M31A2, M31A3, or M31B1

[Mark Aldrich]

As promised. Here is the assembled hull. Rivets are all removed and I need to do some filling is places then I begin all the welds. I need to add back five rivets to the right front triangle piece beside the 75mm gun location. I removed them only to find out later that they were not removed. Love not having good walkaround photos. So far the Takom parts are all fitting the Miniart ones. Hopefully that continues.

[Bryan Krueger]

Interesting project. I'm not too familiar with the recovery vehicles. What makes this an A2? Are you using a MA lower Hull and Takom upper?

[Mark Aldrich]

Bryan,

My bad on the designation. Depending on whose books you read it is probably better to call it a M31A3 as only 12 M3a2s were supposedly made. The big difference is the hull being welded vs riveted and it having a diesel engine. It is the Miniart M3A5 (35279) as the base and all the TRV items will come from the Takom M31 (2088). Most of them anyways. The rear track holders I think will come from someone's PE set. Bogies are a Tasca/hodgepodge and the track will be DS Dragon T54E1. The want to do this came from the one in Israel. Supposedly two or three were captured from Egypt during the Independence War.

http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/anon_idf/m3_arv/

[Dan Reed]

This might help-
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minu ... 1_trv.html
Dan

[Vincent Power]

You are off to a good start Mark. I'm interested to see how the pieces come together from two separate kits.

Vincent

[Mark Aldrich]

Dan,
Thanks. Another reason it is really hard to know what to call this.

Vincent,
So far it has been good. The only down side is that the turret will need to be glued in place with no actual locking devices.

[Philipp Gross]

Really nice start Mark!

I sincerely hope it's less troublesome than my TRV

Philipp

[Mark Aldrich]

I think someone at Takom messed up. I am pretty sure that for a A frame to work, you need to have bars in the ends of each connection or it needs to have the two rounded bolts removed. I was really shocked to to see it on my part ( I thopught it was mispressed) but to see it on the instructions also suprised me. Not sure if I am going to drill openings or put a piece of sprue in.

[Philipp Gross]

I'd say you drill out the end pieces and insert some styrene rod, then you're good to go

Philipp

[Mark Aldrich]

Philipp,
Drilled out the two holes. Figured it would look more used that way.