I recently came across an old Academy sherman M4 A3 (1306). I know that some of the early Academy models were copies (rip-offs) of Tamiya’s. Well this one doesn’t seem too bad. It does have some crisp detail, no heavy mold marks, but all the detail are cast onto the hull. (a little cheezy).
My question is to those who might know:
Is the copy so close that I can I use an aftermarket hull for Tamiya on it ?
Or is there a kit that somebody has made for this and any other detail?
Or am I better off grinding all the detail off and use Photo etch?
Yes it is an old clunker of a Tamiya copy. The hull and turret if I remember correctly were out of scale. The stowage as you have already pointed out is moulded on to the body of the kit. One plus that it has is that it is an easy-8 suspension and I believe this is workable enough to use on a different kit all together to make a later version Sherman.
As far as using an AM hull … I’m afraid that dimensionally it wouldn’t work (I could be wrong on this though)
There are to the best of my knowledge no AM upgrades available for this kit.
And sanding down all the details and using PE would be excessive in the build of this kit IMHO.
You’re other option is to build it the way it is. It’s definitely not up to the standards of the kits that are produced today, but what the heck, it’s still buildable.
I knew you were the guy to have the answers. I would of posted it directly to you, but i just wanted to be fair to all the other boys and girls.
So basically you’re saying it would look best on it’s back w/treads in the air.
I didn’t think it would be that bad. Well, for $4.00, I think I have room in the budget for some experimentation. Maybe a wrecker? Or a wreck? Actually, I have an old kangaroo on the shelf, missing some pieces. I might be able to use something for that.
Or, like you said it’s buildable as is.
Thank you very much for your time and expertise. It is greatly appreciated.