# Aurora ESCI M4A1 Sherman Prestige Series



## XracerHO (Feb 6, 2008)

The models posted to the forum are excellent & just wanted to show what us HO slot Car guys do on the Slot Car Forum with military kits. Especially this old original Aurora Pestige Series Tank which was acquired & mounted on to slot car T-jet chassis so it can run on a track layout. The four small slot car tires are hidden behind the tank tracks which are almost touching the track so you do not notice the chassis.

Hope you miitary modellers enjoy the post from: One Guy Garage!​
The shop was finishing a vehicle for the tank museum & wanted to appropriately complete the project on Memorial Day - Aurora M4A1 Sherman.










This old very interesting 1/72 model kit by Aurora ESCI M4A1 Sherman was acquired & mounted on an original Aurora T-Jet chassis.

The chassis was very carefully hidden under the centre storage plates so the tranmission, driver, Continential radial engine detail of the kit would be visable. The engine has the rear screw mouting post drilled & glued into it. Look closely, you can see the rear gear below the front of the engine.











The turrent & body shell of the tank were glued as one piece & tightly friction fit so it could be removed to expose the detailed interior.










The Pestige Series kit came with a Commander figure, flexible tread & over 105 precision molded parts & was a great kit to build box stock.



The kit reminds us to remember & honor the Veterans of all previous military actions and all those Soldiers who serve today. ..RL


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I remember that kit. Too bad Esci chose to make what is largely an obscure non standard version of the M4A1. They combine the later style "big hatch" hull with a late type 75mm turret. These hulls were nearly always fitted with the 76mm turret. The few (dozen?) built in this turret and hull combination were finished as Duplex Drive tanks (so they had extra amphibious gear, different idler wheels, propeller drives, etc. Supposedly the hulls were used for DD tanks as the hatches were larger and made crew escape easier in case of sinking.

But a regualr gun tank in this combination is pretty much non existant.


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## Rondo (Jul 23, 2010)

That is pretty cool. Wish we could see it motoring around the track. 

Like DJ says, the kit is an odd mix of parts. If one were worried about the "Accuracy Police", he could swap on a 76mm turret and cure the most obvious issue. Probably not worth it for your purposes though. The build looks good and is surely a hoot to run.

The interior is interesting too. Of course there's not much there but it's far more than you'll find in any 1/35 scale kit. The engine is problably the best part. I have a Fujimi M4A1 somewhere. I don't recall the exact configuration of the tank but I do recall they included a passable Ford V-8. Which is cool exept it should have had a radial engine like yours. The mind wobbles. Great to see any effort at tank interiors though.

Sorry to sidetrack your thread but I've spent a lot of time studying Sherman interiors and the subject pretty much never comes up.  Go figure.

Say, didn't Aurora have an AFX Sherman with a gigantic (chrome?) howitzer barrel?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Yup Aurora had the "Peace Tank" slot car. Not really a Sherman but it was cool. I still have mine. 

Fujimi reboxed the old Nitto Shermans. Nitto and Esci both did M4A3 and M4A1 Sherman kits but used the same engines in both variants, so the engine is wrong in some.


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## XracerHO (Feb 6, 2008)

Appreciate the constructive comments on the tank & would like to be as accurate as possible but for this model will leave it box stock to represent the original old Aurora kit. Did like the detail of the radial engine (multiple parts) & drive shaft.

By making the turret moveable, the turret moves slowly side to side as the tank runs on the track due to the vibration caused by going over the track joints giving a realistic appearance of scanning the horizon.

Rondo, would appreciate if you could tell me what color the interior should be? Simply left the floor plan around the driver & storage as the molded tan kit color, no suggested color.

Think Aurora's Peace Tank (below) was based on a Sherman tank that was commanded by Oddball in the Movie Kelly's Heroes with Clint Eastwood. 










Aurora's original version was on a 4-gear chassis. ..RL


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## Rondo (Jul 23, 2010)

RL, the vast majority of metal parts in the interior are painted white, said to be gloss but the shine seems faded on most I've seen. Here's one of mine before closing the hull up. Lot of junk in there huh? It's a 76mm tank. A 75mm would be a lot different and an older dry stowage tank even more so. An M4A1 76mm would have been virtually identical to my build (inside at least). A bit different firewall detail though.










DJ, I wondered if there wasn't an M4A3 kit somewhere that the V-8 came from. Have to look for one of those. :thumbsup:

I remembered the slot car tank being more normal looking with a shorter but really fat chrome barrel. Maybe it was Hot Wheels. Maybe just a faulty memory.


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## XracerHO (Feb 6, 2008)

Thanks, Rondo for the information & for sharing the photo of your excellently detailed tank interior. Will paint the interior a dull white & research the 76mm turret. Also, keep looking for another interesting tank kit to convert. THks RL


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## Rondo (Jul 23, 2010)

RL, Quite welcome. Thanks for putting up with my digression. 

A T-34 would be a great conversion as they were pretty speedy in real life. They are a bit more compact than a Sherman but if you skipped the interior, you'd probably have room for the running gear. A Tiger or Panther would be fun to race against your Sherman too, if they aren't too big for the track. Hope you'll post more slot tanks.


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