Anyhow, you might have seen the Italeri M32 I posted at Latest Acquisitions a while ago. Of course I couldn't just build it as it is...
The M32 series was built on almost all available Sherman hulls with the M4A4 as the sole exception. The vast majority were made using M4A1 hulls (M32B1) but a couple hundred were made using surplus early production M4A3, more than standard M4. While the small hatch M4A3 usually wasn't issued to frontline troops, having the same engine as the US Army's regular tanks was seen as a useful feature. If you really want to know more about this, here's more info. Lots more info.And here's where I am right now:
The base kit is Tamiya's venerable M4. Back in the day Tamiya messed things up and used an M4A3 for reference on the hull front, which had some subtle differences to the regular M4. So thankfully all you need to do is add the proper engine deck and extend the hull a little bit. I had bought a resin conversion kit by Tank Workshop for exactly this purpose, though back then I only wanted to make a boring standard M4A3. A long time ago Gary built one of those using slightly different methods.
Other additions were new raised weld seams, more bullet splash bars, closed grouser compartment covers, a plated over fuel tank port and hull ventilator and of course plenty of filling and sanding. All in all about one week of work.
This build will probably drag on forever, but I hope I can get more substantial progress done in the near future once the hull itself is ready for the actual TRV fittings, which of course will come from the Italeri kit.
Thanks for looking
Philipp
