Some would say he needs to be committed, but not me! HaHaHa!

Ha Ha Ha ... Good stuff Jeff 🙂 🙂 Love it. You guys crack me up.

I was hoping that this adventure wasn't going to be too bad... so I got busy.

And started looking at just how I was going to perform the surgery, while still keeping the details. If you look closely at this "after" picture, I'm pointing at the bolts with a tooth pick...

which held the suspension truck in place on the hull of a real life Sherman. The Tamiya M-3 suspension did not have this feature...here again I'm using the old trusty toothpick as a pointer.

NO turning back now... after I cut away the suspension on the right side of the tank. The next step was to sand the cut marks down nice and flat. I didn't care about getting it smooth, since it was going to be a glue joint later. Flat and level was the key here...

Ended up I was pleased that I glued the snot out of the original suspension parts when I attached them to the hull on this one. Otherwise they probably would have snapped off when I was cutting them away...

After a little while I had a small pile of old Sherman suspension parts... which was gradually growing in size.

The Tamiya M-3 truck needed some surgery too before I could use them. The one on the right is box stock after it was removed from the donor kit. The one on the left after I modified it by cutting away a flat tab that ran along the bottom. Then it was sanded down nice and flat too...

Here's a close up of how the truck needed to look before I could glue them in place...All six truck suspension assemblies had to be modified in this manner.

Then it was test fit time... to see if my ideas would work. So I held my breath, said a prayer and danced for the rain to stop... Then I temporarily placed it in position.

and it fit !

Here's a view as seen from under the tanks belly... I wanted to ensure the details were preserved here too, since the earlier M-3 parts were lacking here.

Once I was happy how things were going, I went ahead and glued the M-3 suspension parts in place...

To make sure the suspension was level, and that all road wheels were in alignment, I placed the tank on it's road wheels for a few and made small adjustments while the glue was still drying.

Then let things set up a little while as we ate dinner.

After dinner was finished, I repeated the sequence on the other side...
and ended up with this:

and this: a larger pile of old Sherman suspension parts. Do not worry though... These road wheels and support rollers will be used on the next Sherman build. So all was not lost in vain.

After surgery, the Sherman now looks complete, and proper with the older style M-3 suspension trucks with the return roller centered directly above the truck.

I'm very pleased with how this turned out... The surgery was a success, the patient lived, and I still had all of my fingers.

I couldn't resist, so the turret was placed back on...

Getting closer...

Comments are encouraged.

Thanks Tom... and you know what ? You're correct. I would be thinking that every time I saw it and wishing that I would have corrected the problem.

So now I can rest a little easier... 🙂

I installed the tracks to make sure the suspension height was correct / road wheels straight and centered...and I think I nailed it...

See what you think...

I'm stoked to say the least.

A few more little things to do and this one will be done. I still have to paint the M2 Browning .050 (AKA "Ma Deuce"), OVM tools, install them, and dust this one up considerably to make it look like it has been in the desert...

Getting closer...

Comments are encouraged.

Bravo, Louis ! Among your other numerous talents, you're a surgeon. And a VERY good one, I might add !

You really nailed it, Bud - those pesky roadwheels are all lined up straight. And unlike Germany, Kansas, & Kentucky (the NON-desert places I got to play tank a lot) the desert is relatively flat. While I was in the Saudi/Iraq/Kuwait desert, I found that on an M1 tank -
which is about 10 feet tall, we were about 9 feet taller than anything around us !

Great job on the tank and especially the roadwheel bogies.

This is why I don't do armour! A marvellous bit of modelling - and it comes from knowing your subject inside out! It is looking fantastic - and you're well over the hump. Thanks for the lesson, Louis - learning so much here as ever!

Looking really, really nice, Louis! It's going to be fabulous!

Thanks guys for the encouragement.

This morning I got some more done with the OVM tools. To begin with I trimmed the attachment points and got everything ready for paint.

Once this was done I painted the gun metal on.

Then while the gun metal was drying I painted the helmets on the remaining two crew members.

By now the gun metal had dried so I glued on the parts that were ready for installation.


Next I painted the wooden handles. This is a base color and later after the paint dries I will come back and add some wood grain using a darker color and dry brushing it on.

I had to see how the tools looked so I placed the turret back on.

I'm very happy with the results so far today.

I hope that I can get this one done later tonight.

As usual comments are encouraged.