UVS models: Salute 2021 11/12/2020

[ultravanillasmurf]

Thanks Somtec, that is the set of thing I was after.

Thanks Ripley, interesting stowage. Is that a crate of cans on the glacis? Most of the tanks illustrated have the spare wheel strapped/wedged in place. The US in Korea tank has a lot of spare wheels, you can see one on the track guard, one on the turret bustle and possibly one on the front.

Maybe some HVSS spare wheels in the next stowage set?

I am thinking of using the inserts from the two part Sherman wheels for the mounts for the HVSS spare wheels. I will have a look later.

[ripley]

 Looks like a  case of C ration cans  , franks & beans , yummy   .  If you look at most tanks , everything has an assigned place as in the Stowage diagrams for British tanks . Turret bin holds  a , b , c . Track bin  A holds  d , e ,f  track bin B has g , h & i , so if you transfer to a new tank and have  to fix broken track under fire at midnight , you know spare track pins are  in bin A . IRC there was no real assigned place for spare wheels in WW2 , the crews mounted them willy nilly . You see them loaded loose on the glacis , wired / tied on the engine deck and sometimes if the unit got back to the repair depot , had bolts welded on to the hull so they could attach the wheels with nuts . I think it was post WW2 that the spare  wheels became standard issue  . So your probably good to add them ( when you get some  ) where you like . Just got to decide if your tank's crew had access to a welder so you would have  fabricated mounts , or they just tied them on where they could . Might be good  to watch Fury again just to check out variations in stowage on those 5 Shermans .

[Pinky]

I am looking for a post war look, not sure whether to go for that Tokyo Ordnance Depot style or more of an IDF look. Not convinced about a spare wheel on the turret, and the spare sprockets would be entertaining to make.

If it's a Korean War M4A3E8 you're aiming for, there are a lot of good photos on the Shadock site (I hadn't realised that there's a page 2 for the M4A3(76mm)):  http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/manufacturer/m4a376w/m4a3_76w2.html

You'll see that the vehicles re-fitted in Tokyo had a bracket for a spare wheel fitted to the turret sides.  This only seems to have been a feature of the Shermans which were part of the initial re-fitting program.

I haven't yet worked out how to do the spare wheel for the HVSS Sherman.

[ripley]

 I guess you could cut one wheel  away from the  inner set of wheels  and cast it in resin  or just use it and fake the inside wheel with some circles of plastic and some well placed mud  . Or maybe , would a 1/72 scale Crusader / Cromwell road wheel  be about the right size ? What diameter  in mm are the wheels ?  Might have something in the spares box

[somtec]

Ive been looking at the spare wheel casting and i think it shouldnt be to hard to mould up the back section as is, cast them and then modify the wheels , that way you can still use the original piece. There is an annoying flat spot on the rear wheels which isnt a problem on the back of the track but would i think stick on a spare so this would need sorting or a bracket made in such a way as to hide it. Also all bolts and centre hub would need to go unless mounted using bolts.

[ultravanillasmurf]

Thanks Pinky, you are right there is a photograph showing the bracket (four angled clips that support the bogie wheel), it is the one with the 8072nd's M4A3(105) HVSS with sand shields. I had not looked closely enough. I had been looking for a bracket with no wheel in place - the colour contrast on that photograph is such you can see the bracket. Well spotted.

I only found the page after initial assembly of the M4A3E8, it is well hidden ^__^.

Somtec - the IDF ones are bolted, but only using three bolt holes, Pinky's find makes it look like the TOD ones are held in by gravity.

Somtec and Ripley, that is a possibility, but not convinced that it is within my capabilities. You could use two copies of the rear bogie wheel to remove the flat spot. The existing bolt holes and stub axle would need drilling out.

I will need to look at them for the sizes. I think the tyre is proportionally too thick for the Cromwell wheel in a smaller scale.

Thank you for the ideas.

Not quite off topic, but does anyone know why one of the spare VVSS bogie wheels is in two parts?

[Pinky]

Here's a better photo of the spare wheel stowage on early Korean War Sherman:

[ripley]

That kind of trough shaped mount would hide a flat spot on the wheel . Or you could add a small piece of plastic and sand to shape . Weird the wheel has extra holes , the mount has 8 but the wheel has 10 ?

[ultravanillasmurf]

Weird the wheel has extra holes , the mount has 8 but the wheel has 10 ?

If you look on the photograph of Dalmatian you will see that the spare wheel is bolted on using the middle hole of the top pair.

The mount has three holes and two posts, the others look like fade or paint.

[ultravanillasmurf]

Looking at the photographs of the HVSS page on the Sherman minutia page it looks like the hub has eight holes for bolts and two for positioning studs.

[ultravanillasmurf]

The wheel is 9mm diameter, I have just measured it.

[ripley]

Only I thing I got that might work is a 1/35 Panzer III rubber tired return roller . Mines on a built kit I'm afraid , maybe someones got some extras from a Dragon late Pzr III or Stug III kit , they used to come with both rubber and steel style return rollers

[ultravanillasmurf]

Thanks.

I am thinking along the lines of an empty IDF track rack, two empty brackets and two clean wheels on the bogies (mine replacement).

[ripley]

Your right , new shiny wheels and empty stowage brackets will tell the story . Just add a few wrinkles / creases to the fender over the wheel set and your done

Oops ! Too  much

[ultravanillasmurf]

I have done a bit more work on my Operation Sea Lion Panzer IB with 20mm cannon.

The base kit is the Empress SCW one.

The resin  Empress use loves superglue, and I messed up the alignment a bit, hence the green stuff. Note my first use of the tow loops - I cheated and terminated the tow rope by drilling a hole in the glacis for the end of the rope, then glueing the moulding over the end.

I mislaid the not exhaust pipe that runs from the right side of the glacis to under the aerial mount, hence the brass and plastic replacement. No idea what it is.

Assorted Allied and German stowage. The jerry cans are two German and the four can moulding from the Allied set. No idea what is in the bucket.