- Joined
- Apr 28, 2018
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- 11,149
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- First Name
- Jakko
Here is the mostly complete engine deck:
Minus the stowage bins I’ve been talking about, of course, that Takom forgot:
(photo via John Tapsell)
All three are visible in that photo: an angled one on the front mudguard (it should also have a lid, missing here), a triangular one at the rear of the superstructure and a rectangular one behind.
The three bins Takom does supply are at the left rear of the superstructure, which is missing two tabs that hold it to the tank (the bits of white strip I added) and the two oddly-shaped ones on the rear corners. From these, it’s obvious that the sides of the overhanging part of the engine deck are too short: there was a gap between the two sides of the brackets holding the bins to the hull, so I filled it with a little plastic strip. The kit’s fire extinguishers were replaced by some leftover from Asuka Sherman kits, because they’re a little bit better in appearance.
Now let’s get geeky … notice the fuel filler cap covers. Takom supplies them like this:
If you look closely at my model, though, you can see I cut the pins short. This is because the long, curved pins are a feature of the M4 Sherman, not the M3 Lee/Grant, which almost invariably had short pins. Cutting the parts off just before the bend solves this nicely. (These pins hold the lids closed: pulling them out allows the lids to hinge open. The pins were retained by short chains, but I don’t think my modelling skills are up to adding those, given that I have nothing suitably to represent them with )
Minus the stowage bins I’ve been talking about, of course, that Takom forgot:
(photo via John Tapsell)
All three are visible in that photo: an angled one on the front mudguard (it should also have a lid, missing here), a triangular one at the rear of the superstructure and a rectangular one behind.
The three bins Takom does supply are at the left rear of the superstructure, which is missing two tabs that hold it to the tank (the bits of white strip I added) and the two oddly-shaped ones on the rear corners. From these, it’s obvious that the sides of the overhanging part of the engine deck are too short: there was a gap between the two sides of the brackets holding the bins to the hull, so I filled it with a little plastic strip. The kit’s fire extinguishers were replaced by some leftover from Asuka Sherman kits, because they’re a little bit better in appearance.
Now let’s get geeky … notice the fuel filler cap covers. Takom supplies them like this:
If you look closely at my model, though, you can see I cut the pins short. This is because the long, curved pins are a feature of the M4 Sherman, not the M3 Lee/Grant, which almost invariably had short pins. Cutting the parts off just before the bend solves this nicely. (These pins hold the lids closed: pulling them out allows the lids to hinge open. The pins were retained by short chains, but I don’t think my modelling skills are up to adding those, given that I have nothing suitably to represent them with )