9. Silly Suspension (HVSS)

 

 Time to do some work on the M4A3 105mm suspension and wheels which have been annoying me a great deal to be honest, so it's a job that I keep pushing further down the list of things that need doing, but anyway, the above picture is a good example of badly damaged Sherman HVSS wheels/tyres, and shows how some of the tyres have broken away in chunks, on the Culebra beach Sherman things are even worse as most of the suspension units themselves have rusted away completely, with most of the damper units and coil springs missing in action or corroded to such a degree that they barely look familiar anymore.

 Picture above, all of the Dragon and Tamiya parts have been mounted on sticks ready for a quick spray with a pre shade of Tamiya flat black before they get the same rusty/dusty stipple paint procedure applied to them, two of the large return rollers have also been butchered with a Mini-craft tool to in effect remove the outer rubber section (tyre) these will then hang from the rusty remains of two of the large return rollers.

 Picture above, the Dragon separately moulded tyres make doing this kind of work a million times easier it has to be said, it's very easy to just add random chunks of tyre to the wheels, and also much easier to paint and fit the fully round tyres, most of the tyres have been fairly heavily distressed and had snicks and cuts put into them, but not all, there are some good tyres left on the Culebra beach wreck, just not very many.

 Picture above, believe it or not, this rusty rotted mess of a suspension unit is one of the better/less corroded ones that can be seen on the Culebra beach wreck, the damper unit at the top has rusted through but still hangs in place, probably because the pivot points have rusted up, this picture highlights another advantage of separately moulded tyres - you can prise away the tyres slightly to leave a little gap, very much like the tyre is just starting to break away from the metal wheel.

 And that's pretty much all the wheels, suspension and tyres sorted out and ready to be fitted back on the lower hull, the tyres were painted with Tamiya NATO black (which is grey) and then given a heavy wash of Tamiya flat black to get them back to being a more blackish colour, but light grey would be ok for sun bleached faded tyres I think.

 Matt