Sherman conversions
Dated: January 22, 2009.
I purchased a bunch of 1/72 Sherman parts and some complete Sherman kits off of ebay. Many of them were not remotely complete and there were no instructions. After looking at them, I knew I wanted to finish them and the only place I knew I could easily get all the parts I needed was from HaT Shermans. From there I started to finish the kits. Many of them have parts from 1 or more kits not inlcuding the HaT upper or lower hull or tracks that were needed to finish them. After much less work than I was initially expecting, I had a pile of tanks thanks to some HaT kits. From there I started looking around my parts bin and noticed that I had four 76mm sherman gun turrets left over from Trumpeter Sherman kits. These
spare turrets (and cannons) are quite nice but useless on their own. I quickly bought four more HaT Shermans and built them up with the Trumpeter turrets and guns. The Trumpeter turrets needed a commanders hatch cover, so i turned to the Hat turret and cut it off. It was easty to fit it to the Trumpeter turret thus saving everything from both kits except for the HaT
turret.
Willis P. Dunlevey
USA
Member of www.guildwargamers.com
The first tank is a Hat Firefly that has been modified with a different rear engine deck, added tools, added a dragon transmission cover and modified italeri gun mantle. The turret is from a Hat 105mm Sherman. The second tank is a Hat M4A3 with a Trumpeter turret. The hatch on the turret comes from a Heller Sherman. The spare track links are from an Italeri Sherman kit.
Here are two HaT M4A3 Sherman bottoms with Trumpeter upper hulls. Both of them have replaced transmission cases by Dragon (one piece cast and 3 piece)
This is another picture of those two tanks but from the top. The one on the left has a Dragon turret with Trumpeter hatches. The one on the right has a Trumpeter turret and a Heller hull machinegun.
This is a picture of the bottom of the Hat Firefly in pic IMG_0826. This shows how I attached the transmission cover. The Dragon transmission cover has been attached by cutting away the Hat transmission cover on both the upper hull and the lower hull and then the front of the lower hull was carved down allowing a proper fit
These are of a "hybrid hull Sherman". This project was started by someone else. I bought it in parts and finished the kit. The lower hull is Italeri. The front of an Italeri cast hull has been grafted onto the hull of a Hat Firefly. The Italeri turret has been made to fit the Hat hull turret ring by transplanting the peg from a Hat turret. The tracks are Hat of course.
These are of a Hat M4A3 105mm. The rear engine deck has been changed. The lower hull and suspension are from a Trumpeter kit. the transmission cover and the tracks are from an italeri kit
This is of the first 3 Hat tanks I ever built. Remembering them gave me the idea to start on the rest of the kits.
I had a Trumpeter M4A3 Sherman kit and it came with a spare turret and spare barrel. Not wanting to let them go to waste, I bought two packs of Hat M4A3s and went to work. The turrets were easy to fit by using the bottom of the Hat turret. The Trumpeter turrets did however need a mantle and a commander's hatch which were both provided by the Hat turret. The only parts wasted were what was left of the Hat turret.
This shows the Trumpeter turreted Hat M4A3s in progess. With a bit of paint it is much harder to tell what parts have been added.
This shows one of the Trumpeter turreted versions next to a standard Hat M4A3
These kits were all built for wargaming. The setting is a fictional post WW2 war. The vehicles are supposed to be all mixed up as they were created from surplus from around the world (like the Israelis did in 1948).
Many thanks to Mr. Dunlevey.