Sherman Vc bogie wheels

[JackG]

Converting Tamiya's 1/48 Firefly Ic to the Vc, wondering if the open spoked wheels are alright to use, or were they all solid?

regards,

Jack

[AngloSaxon]

I'm no Sherman expert but the discussions I have seen on this seem to suggest that there is no definitive answer. The general consensus is that solid is the way to go, but if you have a particular vehicle in mind then photos would give the best evidence

Mike D.

[Shermaniac]

I would suggest that open spoked wheels would be more rare than common and then only as a 'replacement'

By the time the Fireflies were coming into service the tendency would be more towards the solid road wheel types.

Some 1c's were found in Italy where more Shermans still had the open spoked type in use so that would make sense but for Vc's in NW Europe not so much.

There is however no-one to say that you can't or shouldn't - after all, it's your kit and you can build it any way you like.

AND, for display at shows it would be a conversation point, and, it's not German!

BTW, Tamiya's Ic to Vc will be an interesting conversion as almost all dimensions changed as you'll be going from an M4 to an M4A4 and unless you have the 'Fighting 48th' Upper Hull available - good luck - hope you have the extra track links too?

[JackG]

I've a resin conversion from Tankworkshop: http://www.tankworkshop.com/Shop/agora.cgi?cart_id=705.20932&next=10&exact_match=on&product=Tank+Workshop&user4=British
The resin product I'm working with is flimsy and warped causing fit issues, requiring a lot of fettering and prodding.

I believe Fighting 48th is out of business, and is only selling whatever he has left on ebay. Which is too bad as his looks to have been better quality.

As for the wheels, I have on order a set of pressed type w.6 (MR Modellbau) and tracks T54E1 type (Gaso.Line) from the web store Track48 located here in Canada.

regards,
Jack