Anne's M4A3 Sherman GPM

[romanmodels]

nice sprockets

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear Ann:
Ok what are you edge coloring with and how did you match the color so well?
Envious
Miles
Hope you get to go back to work soon, Before the birds take over the conservation dept.

[Mike1158]

Being an ex tanker means that a well made tank model will always appeal, and this does that in spades. Massively impressed with your build and standards.

[Amccombs3]

Originally Posted by Miles Linnabery

Dear Ann:
Ok what are you edge coloring with and how did you match the color so well?
Envious
Miles
Hope you get to go back to work soon, Before the birds take over the conservation dept.

Thanks for the good thoughts, Miles. I started with Model Master acrylic in Olive Drab ANA 613, which is a great match recommended to me by Kevin. However, I didn’t get along well with the paint’s consistency — it dried too fast, became stringy/rubbery, and was a pain to clean out of my brush. So I switched to a Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Aquarelle water soluble wax pastel crayon, in Raw Umber. Not as perfect a match but pretty close, and easy to work with. It sits in a coffee cup filled with lentils as a holder (I would have used something like aquarium gravel, but didn’t have any handy). I paint it on with a 00000 brush.

Kevin, I’m not sure which parts you are remembering, but these return rollers/idler/whatever have lots more than 3 parts each. They encompass parts 18-18h, 19, 20-20c and 21-21i. That includes the mounting bracket and something that appears to be a tensioner assembly. They’re not as complex as the bogies, and at least there are only 2, left and right, but they will take some time to laminate, cut out, edge-color, and assemble. I’ve been puzzling over GPM’s diagram and it’s in the “Um, I *think* I get it” stage.

Many thanks to all for the kind comments.

[jaffro]

Originally Posted by Amccombs3

I’ve been puzzling over GPM’s diagram and it’s in the “Um, I *think* I get it” stage.

Ahh, so I'm not the only one who gets that. It's funny how some of these kit instructions can make absolutely no sense at all when you first look at them, then you look at them some more, look at pictures of other people's builds, diagrams of other nearby parts etc, then all of a sudden you have that epiphany and it all makes sense. That's why I now take pictures from multiple angles of everything, hoping they might help someone else building the same kit in future.

Nice work so far on the Sherman, looking forward to seeing more.

[jagolden01]

Been following your build since it started. Spectaculars job.
Yeah, frequently build diagrams can leave a lot to be desired and have you scratching your head or laying awake in the middle of the night.
Best diagrams I ever worked with were a 1:16 GPM Panzer IV. They were quite clear in most respects.
As stated above study the diagrams, parts and surrounding parts and that epiphany will come.

JoeG

[Amccombs3]

It's amazing what you can get done when you basically have nothing else going on. I've cut out all the parts for the idler/return roller assembly, shown in the first photo. Edge-coloring and assembly to follow. Parts on the bottom left will become the mounting bracket, which has reinforcing ribs (the tiny strips). The upper left parts will become the tensioner, and the right group will be the two rollers themselves. Their construction is similar to the road wheels.

The second photo is of the main assembly diagram. This is the one I've been studying with great attention. The last picture gives some idea of how the bracket and tensioner go together onto the hull. There is a third, side view of the bracket, but it doesn't add anything to one's understanding.

As with the sprockets, GPM has supplied a paper axle, which is part 21i in the second diagram. Since it appears to be approximately 2 mm in diameter and has no means of retention, I assume GPM intends it only for alignment, not as a functioning axle for rotation. Even when I glue everything together, the surface area supporting the roller is pretty small, being equal to the surface area of 18d which is no more than 1/4 inch the long way.

With any luck, I may start assembly tomorrow.

[Amccombs3]

The last two days have been all about return-roller assembly, much of it with small parts. Yesterday I put the tiny ribs onto the mounting bracket, and built up the bracket where the axle goes. The instructions did not say to laminate the parts that build up the axle boss, but I did laminate them onto the one-asterisk thickness cardboard, and that worked perfectly, so I recommend that. Those are the oval bits at the top of the two bottom pieces (assembly 18) in the first photo.

The two top assemblies in the first photo are what I thought were tensioners, assembly 20. They have tiny hexagonal nuts, but despite somewhat confusing instructions, they went together well. I now think that on a real Sherman, they might be for centering the tracking of the roller (in the inboard-outboard direction), but I could be wrong -- I don't really know a lot about tanks.

My one major error was when I was building up the roller hubs, shown in the second photo. As may be seen, they are not symmetrical; the white area, which will be the centerline of the roller, is off center. And I managed to put to put the end disks at the wrong ends on the first one. With VERY careful use of a brand-new #11 blade, I was able to take it apart and reassemble it successfully. Whew! After that, the rest of the roller assembly went smoothly (last photo). Fit was pretty good aside from having to sand the inside diameter of parts 21, the rims.

I wasn't gong to even try to make the paper axle, but since a toothpick was the right diameter, I made wood axles to support the connection of the rollers to the mounting brackets (not shown) They are glued into the mounting brackets (ass'y 18); I'll glue the rollers to them when I put the tracks on.

Speaking of the tracks . . . The instructions say to build the tracks next, even though their parts are numbered 127-127d. They are band tracks, not individual links, but there are a LOT of teeth and tread pieces. Happily, only the latter are laminated for thickness. So I guess that's where I'm headed next. There may not be an update for quite a while with all the repetitive cutting. Will the government shutdown end before I cut out all the pieces? Will I go completely insane? Time will tell.

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by Amccombs3

T With VERY careful use of a brand-new #11 blade

The god of papermodelling requires regular blood sacrifice else the instructions will become incomprehensible and the glue will cease to adhere. The ideal sacrifice is a new #11 blade in a
handle which rolls off the workspace and embeds the blade in the modeller's thigh - a lesser, but still acceptable sacrifice, is the embedding of a blade in the modeller's ankle.

Charlie

[hrogers]

I'm Lost in words !! - Can't wait to see the rest of the build !!
Well done so far!