1:35 M4A3 E-8 SHERMAN

The Easy Eight and its double wheels

The designation M4A3E8 was carried by the last big modification of the Sherman that the American army managed to put into the fighting in Europe. It brought wider tracks, a 76 millimeter gun and above all suspension with horizontal springs, in which a pair of wheels forms each station. The ride became calmer and the ground pressure lower. Soldiers nicknamed the machine the Easy Eight and in Korea it served for another whole decade. It is precisely this version that became the subject of most of the postwar photographs from which modelers judge the color of the rubber.

Why the running gear is the most demanding

Suspension with horizontal springs means twice the number of tires compared with the older versions, and outlining that many edges by hand is slow even for an experienced builder. The masks shorten that step to a few minutes: they are stuck onto the wheels once the base has dried, a dark shade is gone over them and after peeling an exact circle stays behind. The difference shows mainly at the pairs, where the tires almost touch and a brush cannot reach between them.

The order of steps and repairs later

The wheels have to be finished before the tracks are fitted, because after that you cannot get at the inner tires. The decals are stuck onto the hull and the turret, so nothing holds on the running gear and nothing disturbs the boundary of the colors. Weathering then unifies the shade of the rubber with mud and dust. A scuffed place can be covered again with a leftover cut-out at any time and sprayed over locally.

What you get

A pair of sheets intended for the running gear. The tank and finishes are not enclosed and the cut is based on the parts of the company mentioned above.