Author Topic: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - Decal Update 170212  (Read 33461 times)

Pinky

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160825
« Reply #15 on: August 26, 2016, 09:41:08 pm »
I know I keep mentioning the M4A2, but it seems a natural companion to the M4A3 because there are so many common components.

They also compliment each other - the M4A3 was exclusively to used by the US Army, while the M4A2 was used by the British, Soviets and US Marines. 

The M4A3 could basically be a re-do of your discontinued kit, only with a choice of tracks, the high-bustle 75mm turret and late 76mm turret, as well as extras like (US) crew and stowage. 

The M4A2 could include both the mid-production and late production hulls, and the low bustle 75mm turret and the early 76mm turret, as well as British and Soviet crew. 

The pieces would be interchangeable between the kits, so that the mid-production hull from the M4A2 kit could be used to build a mid-production M4A3 by swapping the engine decks.  It would also be good if there were enough parts to build complete turrets, so that they can be swapped depending on the version desired.

Rubicon Models

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160825
« Reply #16 on: August 26, 2016, 09:57:45 pm »
@Pinky, it takes time to prepare all 3D drawings.  As mentioned previously,
we are working on all variants of the M4 Sherman & Firefly.  So expect to
see a lot of new M4 releases next year!

BTW, anything related to the M4A4 will be last...  ;)

elias.tibbs

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160825
« Reply #17 on: August 27, 2016, 07:03:19 am »
@pinky

The impression I get from rubicon  is that every single variant of the Sherman will be available in some way and all the parts would be interchangable so you could make those weirder variants and  the bastardised bodge Jobs,  sorry, field repairs.

How they accomplish this I don't know, but I'm very excited to find out.

We know that the M4A3 76mm is out in December (and that turret looks so much better) and I think we can safely  assume that an M4A3 75mm/105mm would be out shortly after (as that's the more useful tank gaming wise) giving us two boxes like the T34-76/85. I like the idea of that as there's too much crammed into the current kit and it appears the new 76mm has crew.

From there, who knows how they'll do it (well I guess/hope rubicon do...), but expansion packs similar to the 250/251 half tracks would be cool with the main kit being the base kit (would work nicely for jumbo/easy 8, etc)  or maybe as they said earlier they will have a Sprue with the base parts that are common to all Shermans and the have mark specific kits that have the correct front glacial plates, sides, exhausts, hatches, too plates, turrets, tracks, etc. Potentially we could have serval boxes if that was the case which gets me very happy.

I might make one tank with bits that would never have gone together just for the sake of annoying some people ;)

This is probably the project I have got most excited about so far. More so than the greyhound! And maybe this opens it up for the various panzer marks as well?
« Last Edit: August 27, 2016, 07:10:16 am by elias.tibbs »
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
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sandsmodels

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160825
« Reply #18 on: August 27, 2016, 08:59:24 pm »
well i am pleased there are more sherman variants as i can then do more add on conversion kits for them
looks good lots of interchangable sherman bits :)

ultravanillasmurf

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160825
« Reply #19 on: August 27, 2016, 10:26:22 pm »
I am impressed with the improvements Rubicon have made for the forthcoming M4A3 kit, but I am still stuck with the only supplier of usable plastic Sherman tanks being in Nottingham/Italy.

I fully understand Rubicon's position, I will just have to wait.

« Last Edit: August 27, 2016, 10:29:42 pm by ultravanillasmurf »

Pinky

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160825
« Reply #20 on: August 27, 2016, 10:33:46 pm »
Elias - I'm as pleased as you to see an updated 76mm Sherman (especially one with options like extended end connectors).  But from the perspective of gamers, the discontinued M4A3 kit is more attractive on some levels.  Few gamers will be bothered with whether their Sherman has an early or late 76mm turret; they would rather have the option of switching it for a 75mm turret.  In fact, the main criticism of the discontinued M4A3 was that it should have had parts for 2 complete turrets.  Similarly, the disadvantage with the Rubicon T-34 is that it has 2 early turrets, instead of a choice of early and mid-production turrets. 

Also, the expansion kit approach doesn't really work for something like this.  There are too many differences between versions, so you can't really have one base kit like you can with the SdKfz 251.  So I was suggesting an approach which would cover a lot of useful variants with just 2 kits of 2 Sherman types that are relatively similar (so they don't both have to be designed from scratch). 

Anyway, Rubicon have their own ideas, so there's no point pursuing this.  I'll be buying several of the new M4A3 when it comes out. 
« Last Edit: August 28, 2016, 01:34:18 pm by Pinky »

Rubicon Models

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160830
« Reply #21 on: August 30, 2016, 09:25:23 pm »
Following the preview of the Sherman tank crew is their 3D prototypes!
Test-fitting the crew to our new T23 turrets...



Enjoy!
;)

ripley

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160830
« Reply #22 on: August 31, 2016, 08:12:31 am »
The crew figures look good . Does the green ( US crewed ) turret have a separate loaders hatch or is it molded closed ?

Rubicon Models

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160830
« Reply #23 on: August 31, 2016, 09:48:42 am »
The crew figures look good . Does the green ( US crewed ) turret have a separate loaders hatch or is it molded closed ?

It's moulded closed!

Foz

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160830
« Reply #24 on: October 01, 2016, 02:35:47 am »
Will this new version still be compatible with the M36 turret from your M10/M36 kit?

Rubicon Models

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - 160830
« Reply #25 on: October 01, 2016, 11:24:11 am »
Will this new version still be compatible with the M36 turret from your M10/M36 kit?

Definitely yes!  All our US tank designs are downward compatible!  ;)

Rubicon Models

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - TS1 Plastic Sprue 161017
« Reply #26 on: October 17, 2016, 02:01:23 pm »
Was surprised to see these test shots well ahead of schedule; probably mould making knew we are in a hurry!

Still a lot of work needed to be done, but at least they are now in plastic TS1...































Enjoy!
;)

ultravanillasmurf

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - TS1 Plastic Sprue 161017
« Reply #27 on: October 17, 2016, 02:52:38 pm »
Wow!

That looks good.

No good for my British forces (except for the commander) but I suspect might form the armour for a fictitious post war force.

sandsmodels

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - TS1 Plastic Sprue 161017
« Reply #28 on: October 17, 2016, 06:45:54 pm »
they look fab, great models

Pinky

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Re: The all NEW M4A3 Sherman - TS1 Plastic Sprue 161017
« Reply #29 on: October 18, 2016, 01:09:43 am »
This looks like a real labour of love - a genuinely deluxe kit with tons of options.  I really like the HVSS suspension, and the revised rear hull.  And I see there's even a 'chunky' .50 cal included.

Are all the tracks complete, or are there some common parts?  It looks as though the 2 different VVSS sets share a common drive sprocket.