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Formations
Welded Lower Hull
for Tacsa M4A1 kits

Formations Set No. F102
1:35 Scale

Review by Terry Ashley

TascaTasca
Introduction:

Many later production M4A1s were built with the welded lower hull instead of the earlier riveted type included in both the Tasca kits M4A1 Sherman Mid Production (kit #35010) and M4A1 Sherman Late Production (Kit #35012) with only the Pressed Steel Car Company continuing to produce the riveted lower hull for the M4 and M4A1 while all other plants had switched to the welded lower hulls.

It is possible to convert the riveted lower hulls to the welded type as partially outlined in the M4A1 Sherman Late Production (Kit #35012) review but now Rob from Formations has released this resin welded lower hull designed specifically for the Tasca kits to make the conversion job very easy. Note; the new Tasca M4A1 DV kit (#35014) about to be released doesn't need this conversion as the majority of vehicles around the El Alemein period had the riveted hull as including in that kit.

The Set:
The set consists of just 4 parts in the usual light cream resin for the full lower hull tub in one piece which also does the lower hull assembly from the Tasca kit for you, a new rear hull plate with the lower curved fillet and two upper walls for the engine compartment.

Resin parts
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Formations
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The quality of the casting is first class as we have come to expect from Formations with very few if any blemishes such as air holes or warping. This is especially noticeable on the large lower hull tub casting which is perfectly square with the only cleanup being some minor excess resin along the rear edge that are easily removed. The rear hull plate has the usual casting block and some resin film inside the engine door opening and the inner walls just small casting blocks which are all very easy to remove before assembly.

The hull has well done weld seams and the modified suspension channels on the underside of the hull, it also has the locating brackets for the suspension bogies included and you should note to remove the eight bolt heads at the front of the hull sides if using the cast transmission cover as these are only used with the bolted transmission cover.

Assembly of the hull is very quick and easy using cyanoacrylate due to the perfectly cast hull with the rear hull fitting perfectly into place and there is also indentations on the inside of the hull to position the Tasca engine compartment firewall (part E5) which again fits perfectly due to the all square hull. It is not really necessary to add the firewall but it does help align the lower sponson fillers so is a good idea to include this part. (See images below)

The other thing to watch is the upper engine compartment walls (resin parts A) are thinner than the walls of the hull tub and you should position these flush with the outer hull sides. That's it you are ready to add the rest of the Tasca kit parts as per instructions.

Basic hull assembly with the addition of the Tasca kit engine firewall.
Formations
Formations

Assembly:

I actually altered the assembly slightly to make fitting the upper hull/sponson fillers and lower hull together easier and I should stress this is just my way of assembly and following the Tasca instructions will work although a bit of tweaking may be needed to align the sponson filler to the upper and lower hulls hence my variation on assembly. Click on the thumbnail below for a visual step by step of the assembly described, it should also be noted that all the resin to plastic parts are only dry fitted in the images such is the excellent fit of the parts.

I firstly glued the kit sponson filler panels and engine firewall to the Tasca upper hull and let dry completely, this then requires you to cut off the upper side extensions on the resin rear hull plate to allow the upper and lower hull to fit together. These small side extension can't be seen after assembly in any case and so won't be missed.

You choice of bolted or cast front transmission housing from the Tasca kits can be added and the fit to the resin tub was perfect with just some minor resin "fluff" trimmed from the inner locating lip. I also had to trim about 0.5mm from the edges of the separate lower transmission bolted strip (Tasca part) for a better fit but other than that the transmissions slipped into place perfectly.

You then join the lower and upper hulls by slipping the engine bay walls up between the sponson fillers already attached to the hull and again the fit was perfect without any trimming needed at all. Fitting the two rear extension fillets (Tasca parts E2, E4) required about 0.5mm be trimmed from the rear of the fillets for a better fit and again that was the only trimming needed.

The remainder of the kit assembly is as per the Tasca kit instructions to build your welded hull M4A1, all very simply.
As mentioned assembling the kit is the same manner as the Tasca kit instructions will get the result, I just found this method easier to ensure precise location of the upper/lower hull/sponson fillers, the process is up to you.

Assembly
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Formations
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Conclusion:

This is another superbly cast set for the M4A1 welded lower hull designed for the Tasca kits and the perfectly square and warp free lower hull tub eliminates the multi-part kit assembly as well as making the assembly process as easy as you could possibly find.

The lack of trimming needed during assembly also help make the process as trouble free as possible and apart from the minor resin cleanup at the start was like assembling a plastic kit.

Highly recommended 8.5/10

See the Sherman Subject Page for additional reviews of Sherman related kits and accessories.

References:
SHERMAN
R.P.Hunnicutt. Presidio Books
ISBN 0-89141-080-5
book
Modeler's Guide to the Sherman
MMIR Special.
Ampersand Publishing
book
M4/M4A1 Sherman
Tankograd Technical Manual
Series - No 6002
book
Technical Manual CD-ROM
TM9-731A M4 & M4A1

Easy 1 Productions #T002
Easy 1
M4 Sherman
Wydawnictwo Militaria 13
ISBN 83-86209-09-7
book
Ground Power Magazine
#96 - 5/2002

GALILEO Publishing Co.,Ltd.
book

Thanks to Rob from Formations for the review set.



Page created September 21, 2008