So you mounted the recoil unit firmly on the rotation bracket and just had linkage to the barrel with the barrel elevating seperate of the recoil unit?
as opposed to how tamiya sets them up with the recoil mounted on the breech and moving up and down with the gun...

Assuming that was aimed at me, yes you are correct. The M51 has a bigger turret ring gear (and upper hull) to allow the recoil unit to drop thru when the gun is elevated, with the normal M4 ring gear (and the HL turret ring) the recoil unit fouls it.

The downside of doing this is that you maybe loose a bit of elevation movement.

Tell me about it man. I finally got the recoil unit mounted to my gun and able to drop through the turret ring on my e8 project by cutting the bracket in half and rmoving lots of material from the ring gear. When i finish this tamy e8 im done with tamiya sherman guts, im only using hl or just servos from now on with my sherman builds if I can. I have two, maybe 4 more I want to do and then Im done.

Drive Sprocket Covers
 

All, I finally got around to mounting some magnets on the drive sprocket covers and getting them painted to match. Eventually i will get to the .50 cal and extra stowage
.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2111245http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2111246http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2111247http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2111248

Try detailing out your pioneer tools and then weather the tank with some shading and dirt.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2111390http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2111391http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2111392

here are some pics from Danville back in June, i finally got around to mounting the .50 cal. I might get around to doing some storage if i find something i like to mount.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2173175http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2173176
I also changed out to the MATO plastic tracks.

I finally mounted the MATO idler wheel a few months back on this Sherman replacing the Heng Long idler, finally its running 100% better, lesson learned, keep all the like manufacturers parts together. I originally had the Heng Long idler wheel, but i think it had a smaller diameter and was not allowing the guide teeth enough clearance on the return rollers. Since this final change the tank has been running a lot better.

So you got rid of the mato plastic tracks?
i bought a set along time ago and they have severe issues of being uneven spaced between track pads due to bent connecting pins from inproper installment. As with most mato stuff i have encountered, nice idea poorly assembled turned to junk.
what was your experience with the mato plastic tracks like now that I see metal duckbills....

The MATO plastic tracks are junk, at least the set i had. The metal ones are a lot better, they look pretty realistic and perform pretty good. The one drawback i have is the Metal tracks are on the heavy side, i would recommend using a gearbox set like from ETO armor.

So what did you think was bad about the mato plastic? I said mine have bent pins are uneven. I habe thought about getting piano wire and repining all the links. They are a great idea, just what I really wanted plastic pads with metal connectors, but they just didnt run right all jacked up.

For IR battling the MATO plastic tracks just don't hold up. i only battled one weekend with them at Danville. The pins never stayed in, and constantly throw track, not a good thing to happen when you are trying to battle. which i think is the same thing you brought up, the pins were lose and worked out causing the pads to have gaps which allowed small rocks to work there way in between the track pads. those tracks might be good for a static model.

Mato must have changed. The plastic track I have is bullet proof. It has metal end connectors and there is no way a pin would ever wiggle free. You have to really work at removing a pin. My experience has been the exact opposite, but this was from stock I purchased years ago. I can only assume they must have changed the production. HL tracks however are pretty fragile.

Nice Sherman. I know when I Started in this hobby the only Sherman's you saw were the 105 HVSS Tamiya. Now just about every variant has been modelled, and they are getting the focus and attention these pigs deserve.

Cheers

Well, i finally got the MATO plastic track to stay on better than it was. Before the last November battle, I took my hammer and hit the track pins from both sides against my vise and that really seemed to set the track pins in very nicely. I didn't hit the tracks like i was Paul Bunyan, but just used the weight of the hammer to fall on the track pins from about a height of 6-8 inches. that and using the incorrect MATO idler wheel has really increased the reliability of the tracks now.

Rich,
well this past battle weekend, i noticed the problem you mentioned about bent track pins. So maybe that problem just took a while for it to develop. So i just ordered a set of the metal MATO track without the duckbills, perhaps this might solve the problem of breaking/throwing tracks. i will keep you posted.

Just sold this tank on evil bay!

Offloaded it huh?

Yeah, as much as i didn't want to, I have another in the que that I needed to make space for.

Well since I'm the new owner of the tank, mind if I bounce some questions off of you? There were some pieces that got damaged in shipment.

not at all, shoot me a pm.