Jakko
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2024
- Messages
- 112
After I finish building the Piranha what-if I'm currently working on, which should hopefully not be too much longer, I intend to start on what will be a fairly major kitbash-conversion. There are plenty of Sherman kits you can buy, but oddly, it's difficult to get a late-model M4 ("A0") unless you're happy to settle for a Dragon kit, which I'm not really 
I much prefer Asuka Shermans, but they only do M4 Composites ("M4 Hybrid" to the British), which have a cast hull front with the rest of the hull welded, not a late-model M4 hull that's all-welded. I guess this is because there were really only two variants of the Sherman that were built like that: with a 105 mm howitzer and VVS suspension, and the same with HVSS — it was never produced with a 75 or 76 mm gun. Asuka has only just released an M4A3 with 105 mm howitzer, so the explanation is probably that they simply didn't have the parts for this model of M4.
However, last year I bought a box full of somebody's Sherman spare parts, which appear to have been mainly intended for building an M4 (105 mm) VVSS using a Tamiya Sherman as the basis. I decided to make use of them but with Asuka parts instead, given that they're so much better than the old Tamiya parts. A few months ago, I ordered some spares straight from Asuka in Japan to build this model:
In the first photo is a full set of Asuka HVSS including T66 tracks, as well as a resin M4 hull and all (I hope ) of its detail parts from Armoured Brigade Models, like I said intended for the Tamiya kit. The second photo has an Asuka M4 Composite lower hull and a sprue with more HVSS parts, plus a resin 105 mm turret also from Armoured Brigade Models, complete with interior that I'm not sure yet I'll use, and a final drive housing from Formations (though I may instead use an Asuka round-nose one instead, modified to be sharp-nosed — again, not sure yet). All of the resin parts came from the Sherman spares I bought, and the previous owner had already started on the turret, as you can see. It will probably take more parts from my Sherman spares box to build this, but I think that's up to the challenge:
It's going to be a US Army tank on Okinawa in 1945, like the ones in the background in this photo:
The tanks at the front are M4 Composites (with 75 mm guns and VVSS, because all Composites were like that), the one at far right in the background is a large-hatch M4 (75 mm) VVSS, and all the others on the ridge line at the back are M4 (105 mm) HVSS tanks, all with T66 tracks except the tank to the right of No. 6, which has T80 tracks. Most have the remains of deep-wading gear on the hull rear, but I'm not going to add that, because I kind of want to show the hull rear too. I will add sandbags on the engine deck, though, because it will make the model more interesting.
I much prefer Asuka Shermans, but they only do M4 Composites ("M4 Hybrid" to the British), which have a cast hull front with the rest of the hull welded, not a late-model M4 hull that's all-welded. I guess this is because there were really only two variants of the Sherman that were built like that: with a 105 mm howitzer and VVS suspension, and the same with HVSS — it was never produced with a 75 or 76 mm gun. Asuka has only just released an M4A3 with 105 mm howitzer, so the explanation is probably that they simply didn't have the parts for this model of M4.However, last year I bought a box full of somebody's Sherman spare parts, which appear to have been mainly intended for building an M4 (105 mm) VVSS using a Tamiya Sherman as the basis. I decided to make use of them but with Asuka parts instead, given that they're so much better than the old Tamiya parts. A few months ago, I ordered some spares straight from Asuka in Japan to build this model:
In the first photo is a full set of Asuka HVSS including T66 tracks, as well as a resin M4 hull and all (I hope
) of its detail parts from Armoured Brigade Models, like I said intended for the Tamiya kit. The second photo has an Asuka M4 Composite lower hull and a sprue with more HVSS parts, plus a resin 105 mm turret also from Armoured Brigade Models, complete with interior that I'm not sure yet I'll use, and a final drive housing from Formations (though I may instead use an Asuka round-nose one instead, modified to be sharp-nosed — again, not sure yet). All of the resin parts came from the Sherman spares I bought, and the previous owner had already started on the turret, as you can see. It will probably take more parts from my Sherman spares box to build this, but I think that's up to the challenge:It's going to be a US Army tank on Okinawa in 1945, like the ones in the background in this photo:
The tanks at the front are M4 Composites (with 75 mm guns and VVSS, because all Composites were like that), the one at far right in the background is a large-hatch M4 (75 mm) VVSS, and all the others on the ridge line at the back are M4 (105 mm) HVSS tanks, all with T66 tracks except the tank to the right of No. 6, which has T80 tracks. Most have the remains of deep-wading gear on the hull rear, but I'm not going to add that, because I kind of want to show the hull rear too. I will add sandbags on the engine deck, though, because it will make the model more interesting.
