On a Sherman trip … M4A3E2 now

[Jakko]

I’m nearly finished with building an M4A3 (76) HVSS, so I guess it’s almost time to start on the next one:



As a bit of history, in early 1944, the Americans figured they needed a heavily armoured “assault tank” — which the British had been telling them for about a year or so at that point. They decided to add some extra armour plate to the hull of their standard medium tank, the M4A3 (the later version with steep glacis plate, big hull hatches and “wet” ammo stowage bins). To go on top of this, they quickly designed a semi-new turret based on the one selected for the 76-mm-armed M4s, but again with thicker armour and carrying the standard 75-mm gun M3. These tanks were not ready in time for the Normandy landings, as all 254 were produced in May, June and July at Fisher Tank Arsenal in Flint, Michigan, USA, and then took a few months to get shipped over to Europe, so they only appear on photos dating from the autumn of 1944 at the earliest. In early 1945, about a hundred tanks were re-armed with the 76-mm gun in field workshops, which was easy enough because the gun mount was almost the same as in the 76-mm tanks.

And a side note, that these tanks are properly designated “M4A3E2”, unlike the Shermans with the later suspension that people habitually call “M4A3E8”. The E indicates an experimental variant, and the M4A3E8 was just that: when it went into production, it was standardised and lost the “E8”. The M4A3E2, however, was never actually standardised but ordered as a series of “experimental” vehicles, to avoid bureaucracy for what was seen as a very necessary tank to get into service.

So what do you get in the box?



As seems to be typical for Asuka (from the four kits of theirs I have, all Shermans), there are a lot of smallish sprues with detail parts, plus some larger ones with the main bits. The whole kit design is very modular, allowing them to produce kits of different versions by swapping out some sprues for others needed for the variant in question.

One thing I noticed is that the sprues with the wheels and suspension bogies are different from those I got with the M4A4 kit: those had dish-shaped wheels (officially the D52861) where this kit has the “closed spoke” type (D52876) in their place — though the backs for the dish-shaped wheels are still on the sprue. As I like the dish-shaped wheels more, I’ll use these spares from those earlier kits instead:



Also, there are two full sprues for the cupola, periscopes and headlamp glass, one green and one clear (I took the green cupola out for my HVSS model, though) and two more of these sprues with more periscopes, both green and clear.

 

[Jakko]

Made a start by building the basic hull:



Unlike many manufacturers, Asuka provides this as flat plates: floor, sides, sponson bottoms, etc. It’s all very well-moulded and fits perfectly, but you have to make sure you align them properly first. The instructions explain it very well, though.

I also made up the exhaust grille, and couldn’t help compare it to the Tamiya one from the M4A3 (76) HVSS. I was quite impressed by the latter, but am even more so by the Asuka counterpart:



Asuka on the left, Tamiya on the right — see the difference in thicknesses. The Tamiya one is easier to assemble, because it has locating pins and grooves that the Asuka parts lack, but if you pay a little attention it all goes together easily enough anyway.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Interesting. Always enjoy your builds. I can't remember seeing an Asuka kit built.
Jim

 

[Steven000]

Looks interesting
looking forward to the next stages
Steven

 

[Jakko]

Always enjoy your builds.

Finally someone who does!

I can't remember seeing an Asuka kit built.

One of the two Crabs I built was also an Asuka kit (They’re both still unfinished, largely because I can’t find a good way to do the flail chains.)

Looks interesting
looking forward to the next stages

This one won’t be anything special, it’ll be mostly straight from the box with very few additions other than a change of wheels and perhaps a few other parts. This kit is well-detailed enough that it doesn’t need much added, IMHO, and I certainly don’t feel like major scratchbuilding for the moment

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looks like this will be a good one, so I’ll keep an eye out if I may.

 

[Jakko]

I’m certainly not going to stop you

On the rear hull, I installed the exhaust grille. The instructions tell you to leave it loose, as it could hinge up into the upper hull on the real tank, but I decided to glue it in the down position. This isn’t very secure, though, so I put some bits of scrap plastic above it so it can’t get pushed in:



It could still swing out, of course, but I’m trusting that the glue will hold the grill to those blocks as well

In addition to adding the detail parts to the lower hull, I assembled the later-inaccessible bits for the upper hull (that’s just the hinges for the drivers’ hatches and the machine gun, really) and glued it onto the lower:



The instructions tell you to shave off all the “profiles” (they mean details) on the front hull, which is why it’s scarred in the photo. This is necessary because otherwise the additional armour plates won’t fit.

After that, I was already at the stage where those plates can be added:

 

[Graeme C.]

Your builds are always educational Jakko, I'll pull up a chair.

 

[Jakko]

If it’s educational I want, let me offer a lesson on what not to do Spot the bit where things went wrong …



The parts that the feet of the gun crutch go into, need to be glued to the posts on the glacis plate. When I was cleaning up the first one, it went flying. I spent about 15 minutes looking for it, but as I only had a rough idea where it went and my hobby room isn’t exactly a minimalist cleanroom, I had no luck whatsoever I also don’t have any in my spares box, so I now have the fun prospect of scratchbuilding a replacement.

 

[Steven000]

That's a small part to look for indeed, I would suggest to keep looking though
Goodluck!

 

[adt70hk]

Hi Jakko

Looking good so far but sorry to hear you managed to lose a piece.

On another point, I noticed your comment above about not finishing the crab versions because couldn't find any chains. I previously bought some brass link chains from RB Models and I see they still sell them. Not sure if you've seen them before but wondered if they might help? https://www.rbmodel.com/index.php?action=products&group=134

Keep up the good work.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[john hutton]

Hi Jakko, i know zero about American/Allied vehicles so thought a post with plenty of backup info would be ideal, so here i am ready for any tips. Shame that part seems to have gone to the carpet monster though. Push on mate
John.

 

[Jakko]

That's a small part to look for indeed, I would suggest to keep looking though

Maybe I should post a photo of the area where I think it went

Looking good so far but sorry to hear you managed to lose a piece.

Not the first time, but I don’t usually lose pieces that are as difficult as this one to build a replacement for. I think I may look some more before trying to build a replacement …

On another point, I noticed your comment above about not finishing the crab versions because couldn't find any chains. I previously bought some brass link chains from RB Models and I see they still sell them.

If only it were that easy There were Crabs that had simple, standard chain, but the Crab I’m building had the most complicated type instead. This looked like a very heavy-duty bicycle chain for the top half, while the lower end consisted (basically) of very elongated D-clasps, flat bars with holes at the ends and rings …

i know zero about American/Allied vehicles so thought a post with plenty of backup info would be ideal, so here i am

I’ll try to provide some more where relevant, then In the case, for example, the little pillar that the missing part goes on top of, is there because the gun crutch is a standard Sherman part, but it wouldn’t reach the gun tube on the M4A3E2, so they just stuck some spacers underneath.

 

[Jakko]

The strips to which the sand shields attached are provided as plastic parts, but four of the six parts have rounded protrusions moulded on where the ejection pins are, and the other two have hollows:



The rounded bits may be visible, so I had to cut them away. I also opened up all the holes with an 0.4 mm drill, which was easy enough but quite tedious for 25 holes per side.

The back end is mostly finished now:



This is all straight from the box, except for the track links, that are from AFV Club — no good for putting around the wheels, but they go fine into the rack on the back. This because the Asuka ones have a hollow moulded into the back, that would be visible from some angles.

What this still needs is straps for the tools, that aren’t in the kit.

 

[Jakko]

In Dutch there’s a saying, een geluk bij een ongeluk — loosely, “having luck in an accident”. I was painting my M4A3 HVSS and knocked a small bit off, that fell to the ground. While searching for it, I came across:—



… the escaped gun crutch hinge! Despite having searched for it for at least half an hour, I hadn’t spotted it. Now, looking for something else, I did. Needless to say, I stuck it onto the model before continuing my search for the other bit, which I eventually found too.

I also made the commander’s cupola, using the Tamiya parts from the M4A3 HVSS because it looked like it looks a little better



I painted the inside white, then added the glass, but unfortunately, Humbrol Clearfix dissolves acrylic paint, so I’ve ended up with glass with white paint on it. I hope I’ll be able to get some of it off still, though I had already intended to make one of the glass bits appear damaged, as if by a bullet hit, so maybe I’ll just do that with both of the ones that are worst off.

If all else fails, I still have the entirely clear cupola from the AFV Club kit to use instead.

 

[JR]

Great that you found the missing part, quite evident that the carpet monster didn't think much to it, and was waiting for a juicer morsel.

 

[Jakko]

The worst part of it is that I don’t even have carpet in my hobby room, but linoleum …

 

[Jakko]

The turret is very well reproduced, with great casting texture over most of it. Of course, it’s in two halves and made in a multi-part mould, so there are some lines to clean up. Asuka also didn’t add texture to the rear sides, probably due to moulding limitations, so out came the putty, thinner and a cheap brush (the great double-sided one from the starter set group build ) to let me add the missing texture:



For the Shermanophiles, the turret is the type with the rounded lower sides, not the straight ones that were also produced.

I also built the suspension:



It has mostly the dish-shaped wheels, that don’t come in this particular kit but I had almost two full sets spare from other Asuka kits. These wheels appear on M4A3E2 tanks in photos (as well as other Shermans) so it’s entirely plausible for the model to have them: they had hubs with larger-diameter, stronger bearings, which helped with the added weight of this variant of the Sherman. For variety, I also added a regular spoked wheel, which is common on Shermans later in the war when damaged wheels were replaced with whatever type was at hand of the two, three, or even more types available at the time.

Into the fronts of the bogies, I drilled four holes using a home-made template (thick plastic card with four holes in it and some “ribs” to allow me to position it on the bogie). These are because the bogies on both sides were identical, with the return roller and track skid on top being bolted on differently depending on the side of the tank the bogie was on. I also added a bolt head on the top of the return roller bracket. This should be on both sides, but I left it off on the inside because it will hardly be visible.

 

[Jakko]

I see I forgot to mention that I used a lathe to turn down the wheels, in order to get rid of the central moulding seam. This, unfortunately, didn’t work for the spoked wheel: every time I tried, the wheel slipped on the screw I used to hold in into the lathe, and stopped spinning. This happened with every wheel I tried (I have even more spares of those than the dish-shaped ones — every Asuka Sherman comes with three full sets of wheels ) no matter how tightly I tried to get it onto that screw, so I gave up and did it by hand instead. I also had to do the idler wheels by hand because they don’t have a hole going all the way through them, making it almost impossible to put them into a lathe and have enough surface exposed to actually turn them down.

You can do all of them by hand, of course, but this will leave you with a very sore thumb, is my experience. The best way, I found, is to clamp the wheel in a modeller’s vice with about half the tyre exposed, then scrape it down with a knife; release and repeat until the whole tyre is done.

Also, I was intending to damage the tyres by taking chips out of them. I decided to take a good look at photos of Shermans in the field first, and noticed that they usually appear to have had virtually undamaged tyres — at least in Europe. The only pictures I found showing badly damaged tyres were on US Marine Corps tanks in the Pacific, which probably shows they were rather further down on the list for receiving spare parts than the US Army was.

 

[Jim R]

so I now have the fun prospect of scratchbuilding a replacement.

..... and that is when you'll find the original part.
Jim