YHR:

Think I mentioned candle wicking for rope about a year ago... but no-one pays attention to me. Neat thing is ya can get it with and without insert, and if you want, thread some wire down the middle to help hold it in place. It also takes latex paint well so 'dying' it with my dunk-method (in the sticky topic) is an easy thing. One thing I would recommend is a bit of white glue, clear nail polish or CA on the wick before ya cut it, because it unravels like crazy.

You can also get it in various diameters and types. I've even used it to make braided hoses in assorted models, much cheaper than the eBay stuff. for cable sleeves, I've even used a giant form for wiring harnesses - shoe-laces! Nylon ones can be 'sealed' with a soldering iron, cotton with various glues or a bit of heat-shrink tube.

Let the mind wander, and you can think of lots of uses for various bits laying about the house.

When I bought this candle wick, I thought I had heard about its use as rope somewhere before. It is nice to find cheap alternatives that do a decent job in modeling. These large scale tanks are great for that. A trip to home hardware is like a trip to the hobby shop.

Panther F, I didn't include the air cleaners in my response, but air cleaners were very much in place on the A3. The two pots at the upper corners on the exhaust area of the rear plate are wet air cleaners. They contained 2 quarts of OE-30 in the bottom pan which filtered the air to the carbs. The oil pan is held in place by 4 wire brackets held by wing nuts , or in case of many that were lost, 9/16 nuts and flat washers. Oil had to be changed every couple days in a dusty or sandy environment, which meant on later or E8 Shermans, unlatching the heavy muffler baffle plate which was hinged at the top and swinging it out to get to the cleaners. Some had dual baffle plates, other had one single plate which was very heavy, requiring a two man effort swinging it back into place. In later Easy 8s, the cleaners were fitted closer to the body to make room for the baffle plate(s). As of the M-26, 46, 47 and through the M-48s, & M-41, the air cleaners were inside the turret against the engine firewall which made them easier to service, and the M-60 (and M-48A3 &A5) series had dry air cleaners on the track guards (fenders). M-4A1s had them at the rear also however I have no idea where the air cleaners were on A2 or A4s. I have heard that a few post korea Easy 8s were modified with the air cleaners moved inside the turret, but have never seen one and can't see where, in that cramped turret, where they would be made to fit.

Yeah, but the air intake cleaners for the Ford GAA were FORWARD of the engine, not at the rear.


(courtesy of toadmanstankpictures)

Here's more to feast your eyes on,

http://www.toadmanstankpictures.com/m4a3.htm

again courtesy of toadmanstankpictures.

Very interesting Panther F, It does appear that the air cleaners on this are in the engine compartment with access through removable panels in the turret crew compartment. As in early M-26, very diffficult to service without spilling oil all over the turret, but the M-26 at least had air cleaners on the turret side of the firewall. Like to know the mfg date on that Sherman. Only E8 I was assigned to had cleaners in the rear and I really don't recall any access panels there in my turret...but hey, that was 1955 before I was assigned to a new M-41. Wondering even more now if I had an earlier retrofit. [:-]

We have a very early E8 with split oval loader's hatch here and I will get in and check it out next week when we open up again. I just got through putting the turret innards back together on all of them and am now, more than ever, interested to see what's happening on these air cleaner locations and whether built as is or some retrofitted. I believe the air cleaners are at the rear in ours, but the mufffler baffle plate is tack welded in place, as are the engine grills, so unable to open it up for a look-see, but I will be able to get under and look into the exhaust area and look for access plates in the turret. Would make a lot more sense putting the cleaners in the turret, but tanks are not made with crew comfort or easy maintenance in mind. Bad enough in September, this tank sprung an oil leak and we couldn't get authorization to get the back deck opened up to find the leak and shut it up. I had to put a catch pan under it with kitty litter around it, then clean up the engine compartment oil through the bottom engine mount access plates when it stopped. I've seen those photos before, but thanks. Nice to see some museums that are set up where you can look at various locations and do research. Military museums are too restrictive and for the most part, artifacts are painted and left to rot, unable to fix or maintain them. .

Wonderful Tank

Hi

Any idea how the tracks used as additionnal armor were attached on the hull or the turret ??

thanks in advance !

Additional tracks for added armor were generally tack welded to the hulls and turret sides. Some areas, they were secured by rope or wire to allow access for maintenance etc. On Shermans it was a good thing, due to the extremely thin armor and type ammo used against the tanks. Tracks on Sherman bow plates were often just laid there and didn't have much room to slide around. Nowadays it is a very bad choice to mount anything on the armor, particluarly sloped armor plate. Anything projecting that would impair the enemy round from glancing off would also assist it in penetration.

many thanks for the info Patton !!

[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Panther F, You are absolutely correct on the A3 air cleaners. I checked our museum E8 and the filter assemblies are in the engine compartment behind the firewall. The access panels are difficult to work through, requiring traversing the turret to get both sediment pans out. I can see it would have been a messy job. Big improvement on the M-26 through the 48 (through A2's) with the pots being on the turret side of the firewall and much easier to access.

Now my delemma is to find out what the h-we had in '55. I distinctly recall as a Pvt bow gunner having to change the oil and clean the pans, adding oil and clamping them in place...on the rear mounted air filtration pots, then noting how much better it was when I was moved to my M-41. This was an M-4A3 with HVVS and 76mm (W). The Marine 2 MTB near us had a new M-4 105 with HVSS. Tried to contact my old 1SG to see if he recalled the beast, but his family says he's got Altzheimers and wouldn't be much help and I don't know anyone else that was with that unit. This was an NG tank.

If you have any documentation on early E8s or A-3s possibly later A3s with retrofitted HVSS, I'd sure like to find out about them. As I wrote before, tanks I worked on, I know very well, but this really has me confused.