M4 Sherman HVSS Suspension
Kit No. AF 35030
First Look Review
by Terry Ashley
The set consists of 146 parts in olive drab plastic and a further 12 in vinyl for the volute spring stops. The quality of the mouldings is excellent with virtually no pin ejector marks present except for a couple of small ones on a few parts which I’ll cover later while the detail on the parts is exceptional. The plastic used is quite soft and care should be taken when removing from the sprues and trimming the attachment points so as not to remove to much plastic.
Starting from the front the drive sprockets are made up of a central cylinder with the sprockets attached to each end and a central plate with the hub bolts with nice definition, the bolts on the sprockets also have good definition.
The HVSS suspension units are made up of 19 parts each with the volute springs
having vinyl inserts for the bump stops. The L shaped hull mounting brackets
are designed in a way that should make them easy to fit to any Sherman hull
and have well defined bolt details on the side plate as well as on the underside
of the bracket.
The central support arm has nice details with a separate outside end plate
which also holds the two main suspension arms in place.
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| Side view | bottom view |
The shock absorbers are in one piece with separate end brackets to fit them to the suspension arms and there is also a separate oil reservoir to attach to the top of the shock absorbers. One thing to watch here is there is a raised ridge (seam) down the centre of the reservoir, this should be there so don't remove it.
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Shock absorbers Volute spring stops  Oil Reservoir. Seam is correct and should not be removed  |
The road wheels have nice bolt head details on both front and reverse sides as well as good dish contours and excellent hub details which include the grease plug and small cap bolts.
The larger return rollers also have excellent hub details with the grease plug and there is also bolt head details on the reverse side. The hull mounting brackets also have excellent bolt head details while the smaller return rollers also have nice hub details.
The rear idler wheels also have the bolt head detail on the front and reverse sides as well as the central hub grease plug mount but you will have to add your own grease nipple from a bit if sprue. The rear of the outer idler wheel has a couple of pin ejector marks but if you can see these after assembly you would have to really keen.
In all another excellent suspension set from AFV Club and is a precursor to the forthcoming M40 SPG (kit No.AF35031) and bodes well for what we get in that kit, do yourself a favour and get a few sets, I have.
Highly recommended.
Construction Update:
Click here to see the construction of
the suspension units.
The Sprues:
Page Created 26 August 2003
Updated 27 August 2003