Still waiting for my next projects floating across the Atlantic from Germany (Over a month now by boat) so looked into my collection and decided to give this one a go. It is a Vandra kit that I got from Dean who added the Heng Long lower and proper hollow bogies. The Grant option is just not right. I sanded the hell out of the Vandra Grant turret down to paper thin and it is still not the right shape so Lee it is. I think the front slope of the turret is wrong, but it is much closer to the real thing than the Grant. Heng Long Sherman comes with Hi/Lo gearboxes so will not work at all as the right side where the side mount 75mm is basically flat to the transmission cover. Also tried a Mato lower which has lower profile gearboxes but still won't do it. From what I have seen most people who build this has to make an opening on the upper to allow for the gearbox and then cover it up with either sand bags or wooden boxes, but lucky enough as last resort I got a low profile short shaft Heng Long gearbox from Matomart and it worked reasonably well, enough that I can sand down the upper but not have to make an opening so I am a very happy camper.

Have no idea what to do with all the elevations and rotations of the 37mm and the 75mm but that is for another day. Here is the mock-up for now. It will likely not be battle worthy and just a shelf queen and an oddity Sherman lower variants that I suddenly find myself building lots of (the M12 GMC and the Calliope). 

Looks cool as hell, too bad it can't be battle operational. Yea the German shipping thing is ridiculous. I ordered a Taigen Tiger lower with the motors and gearboxes and all the late model wheels and drive sprockets and idlers and new gearboxes for my Panther and some other stuff late Sunday and early Monday from Forgebear in the UK. I received them at 1pm today. Compared to the 2 months it will take for a tiny box with some Schumo MG34's and some buckets to come from Germany by sea even though I paid for air.

Mike would you pm me thanks Doug

I got the same kit off Dean too about a year ago. Started late this summer plucking away at it, might have it ready in time for Oshawa next year at the speed I'm going. 

Had no issues with the gearboxes, had some low profiles in my spare parts bin, have no idea where they came from.  The problem I'm have at the moment is there a small gap between the tranny cover and the upper hull.

Here is the turret function and the "rotation" on the 75mm. The 37mm suppose to have more range so I have to check out the servo arm and see what is going on there. Stince, I have the same issue between the upper and lower and you can see I have a filler strip to mend the gap. That's really the only way you can fix it as far as I can tell.

very nice

The M3 now has a new owner......... 

Nice work Mike! … as always. Final destination will be quite happy!
Cheers

got to say yes I am happy with the m3 was my sons favorate glad to finaly find one thanks to Mike