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Modeller Build Logs
Tasca M32 Recovery Vehicle w/ T1E1 Mine Roller |
| By James Wechsler | | Started: | Apr 15, 2008 | | Updated: | Oct 2, 2008 |
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First off let me say that Paul Owen is a great guy, even if he is a Vancouver Canucks fan. Having built 44 Shermans, I really hadn’t planned on buying the Tasca M4A1 kit since I’d built that variant a few times over. But Paul sent me this kit and it is a really, really great gift. So I got motivated to do something special.
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that simply building this kit as a gun tank really didn’t get me excited. Then it dawned on me, it would make the perfect conversion base for an M32 Armored Recovery Vehicle. I mean the old Italeri kit was just staring at me and screaming ‘I need a new hull, suspension, and transmission cover!’
So there it was, my mega project. But then I got to thinking a little more. Why not go further? Let’s scratch build the T1E1 ‘Earthworm’ mine roller! Never heard of this massive contraption? Check here:
http://www.jedsite.info/engineer/tango-number-us/t1_series/t1e1/t1e1-intro.html
But wait, there’s more. The M32 has two huge hatches on the turret structure that just scream ‘interior’. At last, my project has reached planning fruition. This blog will be of an M32 ARV w/T1E1 Mine Roller and a full interior.
Plan on a lot of chapters. |
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| The Mine Roller Attachment Revisited | Jun 10, 2008 |
Ever since I built the attachment for the mine roller it’s been bugging me that it is sitting about 2mm too low. I kept telling myself that I could correct it when I built the other parts but Murphy’s Law has a bad way of rearing its ugly head in cases like this. Then I got a copy of the Technical Manual for the mine roller and realized that I’d made a few other mistakes.
So I carefully cut it off the transmission and reworked it. One thing I hadn’t realized from the photos I have is that the main assembly is actually mounted to a smaller set of brackets which is what is actually mounted to the transmission. So I had to first add some more sheet plastic to fill in brackets I’d built. I reshaped them to the correct profile and then built a new set of brackets which are bolted to the brackets on the mine roller mount. Hopefully the photo is worth a thousand words since it’s pretty hard to describe.
Of course I redid the position of these new brackets so they’re higher on the transmission cover and now the whole assemble sits at the right height.
Finally, I took this opportunity to add a few of the small brackets and bolts that I’d planed on adding later. That way the assembly is complete and I won’t have to remember to do it later. And lastly, as you can tell from the photos, I’ve left the assembly off the vehicle. I think I’ll take my chances mounting it later rather than risking having to cut it free again. Lesson learned on that one.
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