Just coming over to the dark side for a bit. Building the old Italeri kit in a dio. It looks like the suspension would articulate. I was going to have the Sherman climbing a pile of rubble. Would placing weights inside the chassis help push the suspension down to conform with the rubble ? I know those stiff plastic tracks look pretty horrible - would it only work with AM tracks ?
The old Italeri suspension would not articulate properly. The boogie wheel arms will rock back and forth much like a see-saw; as one side goes up the other side goes down.
The problem is that the real arms are hinged at the suspension unit. The suspension arms would really articulate up and down at the sides, much like your arms would raise and lower at the shoulder, independent of one another.
How Italeri engineered the rocker arms for the roadwheels is incorrect. In reality, each would pivot upwards/downwards independent of the other. Since Italeri has both arms on one piece, your showing one wheel up and another down should only be done in VERY slight moderation.
If I were you, I’d modify one or maybe two bogies, glue them in place and then build up the rubble beneath. Skip the weights. Know that the tank would much more compress and push aside rubble rather than sit atop it, in reality.
The Ital vinyl tracks are useless. Try for an aftermarket set (Panda Plastics) or maybe beg a Tamiya vinyl set from someone.
The Italeri M4A1 is a fairly sound kit (one of the best Shermans available for a long time). The biggest correction is to fix the step in the gun tube. For more tweaks, go here:
http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/articles.html
Welcome to the world of Olive Drab!!!
Skip the weights… You’ll never get enough on it to matter before you wreck the suspension… Myself, I run a machine screw up from the underside of the dio-base. I drill a hole all the way through to the top and counter-sink it. Then I take the model, drill a corresponding hole in the bottom of the hull and push it down onto the screw. Then add the washer and nut, hand tightening it until the tracks are firmly pulled down onto the rubble and groundwork, which causes the suspension to conform to the ground and look “sprung”. Obviously, I have to join the upper and lower hull halves after the fact, but the Italeri Sherman (and M7 Priest) is a good model for that.
Then just add a small bush or bigger piece of rubble in the right place to hide the screw’s presence from short obversers, and you’re good to go…
You can do the same by using a long, drywall screw. They are already black, so they are easier to hide. All you have to do is drill a small hole into your base, and through the bottom of the hull. After your model is built (leave the turret loose so it can be removed) slide the screw through the hole in the hull and tighten it into the pre-drilled hole in the base with a screwdriver until it holds the vehicle in the position you desire.
Damn… Great idea, HA… Thanks fer that 'un…[tup]
Thanks guys.