less effort.
4
October 28, 2024
This is why the plastic strip is there: the HVSS bogies don’t cover the holes completely.
5
October 28, 2024
Bogies built, minus the wheels. The order of construction from the instructions is awkward, though: much easier is to build the bracket (B2/B3/B12) first, put the suspension arms B13 onto it and secure them with B10, and only then put in first the springs B6 and finally the shock absorber B14. You won’t need three hands that way.
6
October 29, 2024
The resin upper hull clearly isn’t meant to fit an Asuka lower hull.
7
October 29, 2024
I had to trim the upright parts quite a bit to get it to sit properly: about a millimetre off both sides of the firewall and 2 to 2.5 mm from the tops of all the plates that stick up above ther lower hull sides.
8
October 29, 2024
For the sharp nose, I used a Dragon nose, Asuka sides and a bolt strip of unknown origin. (This mainly because my first plan of turning a rounded nose into a sharp one didn’t work out as intended.)
9
October 29, 2024
The Dragon nose is about 1 mm too narrow, but because the Asuka side plates don’t fit all the way inside, they make up that difference quite nicely. They do leave large gaps, of course, as the photo shows.
10
October 29, 2024
The gaps filled with putty, then textured with thinned putty and a stiff brush. Before doing that, I sanded away some of the moulded-on texture on the grey nose because it was a bit heavy.
11
October 30, 2024
Nose attached to the hull, and the bolt heads that got obliterated restored with a hex punch-and-die set. I also added the steps and the pins for the tow cables to the towing lugs on the nose.
12
November 2, 2024
The Armoured Brigade Models turret (bottom) compared to one from Asuka. The ABM one is clearly longer, and that prevents it from fitting correctly on the hull: it won’t fit between the splash guard at the front and the lid over the air intake at the back. In fact, the whole underside of the ABM turret is oval, not round, and is slightly narrower than the Asuka turret side-to-side but longer front-to-back.
13
November 2, 2024
To get it to fit, I filed about a millimetre off the front of the turret and half a millimetre at the back, and now it sits reasonably well. Not well enough to turn, and getting the interior parts in correctly will be difficult, so I’m not going to use those at all.
14
November 2, 2024
On the hull front, I cut down the bullet deflectors at the top of the glacis because they were narrower on the tanks I’m building this model of, added plastic strip to make an upper edge to the glacis, replaced the machine-gun cover mounting strip by one from Asuka, sanded away the lifting eyes locating points, and moved the hinges for the gun crutch over to the left a little.
15
November 2, 2024
On the back deck, I used Asuka filler caps simply because they’re easier to clean up than the resin ones, and an Asuka ventilator because the resin one has an incorrect bolt pattern.
16
November 10, 2024
The ABM hull has no sponson floors, and I first wanted to use Formations ones intended for the Tamiya M4 kit, but it would be a lot of work to make them fit. Instead, I built a ledge from plastic strip to fit a plastic card sponson floors against.
17
November 10, 2024
And the sponson floor itself fitted, from 0.75 mm plastic card. Without the ledge from the previous photo, it would be hard to make it sit straight and level, so a bit of added work there saves a lot of work on the floor itself.
18
November 11, 2024
The Asuka M4A3 HVSS mudguards are too long for the M4 hull.
19
November 11, 2024
I cut a little bit off the rear section and then cut down the front section enough so the rear one fits. (Why not cut the back end off instead? Because on the real thing, the supports that will go in the little dimples are much closer together at the join on the M4 than on the M4A3.)
20
November 11, 2024
The return roller supports glued to the hull. Their positions come from measuring an Asuka M4A3 HVSS I built a few years ago.
21
November 12, 2024
Hull with mudguards attached.
22
November 12, 2024
Comparison of this model with an M4A3 HVSS hull to show the difference in length between the mudguards.
23
November 17, 2024
Basic shape of the deep-wading gear: large front plate, two plates on each side of it, and larger plates underneath for the bit that goes below the hull overhang.
24
November 17, 2024
Back and rear made by add an oversize piece of 0.13 mm plate along the edges of the side plates. I had to add a curve approximately in the middle before glueing it, to get it to sit better. The bulges top and bottom will get resolved later.
25
November 17, 2024
By using an oversized piece, you can trim it to size/shape once the glue has set, which is much simpler than trying to make a plate of the correct shape and size AND getting that to fit as it should.
26
November 17, 2024
In place on the hull rear (without glue).
27
November 18, 2024
After puttying and sanding the seams, I painted the inside matt black and began adding strip around the top, first flat and then upright. Those latter ones still need to be trimmed to size.
28
November 20, 2024
Trunk finished with more plastic strip, and attached to the hull.
29
November 20, 2024
The tapered part on the underside is conjecture, as I couldn’t find any photos showing this area on the real tank, but something like it must have been there to cover the engine access doors.
30
November 22, 2024
Hull front with most of the details. The light and horn guards are 3D printed (maker unknown), but I wasn’t impressed by them — they’re no better than Asuka plastic parts but took much longer to clea
31
November 22, 2024
Rear deck with tools (Asuka and probably RFM) and air scoops (Asuka with RFM etched gratings). The olive drab paint is in the areas I expect will be hard to reach with the airbrush later.
32
November 22, 2024
Turret placed on the hull so I could work out the angle for the howitzer barrel. The travel lock is temporarily held in place with some Blu-Tack.
33
November 22, 2024
Top view to show that the howitzer is off-centre in the turret, which is why I had to move the supports for the travel lock, as shown earlier.
34
November 25, 2024
Tools fitted to the engine deck, except for the ones that would be covered by the sandbags I’ll add after this.
35
November 25, 2024
Front of the turret with details that show it actually represents a late 105 mm turret: the little blocks around the strip to which the canvas cover foe the mantlet attaches,
36
November 25, 2024
As this model will represent a very early version, the blocks had to go. Earlier, I also removed the cover that’s over the gunner’s periscope for the same reason.
37
November 27, 2024
Canvas cover on the mantlet made from Magic Sculp.
38
November 27, 2024
Four crew figures, from MiniArt (the grey ones), Asuka (left) and Tamiya, with some modifications from Magic Sculp.
39
November 28, 2024
Overall shot of where we stand now.
40
November 28, 2024
I took the tow cable off and replaced it with a thinner one, with different eyes to match. I also had to replace the clamps by ones from Tiger Models.
41
November 28, 2024
Turret with most of the detail parts added, though some still need to be done.
42
December 3, 2024
The Tiger Models covered-up machine gun turns out to be wrong for the Okinawa tanks, which had the gun covered in a simple tarp. I found this old Italeri one instead, whose lack of detail makes it a good candidate to be covered up completely.
43
December 3, 2024
For the brush guard on the gunner’s periscope, I drilled holes and glued in brass rod for the legs (deliberately too long); next to the turret is the rectangular top piece that will be attached top the legs.
44
December 3, 2024
After bending the legs inward I glued the rectangle between them, which was NOT a fun job. They will be cut to length once the glue has thoroughly dried.
45
December 3, 2024
Antenna made from a MIG base, 0.3 mm spring steel wire and 0.8 mm florist’s wire to anchor it into the turret (later).
46
December 5, 2024
Brush guard over the gunner’s periscope finished, and the commander’s hatch too.
47
December 5, 2024
Sandbags from Sylmasta A+B putty on the engine deck, and I also made a holes through the exhaust duct because I (finally) noticed it in a photo today — I had been wondering how they started the tanks with the duct attached, and those holes provide the answer.
48
December 7, 2024
Turns out that on the real tank, there was a pipe through the wading duct for the starting crank. I cut some 2.4 mm brass tube and glued it into the holes I made the other day. I also replaced the bits of strip in the duct opening by some rod a little lower down, as the strips were not correct for the M4/M4A1.
49
December 8, 2024
Spare track links added to the hull sides, with retention clips made from plastic strip and punched bolt heads.
50
December 8, 2024
Assembling the tracks. Just put two outsides together, put a drop of glue where the yellow arrows indicate, and press the inner part on.

The red circles indicate something I noticed too late: that the kit includes spare links with retention clips already. The track kept coming apart at this link because the spares have no pins, so I removed it and replaced it with a regular link (good thing the glue wasn’t dry yet …).
51
December 8, 2024
The blanket rack for the back of the hull, resin parts by (I think) Formations. The rack for stowing gun-cleaning rods is made from plastic strip, and will remain empty because real 105 mm Shermans didn’t carry those rods there but to the left of the engine deck.
52
December 11, 2024
Last bits added to the hull front: mirrors and the barrel support. The mirrors are from Italeri, probably from a Sherman (but I’m not sure 🙂).
53
December 11, 2024
Infantry telephone added at the rear, from rectangular plastic tube with some card and rod.
54
December 11, 2024
And one track finished, 77 links as per Asuka’s instructions for one of the kits that includes these.

Komentáre

26 28 October, 12:02

gorby
Looks like an interesting project.

1 30 October, 07:56

Jakko ‌
So far it's certainly been interesting 🙂 It's that I already had these parts and decided on this before Asuka announced their M4A3 (105 mm) kit, but I would advise anyone else wanting an M4 (105 mm) to just buy that kit and order an M4 engine deck from Asuka to put into it … (And make some other modifications, of course, like changing the rear hull to match.)

30 October, 09:30

Villiers de Vos
The texturing came out very nice.

1 30 October, 09:38

Jakko ‌
Thanks. I just hope it matches up with the molded pattern reasonably well once there's some paint over it 🙂

30 October, 12:34

Ben M
👀

1 3 November, 00:47

Pepe
Inside

1 18 November, 20:56

Villiers de Vos
Nice scratch building work.

1 19 November, 03:15

Pietro De Angelis
Fantastic scratching work,
i'm also admiring it on missing-lynx,
congrats!

1 19 November, 09:17

Jakko ‌
Thanks, guys 🙂 I wasn't going to add the wading trunk, but then I hit my head and decided to anyway … 😉

19 November, 09:53

Danny Ray
You're like like a Messi compared to my Sunday league footballer in modelling terms. I mean, I even made a couple of mistakes on a recent airfix vintage kit 😇😂😂😂

1 24 November, 17:52

Jakko ‌
Thanks, but I'm nowhere in the Messi leagues — more like messy leagues 🙂

2 24 November, 18:23

Danny Ray
😂

25 November, 09:29

David Taylor
Following.

1 4 December, 16:24

Shar Dipree
Following

1 8 December, 20:56

Mr D
Nice project.. taking shape nicely 👍

2 8 December, 21:06

Michael Kohl
Nice detailing going on here.

2 11 December, 22:52

Jakko ‌
Thanks. It's almost done — I just need to wrap up the stowed .50-calibre machine gun and construction should be finished … I hope 🙂

12 December, 09:58

Danny Ray
You love your M4's don't you? 🙂 good stuff again Jakko

By the way I thought I was very clever yesterday. I thought "oh the M7 'Priest' was obviously put on top of an M4 chassis. Then I realised the 'pulpit' MG nest is actually the bit above the side sponson of the main gun on an M3 Lee/Grant.
That'll teach me to open my gob when I have no idea what I'm saying! 😂

1 14 December, 10:31

Jakko ‌
I have certainly gotten rather more enamoured of M4s (and M3 mediums) over the last five or six years than I was before, yes 🙂

The 105 mm HMC M7 is basically an M3 medium tank (a Lee, in British terms) with the superstructure removed, the driver moved over to the left side of the transmission (instead of sitting on top of it), and a new superstructure added to accommodate the 105 mm howitzer. This does put the .50-calibre machine gun pretty much where the 75 mm gun was on the M3, yes.

1 14 December, 12:03

Danny Ray
Love how you can always provide more info on all things AFV!
You might be able to help me with something. Did a co-driver on an M4 fire the machine gun? Not the big .50 cal on top but the (what calibre was the internal MG?) one inside, next to the main gun? I think my grandfather said he did but we only actually spoke about his war experiences a couple of times and he was, in general, a very private man. I only recall one time where he spoke at length and that was when he had been drinking. A bit macabre but he told me of a driver (not sure if it was his tank or in his squad) where a German plane had strafed them and by an unbelievable strike of bad luck, a round went directly thru an open hatch and literally decapitated him. Little wonder he didn't like to talk about it all really.

1 14 December, 18:09

Jakko ‌
Yes, the assistant driver fired the bow machine gun, which was an M1919A4 of .30 calibre (7.62×66 mm). This appears to have been his main job (outside of helping with maintenance etc.) because there are exactly zero actual driving controls on the right-hand side of the tank. It's not too surprising, really, that in the 17-pounder Shermans, he got replaced by ammunition stowage.

1 14 December, 18:25

Danny Ray
How about crusaders? Did they have dual controls? As I've previously said, I really wish my grandfather was still here so I could ask him all about his tanker? Tanking? days!

14 December, 23:45

Jakko ‌
No, Crusaders had a driver on the right and, in early ones, a machine-gun turret on the left. Most crews soon left that unoccupied because it was very cramped and the gunner would choke on the fumes if he actually fired the gun, so it was deleted partway through the Mk. II production run, and was also removed from tanks already in service.

15 December, 09:32

Danny Ray
Actually I did read that somewhere. Said it got unbelievably hot in the tiny turret in the desert conditions too!

1 15 December, 23:34

Mr D
Taking shape nicely now Jakko, good work 👌👍👍

2 16 December, 15:27

Album info

Kitbashing a bunch of parts and conversion sets into what will hopefully be a decent enough model.

M4 (105 mm) HVSS on Okinawa

54 snímky

1:35

Prebieha

1:35 105mm Sherman Howitzer Turret (Armoured Brigade Models ABM002)

1:35 Late Production M4 105mm Sherman Upper Hull Conversion (Armoured Brigade Models ABM003)

1:35 WWII US Antenas (Ammo by Mig Jimenez A.MIG-8902)

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