RichJohnson

Ok, I got a replacement metal hull and began trying to fit up the aguilar hull and tranny cover. The cover doesn't fit as is, I had to deepen the grooves around the hull side curves, and heat it in boiling water and reform it to the different curve of the mato hull front. Difficult pain. And the bolt bar doesn't fit in the right spot now. Its too low down inside the armor. I added a Tamiya bolt bar laying across it and it looks better. Its just sitting for now. I wanted to get the hull fit up and put this project to bed what lower chassis Im going to use. Remember, Nick made this kit to fit a Tamiya chassis, but Im going through that hull conversion when others are more ready to use.

As for that metal hull with the broken corner, what can you do with a Sherman hull with a broken front corner....hmmm cut the other corner off and put an A1(76) hull on it.

Bummer is, only the mato 4.0 gear box fits and its 120 bucks for the set...

B/Man

Nice work. I have one of these jumbo kits as well and was looking at going the same way with the hull for mine when I get around to doing it so I'll be watching this thread closely.

I notice your front mud flaps have broken off. This happened to mine as well and I had to reinforce them with styrene strips and araldite them back on. They seem stronger now but time will tell if they stay that way.

With the tranny cover, is there any reason why you couldn't use the metal Mato part, is the detail of the resin part that much different?

mcovalsk

The Jumbo had a thicker transmission cover.

Ex_Pat_Tanker

Nick's Jumbo kit:


Full disclosure:
ETO periscope guards
HL spot lamp holder
Mato Chassis and tracks
Tamiya FO electronics and hull MG

The trans cover can be made to fit the Mato hull... (tho its a bit of a brutal task)

I'd fit duckbills if anyone did them in plastic - but soggy UK running conditions pretty much preclude the metal tracks that Mato offer

RichJohnson

The mato metal one is not as wide at the bolt bar as Nicks and would require shimming. At least this way, I only have to work on the gap at the bolt bar. Also the metal one would require a complete covering of styrene plasticard to cover it up and make it thicker then putty for texture. My plan for the bolt bar is to boil it again and push the existing one down below the added hull armor plate then graft a casting if the tamiya bolt bar on at the correct angle.

By the way, nicks hull fits th metal chassis perfect like you would not believe.

yes my fenders broke off in shipment.

By the way, sorry for having a few threads going on builds at the same time, I have ADD and jump around on projects alot. Keeps me thinking and gives me time to ponder complicated steps for the various projects.

i probably wont go real fast with this guy, i have a few other priorities, i just wanted to get the hull mocked up. The gear boxes are on the way. 120 bucks for the 4.0 steel ones, ouch.