You don't need me to tell you this, but that is some seriously impressive craftsmanship. I appreciate your posting, and will follow with great interest. (And I'm not even that much of an "armor guy.")

WOW !!! I will be following this closely as well. And yes, I'm an Airplane guy. Someday I'll try my hand at Armor... Plastic only !!

The tank is ultra cool...but so is the rest of your "hobby shop"!!!!

That's a model!!!!!!!!!   Holy Cow dude!  You rock!  That is past impressive.  I can't wait to see the finished product!  Great job so far and I must also say, you have one rockin hobby room!

Eagle90

Wow, now that is something else!!!

Thanks guys, I made some more progress on the model, and completed the under hull details / revisions.




All of the lower hull weld lines were added, as well as the sponson access caps, and the fuel tank bracket fasteners. From what I have seen it appears that only the M4A4 has the row of external fasteners for the internal fuel tank bracket.



On the front portion of the tank I replaced the kit mounting bolts for the transmission cover. the kit uses allen cap screws for this procedure, however the real tank used hex bolts. This was a simple swap that helps the look of the tank.



the lower hull transmission bolts also were revised. The kit used the same cap screws for the mounting here too. In addition to swapping out the bolts I increased the number of bolts that were missing on the kit original.



Because the tank is RC all components are bolted the hull, then for detail the fasteners are covered up with bodywork. the added under hull details that were added include, the second front plate, escape hatch, rigidity strips, drain plugs, and engine access panels.





Because this is an early period tank I went with the rounded rigidity strips. The strips themselves are made out halved PVC tubes.



For the engine access panels I fabricated them out of resin, and added the set to the catalog.
http://eastcoastarmory.com/m4.htm

Last last mod that was made to the lower hull was in revising the rear wall. The armortek kit has a straight angle for the lower hull corner plate. This design is common on the other Sherman variants including the M4A3, M4, and M4A2.

However on the M4A4 the angled back is not correct, as all of the M4A4s that I have seen have a rounded back. To do the conversion was a simple fix. I removed a section from a PVC pipe, the pipe segment was then bolted to the angle plate on the kit.

the pipe's gaps and fastener locations were then eliminated and flared into the hull via body work. After the welds were added the conversion was complete. and seamless.

completed the work to the transmission cover.

As I mentioned in the last post the armortek kit is missing the top portion of the bolt strip. A new dummy strip was fabricated and mounted along with the cast numbers.

The strip itself is fabricated out of styrene and the flange parts are made out of tow sections of 1/8th inch thick styrene and are glued together to simulate and match the flange strips on the cover.

Also what was added was the bow M1919 mount. Because the kit was designed to be a firefly the 1919 mount was not present. This is because the firefly didn't have the co driver position as that compartment was used to hold ammo racks for the longer rounds of 17 pounder ammo. To back date the kit to a standard A4 I need to add the 1919 mount.

To add the mount I used a hole saw to cut out a plug from the aluminum plate, once removed I fabricated the 1919 mount out of a resin filled PVC pipe that was turned down on the lathe.

To install the new pipe I used the mounting hole form the original armortek firefly 1919 mount cover plug. after bolted on body work was added to the mount to flare it in. As the build goes on I will be revising this part improving it and making it more finalized. [

img]http://eastcoastarmory.com/forumpic/m4a4/back/DSC00945.JPG[/img]

The hull was then primed and had it's base coat of early period OD added.

coat I masked up the area of the final drive so that only primer is on the surface and not the base coat.

to make the mask for the final drive and was posted on youtube

http://youtu.be/PkKr-8i2WlU

another video update was made and added to youtube.

http://youtu.be/lbsLmLKg8So

also more pics were posted on the facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

I will now be turning my attention to the final drives, idler mounts, and the VVSS suspension...more to come!

I made some more progress on the tank,

the tank's final drives were added, the final drives like on all the armortek tanks have a CNCed final drive casing, a CNCed Steel drive gear, bearings and a rubber seal.

The final drives were very basic and no external detailing. What was added was the cast texture details and the integral cast disc.

Because of the CNC process there is a small burr on the gear, I always like to remove the burr, other than that the final drive was assembled as the instructions.

Before the gear is installed I lubricated the final gear with grease.

After the final drives were made, I then focused on the rear idler mounts. The kit final drives are all made out of CNC aluminum are one piece, and are very strong. They have the overall correct basic shape and size. 

To upgrade the kit parts I reworked the shape by adding the missing axle clamp, rough cast texture, cast number, and milled faced for the mounting fasteners.

After the reworks the mounts were remounted.

Because I reworked the lower portion of the idler mount I had to adjust the holes for the three clamp fasteners.

On these shermans the idler was adjusted and would be tightened into position via the three locking bolts that when tightened the mount would grab onto the axle

Also as of note every sherman that I have seen the center clamping bolt is not bolted on all the way and emerges slightly from the mount.  

After the mounts were added I then focused on the model's rear wall and rear wall detailing. One portion that was not supplied with the armortek kirt was the small sand guards that are found on the rear portion of the tank.

The guards themselves are fabricated out of sheet aluminum, and are bolted to the tank's hull via counter sunk fasteners.

body work covered up the fasteners and the was used for the welds.

once the sand guards were added I turned my attention to correcting the rear wall area on the tank.

I completed the work on the engine hatch. The hatch itself is the armortek one, The kit hatch is all CNC aluminum, and brass. The hatches have integral hinges and locking strip.

The hatch's integral strip is found on both hatches, this is inaccurate, to correct the hatch I milled away the two strips.

It was replaced with one Brass strip. The brass strip was mounted to the right hand hatch, and it was affixed via counter sunk fasteners. To conceal up the fasteners I used solder. A brass rod handle was also soldered to the strip. In addition to adding the strip I sculpted on the welds completing the hatch work.

The engine hatch hole that is pre cut into the rear plate is smaller that it should be. It's not a problem, but when I added the fasteners to the hatch they nuts made contact with the wall. Instead of just grinding down the area where the impact is, I enlarged the hole to the proper size.

Even though there is no engine detail, I can display the engine hatch in the open position for diorama use. Unlike other versions of the sherman family like the A3 which has the large fold able exhaust grill, the A4 has a clean exposed rear hatch area. Later on the A4 entered a rebuild phase where a folding grill was added, but this model is not being built to depict a tank from that period.

The wall on the armortek model ends too prematurely and is squared off. Because of this the lower hull rear wall is shorter than it should be. Also missing are the bulkheads witch thoroughly isolate the area  

to add the missing portions of the wall I fabricated an extender. the extender is made out of 1/8th inch thick lexan plastic, this material is the same thickness as the Aluminum hull plates. To affix the two plates together they are mounted to each other via straps and counter sunk fasteners that are concealed with the body work.

Built into the wall extender is the proper shape for the grill work. The M4A4 had a grill work layout that was similar to the M4, but was larger.

Before I can mount the meshwork I had to fabricate the mesh frame. The frame is made out of 1/4 inch Brass strip, that's all soldered together.

The frame is bolted to the tank. via small brass hex bolts and nuts. The mesh will be affixed later in the build when I get to the installation of the exhaust manifold system.

Currently I've been working on the VVSS suspension.

The majority of all the mods have been made, and they are currently being assembled.

I will more on the suspension in my next post.

An update video was posted on youtube,

http://youtu.be/zMvZYsZKGpc

More pics were also posted on the facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

More to come!

Your work always blows me away Armourguy!!  I can't even IMAGINE working on a 1/6 scale, scale thickness, full aluminum tank model!!  What do you do with these beasties once they're complete??  

Thanks Bufflehead, I usually store the completed model in the shop covered up with a tarp or old bedsheet to keep from getting dusty.

I've been slow with updates recently, with all of the orders and commission builds going on I have had little time for my own projects :S

I was able to complete and install the tank's suspension.

Like I mentioned in the last update post several surface mods were made to the armortek VVSS suspension.

The VVSS suspension on this version on the armortek sherman has almost the exact same layout of their first offering, but with a few minor differences. The biggest is that the bogie housing and the wheels on the first release was made out of cast aluminum, while this release utilizes CNCed Aluminum it their place. 

The CNCed parts are just as, if not more durable as their cast alloy predecessor. Some other improvements include Brass CNC slide rails for the H frame mount, as well as limit restricted swing arms and spring tension bolt cover caps. All of these were not present on the first release.

Besides the listed above the rest of the suspension parts were kept the same, and worked very well on the first release. This includes the Volute springs, return roller, skid rail, and H frame.

The armortek kit VVSS suspension is a solid well designed and proven unit, The unit is the right shape and scale, and assembles easily. You can mount the unit to the model OOB, and it will give a lifetime of reliable trouble free service. The unit was also a good base to start with to add the surface details resulting in the completed unit below.

To start the transformation I wanted to add the top bogie fastener wells.

On the real sherman bogie the bogie casting had two rectangular squares integrally casted into the top rear portion of the bogie to allow two fasteners to be fitted in to bolt the unit to the tank.

After marking the locations I first drill a hole to the proper depth, once the hole is drilled I then square off the round hole on the Mill.

The drill bit that I use is the same diameter as the hole which also saves time in squaring off the recess.

After the holes were added two small hex bolts were fitted. These bolts are for detail purposes only and are not needed for structural strength.

Another mod that was made to the bogie housing was adding the rear wrench wells. On the real sherman the rear portion of the bogie housing had recess casted into the housing to allow the mounting bolts and the wrench more clearance when installing the unit. To add this feature I milled away the needed material.

Because of the CNC machining process the bogie bodies have a squared off appearance to them. I decided to round off the bogie bodies on the belt sander to give them a more rounded edge look to them.

Another common feature that the bogie housing has on the real tank is that the roller mounting area features a milled center, and on top two elevated casted in mounts for the skid rail / roller mount to mount to. Rather than milling these details into the housing I instead added sheet streyne strips to the alluminum housing, as well as adding the other integrally molded in detail (rigidity nubs) to the body.

After the plastic parts were all added they were all blended into the bogie face via the body work. In addition to blending in the surfaces the bodywork also gave the bogies the cast texture appearance. In addition to the bodywork cast and foundry numbers were added to the parts.

The casting texture and foundry marks were also added to the other suspension parts as well including the swing arms, H frame, and roller mount.

Another feature that is common on the sherman bogies is depending on the foundry some bogies have a cast seam line that runs along the top portion of the unit. I built both seamed and seamless units into my model as having different foundry marks / features was common on these vehicles.

As I mentioned above the return roller mount uses the same design as the first release. That design uses two cap screws to Bolt together the roller shaft mount, and sandwiches the rigidity strip to the roller mount. On my model I replaced the cap screws with counter sunk Allen bolts to lower the profile of the fasteners which will help them blend in better with the bodywork. I only did this mod to the axles that are on the visible portion of the mount.

Once the bogie body mods were complete I turned my attention to the road wheels. The kit supplied wheels are all CNC and are very strong / durable.

Like the DML sherman the wheels have face detailing only.

Along with developing a DML wheel insert (coming monday ;) ) )I also tooled up and used a similar design for the Armortek sherman tank.

The pre sized insert simply drops into the wheel well filling up the space that was left in the kit. The wheel also has it's zerk fitting wells added.

Also included in the set are covers for the return roller fasteners, The set has been added to the sherman parts catalog, http://eastcoastarmory.com/m4.htm

Also added to the product line was the early war style mini rear fenders. The fenders are fabricated out of sheet metal, and are all soldered together. They will also work on other early war ear shermans such as the Viper.

The return rollers also had some detail improvements made to them. On the rollers I added the zerk fittings, collar detail, and I plugged the two plug holes. On the collar I recycled my resin Vantex bogie detail set collar for use on the armortek. To install I had to first machine in a recess into the wheel, to allow the resin collar to fit flush and out of the way from debris impact.

As for the plugs I snipped several lengths of 5/32nd brass rod and inserted the new pins into the pre drilled holes on the kit rollers.

Before everything gets assembled / installed the parts all get primmed, painted. In the case of the road wheels they also got their weathering as once they are installed getting access to them is more difficult.

Once all of the paint work is complete the suspension is affixed to the model.

A youtube video update was created showcasing the progress and discussing other details that I left out of this post, http://youtu.be/yQA4gP87SY0

Also more pics were posted on the facebook page,

http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

with the suspension now out of the way I can focus on working one the drive sprockets and the rear idlers. More progress to come!

Goodness gracious!

More progress was made on the sherman. The model's sprockets and idlers were mounted. The model's sprockets are almost identical to the sprockets on the first sherman release. The only difference between the two releases is that the teeth ring on the firefly release is made out of Aluminum while the first release was made out of steel. The sprockets are all bolt together assembly, and are very durable. To aid in the assembly of the sprockets I assemble a small length of track and use it as a timing guide. While the track is threaded onto the sprocket the track aligns the teeth perfectly. Once the bolts are tightened the track is removed and the sprocket is complete. After the sprockets are primed / painted they are mounted to the tank via the taper brush lock. The sprocket mounts on very smoothly and no mods are needed. The model's idlers were also mounted with few mods added. Like the Idler mounts on the tiger the adjustable rear idler mount is made out of Steel. They are strong and no mods are needed for this part. They were simply primed, painted, and weathered. Like the road wheels the Idler wheels are made out of CNCed Aluminum. They represent the stamped pattern idler wheel. The wheels feature both back and face details and basic zerk fitting wells. Like the road wheels the idlers have some tooling marks on them. The tooling marks were removed, and the zerk fitting wells were enlarged. To buff away the marks I utilized a dremel with a sandpaper cutting disc, and a Mill to enlarge the wells. Zerk fittings were also added. Before installation I added the weathering to the rear portions of the idler wheels as they will not be accessible when mounted to the tank. As of note, after installation I was doing some research and found out that there are no zerk fittings and wells on the rear portion of the idler. I will leave the wheel as is as the wheel rear detailing is not noticeable when the track is on and at proper tension. The wheels mount to the tank via a single bolt and disc. A small smear of thread lock and the idler is mounted. The kit also supplies you with a basic aluminum hubcap. In it's place I will be using one of my resin sherman hub caps. I also was able to rotate the hull to get access to weather the lower hull. Once the model progresses from this stage it will be very impracticable to get to this location on the model. A youtube update video was made for the project. http://youtu.be/jPn3pshiMpU more pics of the tank's progress have been added to the facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory The tank is now ready for it's mechanical innards. Once the tank is up and running I will have another update...more to come! Also To Everyone Have a merry Christmas!

This is insanely awesome!

absolutely brill, never seen anything like it.

Thanks Misty, It seems like ages since I had an update on this one, but I was able to make a significant amount of headway on this project. The tracks, motors, and electronics have been installed... and the tank is now running!

The large box with all of the RC equipment was sorted out and was installed to the tank. Starting with the tank's motors, Like all armortek models the tank uses two heavy duty 24V electric motors to propel the model.

These are the same motors that are used on the other heavier armortek german tanks, which perform very well. These units are also the new High efficiency units which have more engineering in them.

The come pre assembled with their gearbox and are ready to mount OOB. Before mounting a quick smear of grease was added and off they went.

After the motors were mounted it was then time to turn to the electronics.

Unlike my older RC sherman builds where I mounted the electronics to the bottom floor plate, because of the added under hull detailing this was not a viable option. So instead I designed a subfloor which is elevated off the floor plate and uses the fasteners from the under hull details to suspend and firmly mount the unit.

The subfloor is fabricated out of Lexan plastic and for strength Aluminum angle.

One key purpose for the subfloor is for the battery tray. This model (like all armoteks) will be using two 12V lead acid batteries wired in series to obtain 24V. Unlike my older builds in which I would have the batteries towards the rear of the tank, On this model they are located in the center of the vehicle. The advantage of this is that the weight is centered on the model's suspension, and in the event I need to replace the batteries they are in a easy to get location beneath the turret. To charge these cells a recharge jack will be fitted to the model.

For mounting the other electronic equipment I fabricated aluminum angle mounts. The Speed Controller and the aux. component controller are mounted to one of these frames, which is then bolted to the model's sponsons. For the fasteners I simply utilized the armortek kit fastener and fastener locations for mounting the new braces like an erector set. This system saves space, and doesn't touch the bottom floor pan.

This same system was utilized for mounting on the speaker system.

Because the speed controllers were mounted low in the hull in a cluster that freed up room towards the upper hull, I took advantage of this real estate by mounting the power supply box and sound system amp box on two elevated shelves.

These shelves allow me to mount the power supply to where the main power switch is located directly beneath the driver's hatch. To mount these shelves I simply adapted the holes that were pre drilled into the side plates by armortek. These holes are originally designed for the mounting of the kit supplied side armor plate slabs. Because this model will not be using these parts these holes were to be deleted anyway, so they were a perfect location for these two parts.

After the machinery were installed I then turned to assembling the tracks, This kit uses the same links from their 06 M4A3 release. These tracks are very durable and run very well.

The tracks assemble like the real sherman tank in that the tooth / pin clamp system is all bolt together assembly. Assembly was very time consuming, but therapeutic at the same time .

the only change from the 06 release is that the small pin clamp on this version is made out of CNC Aluminum, while on the older release it was a small pressed steel plate. The new unit is more realistic in appearance, and it is amazing how such small precise parts can be made in such volume!

After the track was assembled it was time to take the tank out for it's maiden test run. I temporarily pinned the top deck in place and off I went.

The tank made it's paces in the snow and performed well on the ice.

Two youtube videos were made showing the unboxing of the electronics

http://youtu.be/RGEuuyhY2Ys

and of the mode's electronics and test run.

http://youtu.be/1D77BqCJubw

More pics were also added to the facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

With the tank running and with the sound system working properly I can now focus on the recharge system, smoke, and other added functions... More to come!

sitting here with a stupid big grin on my face watching the monster trundle around in the snow. reminds me of the motorised tanks i built when i was a kid but on a mahoosive scale. i soooo want one but cant get anyone to buy the wife off me.

More progress has been made on the model.

The models smoke system has been assembled and mounted.

For the smoke system I went with the armortek smoke unit. The armortek unit is a nicely constructed accessory that is all plug and play with their RC system.

The system comes unassembled, but it is all pre wired, and assembled easily and quickly and is made out of high quality components

When assembling the unit I like to seal all crevasses and seams with silicone. The silicone seals off any gaps that can lead smoke to seep out, and to only force the smoke / blower air to exit through the plumbing.

For generating the heat the system uses a heating filament from a industrial soldering iron. One design feature I like is that the filament is connected to a shut off switch so you can run the tank without the smoke. This also saves wear and tear on the system.

The kit includes all the plumbing for arranging the smoke system. The kit doesn't not come with the actual detail exhaust manifolds. For the manifolds themselves I fabricated them out of my resin M4 sherman exhaust manifolds.

The resin exhaust tips were hollowed out on the mill, and a press bent aluminium tube.

For connecting the thinner tube to the larger PVC adapter tube I recycled a spent 8mm mauser shell casing. The shell casing was a perfect fit for connecting the two tubes together.

To modify the casing I simply cut off the bottom portion of the shell and assembled the rest of the unit together.

the manifolds were painted / weathered and were mounted to the tank. After they were mounted I also mounted the rear screen work. All plumbing and screen work was mounted to the model via silicone. The reason why I went with this medium was because in case I need to get access to the system for maintenance I can remove and disassemble everything without causing damage.

Another addition I made to the tank was the addition of the smoke system throttle control box. This unit is a drop in addition from Adrian ( sales@armortekaddict.co.uk ),

With this simple add on the smoke system is synced with the sound system and emits the appropriate amount of smoke with the sound (less smoke for engine idle, and more smoke for revving)

Idle

revving


It was at this point I mounted the rear engine hatch doors.

For the door pins I fabricated a set of pins from Hex bolts. The hex heads were rounded off giving them a pin appearance.

Like all of my RC tanks I built i a refueling system into the model. The system uses a RC fuel pump, and the pump was patched into the armortek power supply. The pump is only used to refill the system and uses a long tube. The purpose of the system and the long hose is because of the smoke fluid I want to minimize the chance of the fluid making contact with the model's surface, and possibly ruing the finish.

In addition to the pump I was also able to make the rear control panel. Because of the rear engine deck engine hatch, I have ample access to this location. This location is where I mounted the smoke system controls, (refueling, filament power cut off) and the tank's recharge jack system.

For the recharge jack I utilized a switch set up where I plug in the jacks to the tank, and hit the switch to charge. When charging is complete I hit the switch and pull out the jacks and I'm ready to go.

Battery not charging


Battery charging

A youtube video was made with the progress, http://youtu.be/3LPSDdrlV5E

More pics were also posted on the facebook page,
http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

With this system now complete I'm going to be working on the Bow MG, and sealing up the tank to move on to the turret...More to come!

That's hilarious TD. As I was looking at the pics, I said "That's insanely cool." And then I came across your comment. Great minds, or something like that, I suppose. But it is really amazing.

Now I know why I never bought from Armortek. O.K., it WAS the money! Great job so far. If that primer is the same stuff we used on 1:1 helo's I used to build, that's tuff stuff. Very cool! Good use of spent brass also.

Damn thats got more tech in it than the real thing! awesome.

Man,that is just some awesome work,would love to see that thing in action.How much will the finished model weigh ?

Yeah, that' s just plain out awesome, looking forward to seeing her in action.

This is simply jaw !!! Mind blowing to say the least.

Thanks guys, For an armortek the weight is much lighter than the german tanks. The finished model weighs in at around 150 or so lbs.  The King tiger I have from them is closer to 450lbs. 

It's been awhile since I posted any updates, but I made a lot of progress on the model completing most of the front portion of the vehicle.

Once all the work was completed in the last update it was time to start buttoning up the tank. For this I started with the front half of the tank due to the work needed for the bow hatches.

For the bow hatches the kit supplies you with two CNCed aluminum billets that have roughly the right shape and size of the wide welled early hatch blister. The kit also supplied you with a basic set of hatches

The blisters are a similar design from their first sherman release, only the units on the first model were made out of a hollow cast white metal alloy. Since these are solid billet they are much easier to rework and alter.

For the bow hatches I will be using one of my own early sherman hatch sets. to make my hatches fit better on the stock wells I enlarged the hatch well recess via the mill, also milled into the billet was the recess for the backup periscope. The Stock machined hinges were deleted as they will not be needed as I will be using the resin ones instead.

The squared off shape of the wells were rounded off with a few passes of the belt sander.

once the wells were revised it was time to mount them to the upper deck. The pieces themselves mounted perfectly with the stock fasteners and no fitting required.After the wells were added I also added on the bullet splash rim. these parts were also OOB. The only mod that I made was adding the water drain hole to the rear bullet splash rim corner (Pics to follow)

On this version of the sherman Armortek revised the upper deck design from their first release. On the first release M4A3 the deck was one plate of Sheet steel, this deck had two small triangular sections which needed to be affixed the the deck (either with straps and fasteners or welding). On this version of the kit the deck is aluminum and comes in two complete sections which makes it a lot easier to install. For extra support I fabricated two brass straps that will connect the two halves via countersunk fasteners.

these straps were added before the splash guards were added. The strap fasteners were blended in with the bodywork and are no longer visible. they will be connected with corresponding mounting holes on the rear plate. This will be done after the rear deck is mounted.

After the straps were fabricated I turned my attention to the turret rotation system. The kit supplied system was built OOB and assembles very easily.

After the rotation motor was mounted I turned my attention to the brass turret bushing. The bushing is a common feature found on the armortek kits and is very effective at ensuring smooth operation of the turret.

On all my builds I like to mount the ring to the upper deck via counter sunk fasteners. By doing this that ensures the bearing to stay in it's place allowing the turret to glide over it during operation.

One these armortek shermans I encountered that the ring will make contact with the turret turning gear, which will not allow the ring to seat fully.

A simple fix was to remove a small section of the ring allowing clearance with the gear. All burrs and corners were removed and buffed smooth.

Once removed the ring slipped on like clockwork

Once the top deck was installed I then completed the front hatch area with the bodywork.

On these early sloped shermans the front plate was constructed out of 5 parts, two rolled steel sides and three cast units. The bodywork completes the illusion of the hatch wells blending everything together making it resemble the real unit. Once everything was blended smooth cast texture was added to all the appropriate cast plate units.

The resin hatch hinge was thoroughly blended into the cast surface.

In addition to the hatch wells I also built up and completed the Bow M1919 section. Like the hatch wells on these early style shermans the entire plate containing the M1919 ball equipment was casted on a long rectangular plate.

Because this kit was a firefly the kit was not designed to have the M1919. On the firefly they removed the assistant driver location for use of more ammo for the 17 pounder gun. In it's place a large steel rectangular plug was placed on the hole. As I mentioned earlier in the build the well was all fabricated out of resin, PVC and epoxy bodywork.

For the M1919 ball unit I used the resin set from panzerwerks, I've used these sets in the past and they are highly recommended. The MG ball was hooked up the a servo and pivots on demand.

As a side note, because I ordered the kit as an M4A4 Armortek did throw in an Armorpax white metal M1919 ball set (special thanks to Armortek). The armorpax version is also very nice and would have been used, but by the time I noticed that they supplied the parts I already had the Panzerwerk version fitted. The armorpax set will be put in storage and will be used on my next sherman build...which shouldn't be too far off lol.

After the front hull rework I then added most of the front hull details. These details are off the shelf ECA and include the head lights, lift hooks.

One new addition to the ECA catalog is the addition of the early sherman hull front antenna base mount.

http://eastcoastarmory.com/m4.htm

As for the headlights themselves they have been rigged to light via an LED. To better make the LED fit in the resin headlight housing I turned down the front portion of the led on the lathe.

Before I fitted the LEDs to the resin housing I first painted the entire searchlight silver, then Black on the exterior. The purpose of this is to insulate the resin casting and to remove the chance of the resin part "glowing" after the bright light is activated. Once all paint is dry the LED was fitted and mounted to the vehicle.

The lights on this model I configured to operate remotely. a remote activation switch was fabricated, along with a cut off so I can use the same channel for more than one operation... more on that to follow ;)

More pics were posted on the ECA facebook page http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

and a video update was posted on youtube
http://youtu.be/RPQE-TN40N8

Now with this out of the way I have started finishing up the rear deck once fitted I will then be able to focus on the turret... more to come ;)

Do the Sherman turrets turn faster than the tiger's for accuracy? Bob

The electronics look to be the same, but because of the sherman turret's smaller size, lower weight  / mass they tend to spin faster on these kits then on the German counter parts. This also applies to the gun elevation, the shorter 75mm gun moves a lot more effortlessly then the larger german guns with that heavy gun muzzle on the end. 

Thanks armourguy, don't know why I asked that. By the way love that "hey, Kelly, it's getting hotter than h**, in here..." avatar. :) Bob

Thanks bob, 

More progress has been made and the tank is another step closer to completion. 

Since the last post the rear deck was mounted,

Before I was able to mount the deck to the tank I first had to add the etch lines for the rear plates. On the armortek shermans the rear deck is one pressed metal pan. Because of this the panel lines that are found the real tank are not present. To add them I etch them into the plate with a Dremel. Before I add the lines I mark where the lines go, and use tape as a guide

with a steady hand the lines are etched, Once the lines were etched the interior of the plate was primed and painted in flat white, then was added to the tank

Once the rear deck was fitted I was now ready to add on the rear deck components. This would include the fuel cap guards, rear lift hook, and rear vents. For the guards the kit supplies you with two CNCed aluminum ones that work very well. 

All the bullet splash guards received cast textureing, welds, and their drainage holes. All that will be added to complete the look will be the cast numbers, which will be added as the build continues

The rear hull blower was also mounted, for the part I swapped out the kit original for one of my own. 

Just like with the rear blower I swapped out the basic kit supplied vent, lift hook, and front blowers with my own sets. 

On the tank's bow hull I completed the tin work. This would include the front fenders and the brush guards. 

The kit supplied fenders were swapped out for one of my own sets. The fenders are all soldered together and are mounted to the tank's fender mounts via fasteners like the real unit. 

The kit supplied brush guards were not compatible with my head lights so I fabricated a new set that works better for them. Like on all my tanks the guards are all soldered together and have the plunger canister mounted to them. Chains and plunger detail to be added later.

The tank's siren was also mounted. For this tank I went with a different style siren then I normally use. Rather than using my funnel horn I went with the Panzerwerk resin unit instead. 

Because of the early period style tank I want to represent the larger panzerwerk siren was a more accurate choice. Also Unlike all my other shermans the siren is not mounted to the hull, or has a brushguard. Instead it is mounted to the front fender

Mounting the siren here is another early war / production trait, Because of the high vulnerability of the siren getting damaged in this location it was moved from this spot to the front hull where it would be protected by the caged brush guard. Like the real one the part itself is attached to the fender via a fastener.

The M1919 Tarpaulin rail was also affixed to the tank, welds will be sculpted soon.

Work was also stared on the turret. this is the biggest difference from my model than the other armortek firefly kits. When I purchased the kit I requested that the kit firefly turret and gun be swapped out from the turret and gun from thier 05 release early M4A3. 

The turret itself is all one piece aluminum casting, has real cast texture to it and has a very realistic feel to it. The turret has a cooking pot resemblance.

The turret's floor is made out of laser cut steel and is comprised of the floor, turret neck and the turret rotation gear ring. the parts are very nice and assemble easily. Before prime and paint I simply hit the surface with an Emory cloth to buff away any surface rust that was present.

Once complete the parts were painted and installed. The only addition was adding lock washers to the fasteners

After a few small tweaks to the bullet splash rim the turret plops into place and rotates on control.

a youtube video was made describing the updates in more detail, 

http://youtu.be/9whWNO5Ic0E

More pics were also added to the facebook page, 

http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

Currently I'm working on the gun and turret. I got lots of plans for this part of the build, and will also have some new early period sherman parts to add to the catalog, As for what they are, here is a sneek peek ;)

More to come!

More progress was made on the model

The 75mm conversion / gun work has been made and completed, It is at this point where my model is different from the other 24 other firefly kits produced, which are all 17 pounder equipped tanks.

When I received the kit it had a mixture of gun parts from the older 75mm kit and the current 17lber firefly

There were not enough parts to build the complete elevation unit for either design, but with the parts supplied I was able to cobble together a Frankenstein design that utilizes parts from both kits

Like I mentioned earlier when purchasing the kit I specially requested to have the turret and equipment swapped with the 75mm version. This also included the kit's M34D mantlet and rotor drum. The kit original parts are very nice assemble easy and were one of my favorite parts from the first kit.

Unfortunately because of the time period that I'm building the tank for, the M34D mantlet was not developed yet, so I will not be using it on the model <:^( . In it's place I fabricated the early war period M34 mantlet and rotor drum.

The earlier design of the M34 has the gun protected by a smaller thinner mantlet.

There were several different variations of this style of mantlet, of which these versions are currently in development. This set however has been added to the catalog. http://eastcoastarmory.com/m4.htm

The set is designed to be compatible with the Armortek components / kits, but the parts can also be adapted for use on any other 1/6th scale sherman model... like for backdating a viper, vantex M4, or for backdating.. the new DML firefly to a composite hulled M4 ;)

While on the 75mm barrel I smoothed out the barrel's small cnc marks with some Emory cloth. to speed up the process I placed the barrel into the lathe

another part of the barrel that I tweaked was the barrel's front. Like with the German tanks the kit's barrel has muzzle break threads located on the barrel's front tip. but unlike the later 76mm gun the 75 never received a muzzle break so the threads are not needed.

To improve the look I developed a resin plug tip that slips in the barrel and gives a more scaled thickness, and the detail of the emergency cross hair groves,

Once added and blended in the barrel was primed and mounted to the trunion along with the other elevation parts

For the elevation motor system the kit was supplied with the newer style.

Because of the longer trunion on the older kit the motor needed to be mounted lower on the motor mount. To to this I simply drilled a new hole lower on the mount and fitted the motor upside down.

On this build I also wanted to do something different than my usual RC tank. For this build I wanted to have the model be able to have a functional main gun. For this feature I wanted to install into the tank an airsoft gun. For the firing unit I went and acquired the bb firing unit from the Heng Long 1/16th scale tanks,

The unit was left stock with no added mods. A standard airsoft barrel was acquired from ebay and fitted. Once fitted I modded the unit to mount to the armortek bracket, and to have a hopper devise for the bbs. For the hopper I used an empty tin of mints

some advantages of the tin is that it has a nice low squat shape that saves space in the cramp confines of the turret, and it has a convenient open able lid that keeps the bbs from getting loose and running amok on the interior.

to help with the alignment and mounting I machined a few spacers for the barrel so the firing unit is centered in the tank's gun barrel and fires straight out the front. The elevation limit switches were also fitted at this time

To fire the gun an simple remote firing system was fabricated using a servo and an impact switch. a manual kill switch was also added for safety. the unit is also powered by a separate battery source. that is carried on board

Just prior to mounting to the tank, I added the coax M1919 MG. For the barrel itself I used the Panzerwerk resin one as I mentioned before are highly recommended

To add more to the realism I was able to make the M1919 elevate with the main gun simultaneously. This was done by attaching the gun to the one pivot screw. The screw pivots with the mantlet, and since it's the pivot point the M1919 when attached will move true and seamlessly. It's a very simplistic feature that is low profile and passive. No extra servos or equipment is needed.

http://eastcoastarmory.com/forumpic/m4a4/gun/DSC01469.JPG[/img]

For installation of the unit, I replaced the kit recommended hex bolts for domed slot screws. Because it's not easy to find metric slot screws this size I swapped out the metric for standard. The screws themselves I find in Radio Shack.

After the installation of the gun I decided it was time for a another road test. With the turret and hull weights now basically established I can set the track tension and chew up some lawn... which these VVSS have a knack on doing ;)

Then after a nice Sunday drive I hosed off the lower portion and got the tank back in the shop and on the lift to continue construction.

More pics were put on the facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

and update videos were added to youtube.

http://youtu.be/ZJNoKPROUiA

http://youtu.be/B4Xn4p5taac

Currently I'm adding some more functions to the turret. More to come!

This is sooooo darn cool