Wow, in some of your photos I'd swear I was looking at the real thing on the production line!

I love the ability to shoot BBs!

More progress on the model was made and the tank is another step closer to the finish line.

All the functions have been completed, this includes the turret and the hull functions.

With the functions now out of the way, the project's back has been broken and it is all down hill external detailing from here.

Like on my last RC sherman build I added the function of the pivoting loader's periscope. The kit has a nice milled recess for the periscope. To make the unit pivot I modded one of my resin periscopes to rotate on a sleeve plug.

The sleeve was then epoxied to the interior of the turret.

The scope is hooked up with the turret rotation function and pivots when the turret is activated. This function gives a little more animation to the model.

The last function that I added to the turret was the functional gunner's scope.

The gunner's scope on the sherman like with most tanks is connected to the tank's main gun... and elevates and depresses with the gun in unison. I wanted to add this feature to my build as it helps with the accuracy of the tank, and is something that I haven't seen done before.

The top plate was retained as it was the correct size and shape, only mods made were the addition of more fasteners and the split line detailing. The turret already has a nice divot in the casting and a securing plate for the scope.

The scope notch was drilled out, and pivot mounts were also added. For the scope itself I modded a spare panzerwerk periscope and fitted it to a rotor drum, finally for the top hatch door I used one of my resin periscope covers. To pivot with the scope the molded in hinge was removed and in it's place micro hinges were used.

As for the hookup I simply used a connecting rod to hook the system to the gun. this way like the real tank it moves in sequence and because it's passive no extra electronics are needed and saves interior space.

The last function that was added to the hull was the addition of the taillights. For the taillights I used one of my own sets, along with a set of my tail light brush guards

Like on my other builds I modded the LED to fit snugly into the tight recess of the taillight.

The lights were patched into the headlight circuit and works along with the other lights

After the last of the functions were added I started to comb through and add the remaining exterior detailing.  So far the front portion of the vehicle.

Starting with the sprocket, since the test drives showed that the sprocket needed no adjustments I fabricated a cover cap for the center fastener.

the cover cap was fabricated out of a thin sheet of brass. By being so thin it covers up the fastener and keeps the recess that is found on the center of the Sherman sprocket.

On the front plate the cast numbers, foot rest, welds, foul weather driving hood clips and the bow hatches were all added.

I used my early sherman hatches for the model, like with my other builds I used the panzerwerk periscopes. The interior portion of the hatches were painted and weathered

One mod that I made to the hatches though was the removal of the counter weight assist spring and mounts. Because this tank is being built as such an early vehicle these springs were not developed at this time. It is also because of this reason why I didn't add the brush guards to the periscopes on this tank... as they would be anachronistic.

On the tank's rear deck I added the fuel cover caps. The caps on this tank were supplied with the kit and they are from armorpax. They are very nice, easy to build and are fully functional. They were assembled out of the box.

I also fabricated the tank's grill work. The M4A4 had a unique rear deck setup compared to the other variants of the sherman. The A4 had a small intake grill just aft of the turret which was placed right in front of the engine's radiator.

The grill itself was the typical US design, where it used welded slats. The kit comes with a laser cut sheet metal grill. The kit grill is a decent piece, but rather than using the kit supplied one I went and scratch built a new one.

The new grill is all fabricated out of soldered brass strip, and sits in a box frame like the real one. Also like the real grill the mounting straps, and lift handles were also fitted.

The only plastic part is the bullet splash guard, which was made out of styrene. As I mentioned before the rear bullet splash rim was making contact with the turret and was deleted... What's interesting is that this same issue happened in real life with the real M4A4, and the designers redesigned the grill to have the bullet guard connected to it.

After the grill was completed the grill was primmed/ painted in it's base coat, and a weld was sculpted on for the bullet shield. The grill will be fastened to the tank after the radiator cover is fabricated/ mounted... more on that to follow!!

The fire extinguisher box was also fitted at this time, As of note you can also see that the guard has a notch cut out for clearance. The extinguisher itself is one of my resin units.

The top deck engine hatch was also fitted. The kit supplied hatch was a nice made component, but after I made some mods to the upper deck it was no longer going to be compatible. I obtained an aluminium plate of the same thickness and fabricated the new hatch for the dimensions of my rear deck.   

The A4's hatch was very simple, was noting more than a steel plate with some handles and lock fasteners fitted. These simple details were added.

For the hinges the kit hinges were used OOB, only mods made was the weld detail, and some cast texture that also covers up the mounting fasteners

The underside of the hatch was painted. With the hatch done I also mounted the control panel to the tank permanently, as no more RC functions will be added at this point.

Some turret details were also added. This would include the notch for the turret ring slot screws, and the cheek blister.

The shell ejection hatch was also fitted. The kit supplies you with a basic functional hatch along with the collar blister. The kit one could have been modded, but instead I swapped it out for one of my own resin ones. The collar blister was bolted to the turret, and body work was done to blend in all add on's to the turret cast surface.

more images were posted on the ECA facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

and a video update was posted on youtube,

https://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

I'm now finishing up the molding for the A57 multibank radiator cover. Once added I can finish off the tool post effectively completing the tank's hull! Once complete I can finish off the turret and get this bad boy into paint!! More to come!  

Seeing your work makes me feel like a wuss for complaining about fumbling with small photo-etched parts.

Truly inspirational work.  Bravo!

Thanks, I always have a blast building these things!!

For the build I added the last of the model's details and the model is now ready for painting!!

After the rear hatch work was completed turned my attention to the tool posts. The tool posts are fabricated with my usual method. As for the tool layout the A4 used the same tool layout of the other sherman family. the posts and footman loops are all metal fabrication and have sculpted welds.

The tow cable mounts were also added, unlike the later shermans the early war period ones only had one cable lock, as the cable would connect to the U hook on the front transmission cover, this was changed later on in the war to feature another cable lock on the front cover.

The Fluid ID tags were also added,

While adding these parts I tooled up the ID plate for the Little joe generator. Because the generator was a two stroke engine the unit needed Premix fuel. The ID plate stated the info as "GASOIL". The new plate was added to the current ID tag set and is now available on the product line.

The last component to be fabricated / installed to the rear deck was the radiator armored cover blister.

The Blister is one of the key distinguishing features of the A4 over other shermans, The purpose of the blister was because of the large radiator on the multibank engine. The engine was so large that even with the hull extended the engine still didn't fit. In addition to the large blister was added to the lower hull a top blister was also needed.

the top blister also has a large round hatch for access to the radiator filler cap.

The blister was tooled up and is added to the catalog.

Once the hull was complete I turned my attention to the turret.

The details that were added were the turret lift hooks, shark fin vane sight, and MP48 spring antenna base... All parts were stock ECA. For the antenna all that was needed to prep the location was to drill a small drainage hole in the lower center of the antenna well.

Unlike my other builds where I run the radio antenna into the MP48 antenna base on this build that was not needed. This was because of the 2ghz radio used, the antenna extension of the antenna was not needed so a static one was used instead. One good factor is that it leaves one less umbilical cord to deal with when removing the turret.

Also what was added was the nubs for the the lift eyelets to the turret's top deck. The sherman was originally intended to have the turret removed via threaded eyelets, this design was a carry over from the M3 Lee. The design was dropped and the larger cast in lift rings were developed in stead. Even though the design was dropped the eyelet locations were still present in the turret casting. These three nubs were added to the model.

On the rear bustle and top deck of the turret I added the casting and foundry marks. Also added were the 6 footman loop tie downs found on the rear bustle. These tie downs were very common on the low bustle turret shermans of the era.

From what I have noticed on most M4A4s the low bustle turrets were mostly casted in east Chicago by the American Steel Foundries Cast Armor Plant. These castings have a prominent "C" inside a Octagon. This logo was scratch built amd blended in the turret's bodywork.

Work was also done to the auxiliary antenna base mount. The armortek turret has the blister casted in and has a simple cover plate that get bolted to the location. The parts are correct and look good once mounted, but I wanted to mod the part to have the recess plate well that was common on early period tanks. The mod was simple and was done with strips of plastic and body work. the unit was then blended together into the turret with the body work

A new plate was fabricated out of styrene and detail bolt heads were mounted.

Like I always mention in these build logs, this part is for the spare antenna base ONLY! Many people miss ID this for the location of the MG pintle mount (because of the four bolts), and if added here is WRONG and KILLS the look of the tank... Don't do it!!!!

The last part of the build that was needed prior to paint was the commander's copula. The kit supplies you with a basic commander's split ring copula. The kit copula is a good starting point, however I always wanted to tool up this part as I already have the late single hatch version, and wanted this style as well.

This is the first sherman I have built in 10 years to have the split ring so for me building a tank with this part is very overdue, The new copula is fully functional and has been added to the catalog.

The copula features full interior detailing on both the ring and hatches, minus the internal periscope... in which case I recommend the rein one from Panzerwerk (which is what I used) or the white metal one from Armorpax.

This version of the copula represents the first style witch doesn't have the spring assist which was found on later units. The hatch comes in two styles, One with the early style fixed M2 travel lock, and the other with the later retracting style travel lock.

This style was more commonly found on early low bustle turret tanks, this kit will work for the Viper, New DML firefly / composite hull M4, Armortek early production M4A3 and armortek M4A4. This version may not be 100% accurate for the DML mid / late production M4A3, but I have that version in the works.

Even though, this replacement copula is already superior the the stock DML one in that it has the integral pintle mount, interior detailing, and is the correct scale unlike the DML one which is severely under scaled, more on the new copula to come ;)

Also added to the catalog is the early style copula M2 fixed travel lock. This travel lock was common on early period tanks, and is all fabricated out of metal

Before installation the copula was painted in it's OD base, the details like the pads and heads rests will be painted after the rest of the tank is painted.

The final feature that I added was the ability to have the copula rotate. Unlike the single hatch version the split ring was able to rotate 360 degrees. This feature was built into my model, giving the tank a unique feature.

This was done by adding to locks to the bottom of the copula and notches to the turret, like a 1/35th scale tank model. Another reason for making the copula removable was so I can still get easy access to the airsoft gun without risk of damage to any copula details.

Once the details were done it was time to get the tank into paint, the tracks were removed, lights / pre painted lower hull areas were masked, and the model got a good dusting / vacuuming. Once ready the tank got it's final prime

After the prime the base coat of OD was added, Like I mentioned earlier for the color I'm going with the early shade of OD (like the one I used on my M3 Lee). With the base on the tank is all one shade and all the work begins to pay off

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

and a video update was added to youtube
http://youtu.be/AKkJxkz3ssE

Now with the tank is in it's base coat I've started to add the markings... More to come!!!

Since the last post the tank has progressed some more and is now about 95% complete

After the base was completed I added the markings, Like on all my builds the markings are painted on via home made disposable stencils. This includes all the stars, stripe, and TO&E markings

For the tank's markings I went with a style that has not been done in 1/6, and that is of a stateside training vehicle. Vehicles like this would be in this configuration with the white stripe in Fort Knox, and in the Desert Training center in California.

Many M4A1s, M3 Lees, and Stuarts went into North Africa with similar paint schemes, but the A4 was relegated to training in the US before being sent off as lend leases... or upgraded and sent to Burma and China.

There were also other options for the stripe, Yellow and Blue were also done in this format... possibly an idea for future builds ;) . When I had the idea for the A4 project I wanted to build it for this scheme / era as once done these tanks look very sharp and distinctive in this format.

Another early war feature that is found on the markings is the Blue ID "W" prefix lettering.

The lettering at the early part of the war was in blue, and had the "W" in the code which stood for "War Department". This was changed and dropped by around 1943 where the numbers where in white, and had only a USA prefix

After the markings were added the tank got it's weathering.

After the weathering was complete the tank's tracks were painted and fitted

The tracks themselves were painted and were left unweathered. Because the tank is RC and the tracks are made out of metal, they would weather themselves after drived a (very) short distance. Which was subsequently done after the tracks were mounted... for testing and weathering purposes of coarse ;) .

After the tracks were taken care of, I then moved to the remainder if the fittings, this includes the red painted zerk fittings, red fire extinguisher handles, MP48 Insulator, Copula interior

The two M1919 gun barrels were painted/ weathered and installed at this time

The tank's head / tail light lenses were also fitted.

The last bit that was added was the tank's fuel filler caps. Like with all my sherman builds the main filer caps are fabricated out of Aluminum. The radiator filler was also mounted, this is resin and comes with the radiator cover set. The caps were all weathered and like on all my US AFV builds the cap pins are chain retained.

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

With these parts now out of the way, all the remains now to be added are the pioneer tools and the M2HB AA machine gun. As a final surprise for this build, I have something I have something special planned for the AA gun ;) ... More to come!

thats really special! 

any vids of it on the move yet?

I have a few vids of the tank being test driven, I just Posted a video update of the model where I give it a test drive all painted

youtu.be/_M8CschoqIU

thanks for the vid link, it looks and sounds awesome on the  move .

That is so cool, great job

Thanks guys, 

The very last remaining bits have been added and the tank is now complete!!

Since the last update the tank's pioneer tools have been assembled / painted/ and fitted.

Some of the tools that you see are white metal from Armorpax. These tools sets came with the Armortek kit. The tools are very nice and I didn't see a reason to not use them. The only mod that I made to the tools was I replaced the kit supplied metal handles with real wood ones.

The set didn't come with all the tools needed for the Sherman, so the not included tools were supplemented with the ECA ones, This would include the Wrench, and the Sledge hammer.

To mount the tools to the tank, for this model I fabricated the small mounting straps. On US AFV the tools are secured inplace via straps made from Leather, or webbing. On this build I fabricated the straps out of leather, with scratch built metal buckles.

The wrench is not secured via the belts, instead via a chain retained pin.

The small rear idler nut securing bracket was another small part that was added finishing off the model. The purpose of the clip is to prevent the idler nut from getting loose while the tank is in operation. The clip on the model is for looks only.

Another small bit that was added was the headlight plug, and retention chain.

The final (and crucial), bit that was added was the AA M2 50.cal. Unlike all the other US vehicles I have made, this model's M2 is different and is special.

Because of the early nature of this build I went with the early period Short Bull barreled, M2HB. This gun features a shorter length barrel, along with a slotted barrel shroud. For the model I used the Receiver from the Dragon M2HB kit, and switched out the barrel and shroud with the ECA short barrel conversion set.

Unlike the later period tanks in which the gun is mounted to a M23 Cradle, this gun is fitted to an earlier mount which has some interesting features.

Because the top mounted M2 was really meant for AA use, the gun cradle is designed to change it's angle by the flick of a lever. The purpose of this is so that the commander can get a higher angle with the gun so you can shoot down planes easier. This feature was built into the model

The early style cradle itself was tooled up and has been added to the catalog as a kit.
http://eastcoastarmory.com/m4.htm

On the real cradle to make the unit pivot there was a special spring mounted towards the side of the mount. On the kit the part is casted in flex resin to allow flexibility and to allow the part to function.

The special low profile 50rnd ammo can was also crafted. The can comes with the set but I felt that with the the can being all solid added too much weight once fitted. I will cast another one and hollow it out on the mill to see if that resolves the issue, If it does I will make a new hollow mold and include them in the sets. The solid can is also being offered separately.

More info on that to come

more pics were posted on the ECA facebok page
https://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

With the gun now added the tank is officially complete. Over the weekend I'll take the tank out for a dio, and make my usual gallery webpage. Now fully wrapped I can focus on the other commission builds I got going. More to come!

This is slick! REALLY SLICK!!

Anybody see a jaw lying on the floor around here?  I dropped mine and can't find it.

Seriously though, the is one of the nicest & most interesting builds I've ever seen.

VERY well done!

thanks for the wip on this, it was a real eye opener, ill be sure to check in at your site too. brilliant job!!!!!!

Thanks guys, this build was a very fun one and one that I enjoyed very much building... and driving :D

I was able to take the tank out for a quick out door dio the other day. I also took out my M3 Lee, as these two tanks are from the same period.

It's been a few years since my M3 left the shop, It was nice to see it in the sun again

A project wrap up video was also made,
http://youtu.be/x9sIEzHzQJs

and more higher res pics were posted on the facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory

All that remains for me to do is to make a gallery webpage for the model, Once complete this project will be 100% complete.

absobloodylutely gorgeous