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Modeller Build Logs
Tasca M32 Recovery Vehicle w/ T1E1 Mine Roller |
| By James Wechsler | | Started: | Apr 15, 2008 | | Updated: | Sep 4, 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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| Engine | May 21, 2008 |
So it is finally time to assemble the engine. The Verlinden engine set is very nice. It has excellent details and a reasonable part count. About the only real hassle was removing the two semi-circular exhausts from their large pour blocks. I needed a motor tool to accomplish that.
Once I’d put the engine together, I had to do some careful aligning of the upper shroud. First off, there no clear mounting location on the engine so I used my references as best as I could to see where to mount it. Second, I had to make sure that I could position the engine in the engine bay such that the edge of the shroud would align with the forward section of the engine cover plate on the hull. I only plan to have the rear access plate swung forward and the forward one still mounted to the hull which is the more common ‘in service’ position for engine access.
So the forward cover plate is actually bolted to the shroud where the bolt holes are located. In addition, I had to make sure that the height of the shroud was such that it just mated to the cover plate. Too low and it would look odd to see a gap. Too high and the cover plate wouldn’t fit to the hull.
I took a number of measurements and determined that I need to add a 0.040 inch (1 mm) shim to the bottom of the lower engine mounting wall. I also added a 0.020 inch (0.5mm) shim to the engine output shaft to set the engine the right distance for and aft. Finally I added two shims to both the shroud and the engine mount to get them to fit left and right. TheVerlinden set is designed for the Tamiya kit and there’s a notable width difference internally. The left shim was 0.030 inch (0.75mm) thick and the right one was 0.040 inch (1mm) thick.
Although a bit of work, all this adjusting has left me with an engine module that fits snuggly to the engine bay and is really easy to align which will make future work quite a bit more simple.
But of course there’s one thing that really can’t be replicated in resin, the wiring. And there’s a lot of it. So that’s next.
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