next is just a prgression of the build, theres too much to sit here and srite about, but the highlites are , replacement handles for all the molded on grab handles, made out of twist tie wire from bread bags.

and more

and it continues

I'll post some more of the in progress pictures a little later, I'm jones'n to look at some of the posts from other forum members and not looking at my own pictures LOL

Cool stuff!  May I offer one observation and one tip?  The seam between the nose and the bolt strip should be filled.  The bolt strip was a part of the nose and not part of the hull.

Also, to get nicely squared replacement handles, find  serrated needle nose pliers.  Then pull the wire over one jaw's serration so you get squared cornered, U shape..  Find the right width you need, mark that serration with a marker and make all the rest of the wire handles, the same width.  Hope this helps.

Cool project. This guy looks like a Ruff Stud.....

  I actually considered doing this a couple of years ago but, since I couldn't bang it up and weather it to death I just let it go.

 I haven't  seen anyone else do this subject on the web so I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

Now if only they had mated that turret with a M4A3E2 hull, perhaps with a HVSS suspension... give them pesky Kitties something to think about

@T26E4, thanks for the heads up about the final drive housing, I'll see what I can do about the seam.

Here are a few more inprgress pictures from the last.

Turret and upper hull

I robbed the turret ring off of the Shermanso the T26 turret would fit

I decided not to use the kit road wheels or tracks, I lucked into an already built Tamiya M51 Super Sherman at my clubs contest last summer and decided to part it out. I used its tracks and road wheels, might be tha lazy way, but I like the results so far.

These are the shots when I was fitting the Tamiya wheels to the Cyberhobby bogies.

The other side

As the paint was applied

Pioneer tools and rear decking

before paint

and after

rear decking, I used Lamp Black water color mixed with water and a drop of liquid dish soap to darken the louvers

I'll post some more pictures tomorrow . photobucket and the picture loader on this forum is giving me fits lol

Love it! Just a little top-heavy but cool!

Nice work on the tools, you're making great progress.

A couple of tool nitpicks for you: the engine crank handle that DML has you storing behind the rear "luggage rack" is incorrect and should be omitted.  The crank was only used on the M4 or M4A1 radial-engined tanks.

Also the pry bar on the right upper edge: the two end sections are actually mounting slots, welded to the hull roof and painted OD.  See here:

http://toadmanstankpictures.com/m4a376hvss_04.jpg

thanks for the information on the A3 variant T26E4, the mistakes are all part of the learning process, I'm pretty much an aircraft modeler and like to do armor to break up the monotony, and boy let me tell you this build did that. The really funny thing is is that this is one of only two Shermans I have in my collection, I have Pershings, Pattons, Russian and Japanese armor in greater numbers than I have Shermans lol. Before I got out of the hobby in 2006 I probably has two dozen Shermans.

The real problem with this one is the model is pretty much finished, I just have one or two things to add that I havent had a chance to get to yet, but once I get back to the house I'll see if I can formulate a plan to address the pointed out issues.

Thanks again for the feedback

some more pictures, the turret, I know, I know, the commanders cupola is slightly off, that was my not paying close enough attention to the directions

The donated Tamiya tracks

up on her wheels and tracks, but not permanantly attached

Bogies and running gear

again not completed when the pictures were taken, but I've made a lot of progress since these were taken  

USMC6094

Thanks for posting this build.

I was unaware of this Sherman variant and may eventually try my hand at building one should the components become inexpensively available at swap meets.

As for mistakes, I am still very much a noob where Shermans are concerned so i wouldn't have known.

Your work still looks good to me

and the last picture I took before school started

I've added the return tollers and done some light dry brushing to bring out the cast texture I added to the final drive housing and turret.

Don't worry about the commander's cupola being askew.  It was rotatable. Keep up the good work -- I like the ground-level picture.  It looks like a beast!

Again thanks for the compliments fellas, and let me tell ya, this thing is a bruiser, it slid off the front seat of my car and hit the passenger door and all it lost was a fender bracket, lol.

@Sprue-ce Goose, you can build this model pretty on the cheap if you shop around, the Pershing kit was about 27 dollars shipped and the Sherman was about ten dollars more , though I might recommend a less complex chassis for the build...........

USMC6094

@Sprue-ce Goose, you can build this model pretty on the cheap if you shop around, the Pershing kit was about 27 dollars shipped and the Sherman was about ten dollars more , though I might recommend a less complex chassis for the build...........

maybe someone will sell old kits cheap during the last hour.

Great looking build so far! I definitely have to build this vehicle at some point. It's a very interesting subject for sure!

Cheers, Clemens

well my next one, yep gonna build another, is going to be more along the lines of what may have actually been developed had the war dragged on. In an earlier post someone talked about an A3E2 Jumbo with E8 suspension and an M26 turret. Well if I can find two of the Tamiya Jumbos, one for this build and another as a stock build, I'm going to use one with double duck bill VVSS suspension and a standard M26 turret. Used to be finding a Pershing in 35th was the issue, now the older Tamiya kits are the scarce scores