M4A3 Sherman HVSS
1/16th Scale
Kit contents
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Tamiya M4A3 Sherman HVSS 1/16th Scale Kit contents |
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Tamiya
has reissued their 1/16th scale model of the M4A3 Sherman-twenty
five years after it's introduction. This kit is designed for R/C (Radio
Control) operation and comes with twin gearboxes complete with motors and
a digital motor throttle unit. The price I paid was $389.99 at
Tower Hobbies.
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the kit's contents are summarized in the table below.
I also have a page with plans for a Turret Traversal mechanism
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| What's in the box? | ||
| Track Links | 4 separate pieces, spring steel shoes, spring steel track guide, stainless steel pins (two pins are factory-assembled with steel end connectors to make one part). 76 links per track. Took me four hours to do the firsr track, but then I paid attention to technique and did the second track in about an hour and a half. The bags contained EXACTLY the right number of parts, and they give you a separate bag with two full spare links. | |
| Bogeys |
Plastic with separate rubber tires. Same with idler.
Secured to axles via Tamiya's beloved vinyl hubs. Track return rollers have no separate rubber tire. |
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| Sprockets | Cast metal (pewter?) | |
| HVSS | Multi-media. Shocks are telescoping steel tube. Volutes are plastic and aluminum tube with captive spring. Suspension arms are cast metal. Arms are attached to suspension hangar in authentic manner--screws through a mounting plate into suspension hangar. | |
| Chassis | Precision stamped 1/16" aluminum. Pre-drilled and tapped mounting holes for HVSS suspension hangars arms (these arms are also cast metal). |
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| Turret |
Loader's hatch is molded-in. Commander's hatch is intended to
be glued on, but could be made to open with a simple modification.
Mantlet lacks lifting rings as on actual tank (easy enough to
scratch-build). M2 .50 Cal. is not accurate on the right side and the receiver is molded as one piece with the mount. |
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| Hull |
Two piece, upper hull and glacis are separate. Attached to
lower hull with plastic clips. Details are slightly crude (which
to me is okay since the real thing had some crudely cast parts).
Driver and bow-gunners hatches are molded-in. Headlight and siren protectors are a bit heavy. The real thing looks like wrought-iron. These are 2-3 times as thick in scale. |
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| Gear Boxes | Twin, separate gear drives with 380 motors. Brass and teflon gears. All turning axles have bushing bearings. Gearbox is heavy-duty 3/32" stamped aluminum plate. Gearboxes mount to lower hull with three brass standoff screws, each. | |
| Motor Controller |
Dual, integrated, digital motor control. Requires two channel radio
with one channel for each track. The unit come with a BEC (Battery
Eliminator Circuit) which means that a separate battery for the
radio receiver is not needed (the propulsion battery pack supplies
the juice). The unit is equipped with several MOSFETs (solid-state). A Piezo chip buzzes when you are close to zero throttle but not quite, and quits buzzing when you hit perfect zero throttle. I presume this is to prevent the motors from overheating when at rest. Twin LEDs on the controller indicate forward and reverse travel of each track by changing color from red to green. |
 The DMD unit extends battery life and eliminates the need for a separate receiver battery pack. I've run mine for dozens of hours without any noticable signal noise. |
| Summary | ||
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This is an outstanding model! It assembles quickly, except for the
tracks, which are a challenge. The quality of the mechanicals and
electronics is superb and the quality of the molding is just good.
The DMD motor controller, with it's solid state circuitry can
allow for runtimes as long as an hour (or more) with stop and start
driving habits. At about $400.00, this is an outstanding value and its durable design features will give years of pleasure. | ||
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