In Box Review of Tamiya 1/35th Scale
M4A3-E8 Sherman
Motorized Kit no. MT-118
By Ray Mehlberger
OUT OF PRODUCTION
By Ray Mehlberger
OUT OF PRODUCTION
HISTORY:
Since Normandy landing, the U.S. forces marched forward to Germany, clearing away all German forces before them until December of 1944. They suffered a crushing defeat at the Ardennes region in France under the fierce counter-attack by the enemy.
The U.S. 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Armored Corps were critically surrounded at Bastogne by the German forces when they got out of danger at the aid of the 3rd Army, which rushed to the scene when informed of their critical situation.
With the success of this rescue operation, the U.S. forces were able to have a chance to restore their failing fortunes. Right at the critical juncture, the M4A3-E8 Sherman tank, the newest type of the M4 medium tank, made a gallant appearance at the spearhead of the 3rd Army under the command of Lieutenant General Patton. He was said to be the most gifted general with a superhuman skill in fighting battles with armored forces among all the U.S. Army commanders.
There are more than 30 different types of the M4 Sherman medium tank, including the T-6 which was manufactured for trial. The M4 officially was adopted in October 1941 and the M4A3 was adopted in 1942.
The M4A3-E8 especially crowned the first campaign with success and gave a chance for the surrounded U.S. forces to gain victory. It differed greatly from a series of the earlier Sherman’s in its reinforced equipment. It was equipped with a large revolving gun turret, a 76 mm gun of high initial speed and a new level suspension device. It was, in fact, the last type of the M4 tank series.
The number of the M4A3-E8’s produced at the Chrysler’s tank plant in Detroit, which had also been called “Easy Eight”, amounted to 1,445 during the period from September 1944, to January 1945. Besides, most of 1,925 M4A3’s were each equipped with a 76 mm gun, had been remodeled into the M4A3-E8 type during the Korean War. Their narrow gauged tracks were replaced and vertical suspension devices with wide gauged and level tracks .
It is also said that at about the same time apart of the M4A3’s were equipped with the 75 mm gun and had been likewise remodeled into the M4A3-E8 type by replacing their gun turret, tracks and suspension devices with those of the later type.
The M4A3-E8’s which had been place with the mechanized divisions at the fronts in August 1944 were active as main-strength tanks in various European fronts, during the latter half of the war and later in the Korean War as well.
However, all these M4 Shermans were dropped from the list of the U.S. Army organizations and equipment in 1956 after the M47 medium tanks (the Patton II type) and the M48’s (the Patton type III) began to be place with all the mechanized divisions on a large scale as their main-strength tanks in 1955, the preceding year.
The M4 Shermans had also been active outside the U.S. as some of them were granted to the NATO and SEATO forces after WWII. The Japanese Land Self-defense Force too were granted with about 200 of them in October 1954.
They had since been active as main-strength tanks for the Japanese Force until the 61-type medium tanks were produced. At present, the Shermans are being replace with these 61-type medium tanks.
The 4 details of the “Easy Eight” are as follows: it’s hull is made of armored plates that are welded together. The front plate has an angle of inclination amounting to 41 degrees. The hull itself is subdivided into three compartments – the pilot chamber in the front, the central combat room and the engine compartmejnt at the rear. A crew of five is active inside the hull – a pilot and a front gunner in the pilot chamber, a tank commander, gunner and charger in the combat room. The combat room has a fire wall between it and the engine.
At the top of the pilot chamber, there is right and left hatches each opening at one side only. Each hatch is equipped with a periscope for outside view. In the combat room there is a pilot seat located at the left, while at the right there is a front gunner and co-pilot seat. The charger is situated at the left of the middle combat room, while the tank commander and the gunner are to the right.
The engine compartment contains a liquid-cooled engine, a fuel tank and a fire extinguisher. It’s upper door is a folding one. At the bottom of the front gunner seat there is fitted an emergency escape hatch to use when the tank is damaged by enemy shots.
The gun turret is casted and extended to the rear. It differs from that of a 75 mm type in that fully shot-proof casing covers it’s whole length. It is also equipped with a folding hatch for the charger and an anti-air 12.7 mm (50 in.) machine gun mount. However, in an earlier version it is equipped with cupola which has 5 periscopes for outside view.
The engine is designed and produced by Ford and is 60 V-type, 8 cylinder GAA II, or GA III. Liguid-cooled gasoline engine with a power of 500/2,000 r.p.m.
The main gun of the “Easy Eight” is a 76 mm (52 in) M1A1C or M1A2 tank gun with a long barrel. It is further improved that it’s initial velocity is much increased and made more powerful than the M-3 type, 75 mm (40 in) gun of the former M4 series.
The armor-piercing power of the M1A2 gun, when it uses armor piercing shots reaches 66, 61, 56, and 51 mm at 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 m respectively. It’s maximum range is said to reach 14,700m. The total number of shots carried is 86. It’s firing rate is 20 rounds per minute.
The main gun and other aiding machine gun can be handled either manually or mechsanically with a motor device. The main gun also can change it’s firing angles from 1 degree to 25 degrees. The time needed to complete a 360 degree turn of the turret is 15 seconds.
Besides the main gun, the “Easy Eight” is equipped with two 7.52 mm (30 in) Browning M1919A4 machine guns. One is in the front hull, the other in the front of the turret. Also, a single 12.7 mm (50 in) Browning M2-type anti-air machine gun is mounted on a mount atop the turret. In short, this M4A3-E8 Sherman tank was a masterpiece medium tank of a high world standard during the latter half of the 1040’s.
THE KIT:
Tamiya is an older prolific model company based in Shizuoka City, Japan. They make all manner of model subjects in the popular scales.
This kit came in a shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box.
The box art shows a M4A3-E8 posed against Tamiya’s signature all white background that they use for most of their box arts.
It is overall olive drab with large white stars on the turret sides, the hull sides and the bow. At the extreme rear of the sides of the hull is the serial no. in white of USA 3011458 (this serial no. NOT included on the kit’s decal sheet). A tank commander is looking out of the turret hatch. He is talking on a microphone.
One side panel has a smaller color repeat of the box art, followed by a one-paragraph history of the tank in English and MADE IN JAPAN.
The other side panel has 4 color box arts of other AFV kits that Tamiya markets:
A U.S. Walker Bulldog Tank
A Russian SU-100 Tank-destroyer
A West German Leopard Tank
A German King Tiger Heavy Tank
No kit numbers are given for these. They all show scenery back-grounds, which is not ordinary for Tamiya box arts. I think I only have perhaps one lonely Tamiya kit in my stash that has a scenery back-ground.
The end panels of the box have black stickers with white lettering that says MODEL RECTIFIER CORP, who was the U.S importer of Tamiya kits at one time.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
This kit contained 5 dark green trees of parts, a dark green loose hull tub and hull roof part, a dark green loose turret top and bottom part, vinyl treads, a metal gear box and electric motor, the decal sheet, all in 4 stapled-shut cello bags.
The instructions and a small kit catalog complete the kit’s contents.
The instructions consist of a single sheet that accordion-folds out into 8 pages in 7 ½” x 10 ¼” page format.
Page 1 of the instructions begins with a black and white illustration of the box art, followed by the history of the M4A3-E8 in English. There are 5 illustrations of tanks on this page: a M4A3, a M4A3-E8, a M47, a M48 and a type 61.
Page 2 has the parts trees illustrations at the top. A list of the names of all the parts is provided and READ BEFORE YOU START instructions. At the bottom of the page is the first 4 assembly steps. All of these steps is for assembling the electric motor and the gear box.
Pages 3 through 5 give a grand total of 11 assembly steps.
Step 6 is more motorization assembly.
There are 4 walk around type black and white photos of parts of the M4A3-E8 mixed in the instructions. Instructions are included to show how to heat rivet the tracks into a loop. These are not the newer glueable type tracks.
You are also shown how to stretch sprue over a candle to make an antenna.
The bottom of page 5 has a black and white box art of an E8 with a shark face painted on the front of it. Below that is black and white photo of a completed E8 model made up with this shark face.
Unfortunately, this face is not included on the kit’s decal sheet. Next to these pictures it says “The mark in front of the tank shown in the picture of the completed model was used for the tanks which belonged to the B Company of 45th Tank Battalion. This battalion was active in support operation of the U.S. 5th Infantry Combat Corps during the Korean War. AS for the B Company, it was dispatched as a single unit from the 6th Mechanized Division, then to the Korean Front in September of 1950, and actively engaged itself in pursuing the enemy from Pusan Beachhead to Hamhung together with the 1st Cavalry Division already there."
Dark green letter A parts tree holds: the main gun barrel and it’s travel lock, mantle, 50 cal machine gun, bow plate, hatch parts etc. (35 parts)
Since Normandy landing, the U.S. forces marched forward to Germany, clearing away all German forces before them until December of 1944. They suffered a crushing defeat at the Ardennes region in France under the fierce counter-attack by the enemy.
The U.S. 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Armored Corps were critically surrounded at Bastogne by the German forces when they got out of danger at the aid of the 3rd Army, which rushed to the scene when informed of their critical situation.
With the success of this rescue operation, the U.S. forces were able to have a chance to restore their failing fortunes. Right at the critical juncture, the M4A3-E8 Sherman tank, the newest type of the M4 medium tank, made a gallant appearance at the spearhead of the 3rd Army under the command of Lieutenant General Patton. He was said to be the most gifted general with a superhuman skill in fighting battles with armored forces among all the U.S. Army commanders.
There are more than 30 different types of the M4 Sherman medium tank, including the T-6 which was manufactured for trial. The M4 officially was adopted in October 1941 and the M4A3 was adopted in 1942.
The M4A3-E8 especially crowned the first campaign with success and gave a chance for the surrounded U.S. forces to gain victory. It differed greatly from a series of the earlier Sherman’s in its reinforced equipment. It was equipped with a large revolving gun turret, a 76 mm gun of high initial speed and a new level suspension device. It was, in fact, the last type of the M4 tank series.
The number of the M4A3-E8’s produced at the Chrysler’s tank plant in Detroit, which had also been called “Easy Eight”, amounted to 1,445 during the period from September 1944, to January 1945. Besides, most of 1,925 M4A3’s were each equipped with a 76 mm gun, had been remodeled into the M4A3-E8 type during the Korean War. Their narrow gauged tracks were replaced and vertical suspension devices with wide gauged and level tracks .
It is also said that at about the same time apart of the M4A3’s were equipped with the 75 mm gun and had been likewise remodeled into the M4A3-E8 type by replacing their gun turret, tracks and suspension devices with those of the later type.
The M4A3-E8’s which had been place with the mechanized divisions at the fronts in August 1944 were active as main-strength tanks in various European fronts, during the latter half of the war and later in the Korean War as well.
However, all these M4 Shermans were dropped from the list of the U.S. Army organizations and equipment in 1956 after the M47 medium tanks (the Patton II type) and the M48’s (the Patton type III) began to be place with all the mechanized divisions on a large scale as their main-strength tanks in 1955, the preceding year.
The M4 Shermans had also been active outside the U.S. as some of them were granted to the NATO and SEATO forces after WWII. The Japanese Land Self-defense Force too were granted with about 200 of them in October 1954.
They had since been active as main-strength tanks for the Japanese Force until the 61-type medium tanks were produced. At present, the Shermans are being replace with these 61-type medium tanks.
The 4 details of the “Easy Eight” are as follows: it’s hull is made of armored plates that are welded together. The front plate has an angle of inclination amounting to 41 degrees. The hull itself is subdivided into three compartments – the pilot chamber in the front, the central combat room and the engine compartmejnt at the rear. A crew of five is active inside the hull – a pilot and a front gunner in the pilot chamber, a tank commander, gunner and charger in the combat room. The combat room has a fire wall between it and the engine.
At the top of the pilot chamber, there is right and left hatches each opening at one side only. Each hatch is equipped with a periscope for outside view. In the combat room there is a pilot seat located at the left, while at the right there is a front gunner and co-pilot seat. The charger is situated at the left of the middle combat room, while the tank commander and the gunner are to the right.
The engine compartment contains a liquid-cooled engine, a fuel tank and a fire extinguisher. It’s upper door is a folding one. At the bottom of the front gunner seat there is fitted an emergency escape hatch to use when the tank is damaged by enemy shots.
The gun turret is casted and extended to the rear. It differs from that of a 75 mm type in that fully shot-proof casing covers it’s whole length. It is also equipped with a folding hatch for the charger and an anti-air 12.7 mm (50 in.) machine gun mount. However, in an earlier version it is equipped with cupola which has 5 periscopes for outside view.
The engine is designed and produced by Ford and is 60 V-type, 8 cylinder GAA II, or GA III. Liguid-cooled gasoline engine with a power of 500/2,000 r.p.m.
The main gun of the “Easy Eight” is a 76 mm (52 in) M1A1C or M1A2 tank gun with a long barrel. It is further improved that it’s initial velocity is much increased and made more powerful than the M-3 type, 75 mm (40 in) gun of the former M4 series.
The armor-piercing power of the M1A2 gun, when it uses armor piercing shots reaches 66, 61, 56, and 51 mm at 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 m respectively. It’s maximum range is said to reach 14,700m. The total number of shots carried is 86. It’s firing rate is 20 rounds per minute.
The main gun and other aiding machine gun can be handled either manually or mechsanically with a motor device. The main gun also can change it’s firing angles from 1 degree to 25 degrees. The time needed to complete a 360 degree turn of the turret is 15 seconds.
Besides the main gun, the “Easy Eight” is equipped with two 7.52 mm (30 in) Browning M1919A4 machine guns. One is in the front hull, the other in the front of the turret. Also, a single 12.7 mm (50 in) Browning M2-type anti-air machine gun is mounted on a mount atop the turret. In short, this M4A3-E8 Sherman tank was a masterpiece medium tank of a high world standard during the latter half of the 1040’s.
THE KIT:
Tamiya is an older prolific model company based in Shizuoka City, Japan. They make all manner of model subjects in the popular scales.
This kit came in a shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box.
The box art shows a M4A3-E8 posed against Tamiya’s signature all white background that they use for most of their box arts.
It is overall olive drab with large white stars on the turret sides, the hull sides and the bow. At the extreme rear of the sides of the hull is the serial no. in white of USA 3011458 (this serial no. NOT included on the kit’s decal sheet). A tank commander is looking out of the turret hatch. He is talking on a microphone.
One side panel has a smaller color repeat of the box art, followed by a one-paragraph history of the tank in English and MADE IN JAPAN.
The other side panel has 4 color box arts of other AFV kits that Tamiya markets:
A U.S. Walker Bulldog Tank
A Russian SU-100 Tank-destroyer
A West German Leopard Tank
A German King Tiger Heavy Tank
No kit numbers are given for these. They all show scenery back-grounds, which is not ordinary for Tamiya box arts. I think I only have perhaps one lonely Tamiya kit in my stash that has a scenery back-ground.
The end panels of the box have black stickers with white lettering that says MODEL RECTIFIER CORP, who was the U.S importer of Tamiya kits at one time.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
This kit contained 5 dark green trees of parts, a dark green loose hull tub and hull roof part, a dark green loose turret top and bottom part, vinyl treads, a metal gear box and electric motor, the decal sheet, all in 4 stapled-shut cello bags.
The instructions and a small kit catalog complete the kit’s contents.
The instructions consist of a single sheet that accordion-folds out into 8 pages in 7 ½” x 10 ¼” page format.
Page 1 of the instructions begins with a black and white illustration of the box art, followed by the history of the M4A3-E8 in English. There are 5 illustrations of tanks on this page: a M4A3, a M4A3-E8, a M47, a M48 and a type 61.
Page 2 has the parts trees illustrations at the top. A list of the names of all the parts is provided and READ BEFORE YOU START instructions. At the bottom of the page is the first 4 assembly steps. All of these steps is for assembling the electric motor and the gear box.
Pages 3 through 5 give a grand total of 11 assembly steps.
Step 6 is more motorization assembly.
There are 4 walk around type black and white photos of parts of the M4A3-E8 mixed in the instructions. Instructions are included to show how to heat rivet the tracks into a loop. These are not the newer glueable type tracks.
You are also shown how to stretch sprue over a candle to make an antenna.
The bottom of page 5 has a black and white box art of an E8 with a shark face painted on the front of it. Below that is black and white photo of a completed E8 model made up with this shark face.
Unfortunately, this face is not included on the kit’s decal sheet. Next to these pictures it says “The mark in front of the tank shown in the picture of the completed model was used for the tanks which belonged to the B Company of 45th Tank Battalion. This battalion was active in support operation of the U.S. 5th Infantry Combat Corps during the Korean War. AS for the B Company, it was dispatched as a single unit from the 6th Mechanized Division, then to the Korean Front in September of 1950, and actively engaged itself in pursuing the enemy from Pusan Beachhead to Hamhung together with the 1st Cavalry Division already there."
Dark green letter A parts tree holds: the main gun barrel and it’s travel lock, mantle, 50 cal machine gun, bow plate, hatch parts etc. (35 parts)
Dark green letter B parts tree holds: the rear hull plate, bogies, spare track links etc. (33 parts)
Dark green Letter C parts tree has been chopped into 2 halves. It holds: the road wheels, return rollers, idler wheels, drive sprockets etc. (56 parts)
The dark green individual parts of the hull tub, hull roof, turret top and turret bottom, the crew figure are not shown in the parts trees illustrations, nor are they alphabetized.
The dark green tree of the crew figure parts holds 4 parts.
The black vinyl rubber band type tracks are next. There are 2 long runs.
The electric motor and the gear box are not pictured either.
The decal sheet and the small kit catalog complete the kit’s contents.
There are no clear parts and no interior details. However exterior detail is nice.
I don’t know if I will eventually build this kit motorized or not. If I do it as just a static model motorization holes in the hull tub will have to puttied up.
Recommended.
I don’t know if I will eventually build this kit motorized or not. If I do it as just a static model motorization holes in the hull tub will have to puttied up.
Recommended.
This kit has a copyright date of 1970 molded onto the hull roof part. That’s about the time I purchased my kit at my local hobby shop