Thread gestartet von Jakko

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M4 (105 mm) HVSS
1:35
And one track finished, 77 links as per Asuka’s instructions for one of the kits that includes these.
Projekt: M4 (105 mm) HVSS on Okinawa
27 28 October 2024, 12:02

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 2024, 09:30

Thanks. I just hope it matches up with the molded pattern reasonably well once there's some paint over it 🙂
30 October 2024, 12:34

Fantastic scratching work,
i'm also admiring it on missing-lynx,
congrats!
1 19 November 2024, 09:17

Thanks, guys 🙂 I wasn't going to add the wading trunk, but then I hit my head and decided to anyway … 😉
19 November 2024, 09:53

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 2024, 17:52

Thanks, but I'm nowhere in the Messi leagues — more like messy leagues 🙂
2 24 November 2024, 18:23

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 2024, 09:58

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 2024, 10:31

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 2024, 12:03

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 2024, 18:09

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 2024, 18:25

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 2024, 23:45

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 2024, 09:32

Actually I did read that somewhere. Said it got unbelievably hot in the tiny turret in the desert conditions too!
1 15 December 2024, 23:34