Hello all. This may have been asked and if so I appoligize for doing it again.
Is there an interior kit that can be used to upgrade the Monogram Sherman tank?
I’ve seen some out online however not much info is given wether or not it will fit.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
RJ
No, the problem with the Monogram kit, beyond being 40+ years old, is that it is in 1/32 scale and the major scale for armor modeling is 1/35. Parts for those kits will be undersized and under scaled.
Any money spent for a pricey interior would be better spent put towards a superior kit.
I recently got the old Monogram M4A1 Calliope tank kit from the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby. It is a nice nostalgia piece, but nothing really worth trying to upgrade.
That being said, the old Shep Paine inserts show how he made these into masterpieces. Not sure if he did an interior though.
No interiors added to his Shermans. Only to the Mk.IV on his Grant diorama.
http://sheperdpaine.atspace.com/
all those diorama flyer inserts can be found here
It would be a reasonable scratchbuild exercise. Do it in the “just for fun” aisle, and see what happens. One way would be to get a nice 1/35 Sherman with interior and copy what you see, then build both.
Very true. You can’t see much inside thru the open hull hatches anyways. Those are pretty small. And one would only have to do the commanders side of the turret interior.
I know some of the old Italeri M4A1 sherman tank based kits like the M7 Priest and Kangaroo have a partial driver compartment that will give you a start.
But, then you’d have a superior kit and set aside the old Monogram tank and build it instead.
The previous comment about scale as well. Wasn’t the old Tamiya Easy Eight also bigger than 1/35?
Most of the early Tamiya 1/35 kits were a bit over scale to fit the motorization stuff.
My memory of the Monogram kits–which is from around 3 gecades ago, is they were a different size than, say, the Italeri Shermans, but not the ±8% difference they should have been. Which was unlike the PzKfv IV variants, which were easily 8-9% bigger.
The Monogram kits are not horrible–certainly no motorization holes. Up to what we, in our present golden age, consider modern standards–no.
However, Shep Paine certainly showed that a silk purse of them. Which is worth something.
And, they still have some relevance–probably far better to learn a new painting, or weathering technique on a Monogram versus, say, a Takom…
I still have a very old Tamiya M4A3E8 in my display cabinet. It is pretty big compared to true 1/35 scale kits. The old MMIR Modeler’s Guide to the Sherman tank calls it closer to 1/32. I built this kit in high school (78-82) so it’s ancient as well. Missing its antenna and .50 cal, but it reminds me of a simpler tme.
When Monogram first made them way back in 1973 or so, then scale to me and my freinds, did not matter. I was a Sophmore in college then. 1/32 or 1/35, close enough. Shep Paine did such a fantastic job on his models that it changed the way we looked at models. He made them works of art! I still have 3 surviving built kits left. I have a M-3 Grant, the first one I used a Paashe air brush on, in 1973. I also have a M-4A1 and a Pzpfw IV, hand painted with some type of panzer yellow and a green, probaly did it the early 1970’s. I know i was still living at home in Iowa City then. The oldest ones I have. I like to still build them. Just for fun! I just built a M-4 and one other 8 wheeled armored cars recently. I did them OTB. Interiors! No way. We had no idea of what went inside a tank. Have fun with it. Build up your skill set with it!
Thank you all for your valued input.
It seems that I will either have to scratch build it, or just make the body look good and forgo any interior. And then find a kit that either has that as part of the build, or companies that actually make upgreade kits that offer interior and barrel options.
If I choose to scratch build it I will post it here.
Cheers,
RJ
There is a CMK resin turret interior, but again, it is 1/35 scale and for the price, you could get a high level Sherman kit. There are plenty of photos available if you wish to scratch build one.
There are two thoughts to keep in mind; do you want an accurate interior that won’t be seen? Or do you just want some resemblance of an interior visible as you look inside the turret?
https://www.squadron.com/CMK-1-35-M4A1-SHERMAN-INTERIOR-SET-35-CZ3073-p/cz3073.htm