Yesterday I found a Tamiya 1/35 M4A3 Sherman w/ 105 mm Howitzer under the tree. [G] I am ready, thanks to the great articles on a similar Tamiya Sherman in the October and November issues of fsm, to scratchbuild a lot of the detail and fill in the gaps. I would like the wheels to look nice, though, and I feel that the scratchbuilding needed to fix the hollow wheels in the kit would be tedious and wouldn’t end up looking good. Does anyone know of a good aftermarket option that I could use for these wheels? It would be nice to find one that’s AVAILABLE, seeing as I’ve found out about several good sets, only to be annoyed when I found they were long o.o.p… Also, what are the different kinds of suspension, HVSS and VVSS. I know what they stand for, but I don’t know the difference between them nor the right kind of suspension to use on the tank I’m making. If I were to know which type to use, would the AFV Club set for either of these types of suspension have replacements for the hollowback wheels? Thanks, and happy holidays! [angl]
The main difference between the two suspensions is that the VVSS has only six wide road wheels per side and the HVSS has 12 narrower road wheels. Of course the springs and what have you are mounted differently and the tracks are different as well. I think either suspension would work with your 105 build. If you go HVSS the road wheels with the conversion will have inside detail on them. I believe that your kit comes with the VVSS. As to roadwheels, I’ll have to dig around my spares box to see what I have. I know I’ve got about 200 Sherman road wheels, but I don’t know how many with inside detail I’ve got.
Tank Workshop makes a couple sets in resin for the VVSS suspension. The Tamiya kit is a VVSS one. They sell dished or stamped road wheels. As far as I know, their stuff is currently available. I know I picked up another item from them earlier this year.
http://www.tankworkshop.com/Shop/picserve.cgi?picserve=0026.jpg
http://www.tankworkshop.com/Shop/picserve.cgi?picserve=0027.jpg
this is a VVSS bogie
and this is the HVSS suspension bogie
After digging through my spares boxes the onle two sided Sherman road wheels I’ve got are Italeri open spoked wheels. They’re not really appropriate for a 105 Sherman, you’d most likely want stamped or dished wheels. On the other hand if you rework the wheels you have you really only need to re-do four of them as the others won’t be visable unless you display the tank upside down. Tank Workshop makes some pretty good Sherman accessories and road wheels are among them.
HVSS is the later style suspension and stands for Horizontal Volute Suspension System. In this photo, you can see the volute spring (the big, fat round item between the road wheels) is mounted on its side, horizontally. It is not the type included on the Tamiya kit.
VVSS is the older style and comes in many different variations. VVSS is Vertical Volute Suspension System and the springs are mounted up and down, or vertically. These are the original M3 style springs used on initial M4s, but you can see the spring mounted vertically in the small photo on the left above.
This is the Tasca set you probably want to use for the Tamiya M4A3 105mm. It is a fairly late WW2 tank, but uses a later style VVSS than what is pictured in the above photo (the M3 style).
http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/usa/tasca35008reviewcs_1.html
Bottom line is that you want the latest style of the older type of suspension.
Thanks a lot guys, I’ve got some thinking to do. I’ve got several plans in mind…