Sturmhauptfuhrer

My question is, I have a Mato M4A1 (76)w and I would like to put a Heng Long M4A3 IR version turret on the Mato chassis. Can this be done and will it work. The Mato is going to be gutted and redone with the RX18 and other electronics.

Thanks for any ideas or input you may have.

Sturm

YHR

Yes it can be done. Very little work is needed. Between the threads here and over at RC Tank Regiment, you have all kinds of examples to use as a guide.

Cheers

Strato50

What Sherman variant would you end up with...?

modelbob71

The large hatch M4A1 (wet stowage) only carried the 76mm gun. The 75mm M4A1 version never went into production. I made that mistake in
35th scale years ago at a contest and was laughed out of the room!

YHR

Regardless mixing and matching Sherman parts is fairly easy. Here is something I did before I knew better



And after I knew more. Just have fun. At one time people were happy with HVSS Fireflies. Still if you are going to spend a bunch of time and money it doens't hurt to do some research and try to nail down a subject, but the catch is you let your desire for prototypically correctness, become a hurdle that stops you from building anything. That's not much fun either,

With Shermans to say one never existed has proved to be wrong before, They may not have been delivered with a 75mm, but there is nothing saying one didn't get a battlefiled rebuild, where parted out wrecks became something extraordinary.

cleong

It is remarkable how people can accept Paper Panzers but not prototype American tanks that were never mass-produced.

Ex_Pat_Tanker

I'm working on a Large hatch M4A1 75mm right now, ~100 made according to the research I have found.

Sturmhauptfuhrer

Found this on Google..............

modelbob71

See R.P. Hunnicutt's " A History of the American Medium Tank Sherman" Page 260. If you want a large hatch M4A1 with a 75mm gun
go for it. That's the glory of models. You can build anything you want. Beautiful models YHR. I've just ordered a Mato 76mm turret to
fit on the HL M4A3 hull.

YHR

Actually I think the DD tanks were 75mm M4A1 tanks. They may not have been used in the American forces, but there were some around. I am sure there is a picture of a large hatch M4A1 DD on the net,

M4A1 with 75mm gun and "wet" stowage hull
75mm gun turret on later "large hatch" hull (see M4A1 76mm below). Only a small batch of these were built and most if not all went to conversion as Duplex-Drive tanks.

edoubleaz

My Feedback: (1)

The basic swap should work. The HL has a 105mm Howitzer turret that only was on large hatch welded M4-M4A3s. Do you plan on making a 75mm switch?

modelbob71

I would love to see a photo of a "large hatch" M4A1 with a 75mm gun. There has been debate among the "shermoholics" about this for
years on other sites.

edoubleaz

My Feedback: (1)

Try this for an idea....

http://www.network54.com/Forum/11074...rge+Hatch+75mm

Ex_Pat_Tanker

The 'accepted wisdom' was that there was no Large hatch Shermans, but somebody pointed out in another thread that the Slapton Sands Sherman is a big hatch DD. I did a little digging after that and found another example in France that was pulled out of the sea off Omaha beach, a black and white photo of one that was sitting knocked out on Omaha beach, and recently one of 2 DD's (minus skirts) that were being used to recover an M10 in the fall of 1944.

http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_m...gehatches.html

YHR

There you go, never say never when it comes to Shermans, There were so many and the parts were interchangeable, just about anything is possible. Especially with the active field rebuild activities the Allies engaged in.

@Modelbob71. I guess it is you who gets the last laugh

As I mentioned earlier , no sooner does one say that version of Sherman never existed, and up pops a picture.


However I have never seen a 105 on a M4A1 hull........................but I would be scared to say one never existed

modelbob71

YHR,
Thanks for info and photos. Now we know!