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Modeller Build Logs
Tasca M32 Recovery Vehicle w/ T1E1 Mine Roller |
| By James Wechsler | | Started: | Apr 15, 2008 | | Updated: | Nov 9, 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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| Co-Driver Side Sponson | Aug 27, 2008 |
Since M32 turret doesn’t have a place for the radio, it is now moved to the co-driver’s sponson, replacing the ammo box on the M4A1. I lifted the radio from the Academy Achilles kit (yes it’s a British tank but the radio in it is the US radio). The area in front of the radio is open but I’m going to add a 0.30 cal ammo box that a co-driver might stash there.
As in the last chapter, I added the bogie nuts and a small cable based on reference photos. The small, white holder mounted on the lower hull I believe is for holding a periscope so it might not be correct since I’ve also used the periscope holders that are mounted over the transmission (see a previous chapter).
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