USMC M4A3 Dozer Riff Raff . Camera broke . No updates . 6/3

Hmmmm...

 Looks like something I did a while back.......

    Should look ominous with that dozer blade.

Nice work so far!  Maybe you've already seen this tweaks list before...

http://www.usarmymodels.com/MANUFACTURERS/Tamiya/tamiya35122.html

Disaster , i remember your last Sherman build here ........darn good looking piece . Do you have a link to it ? I cant remember the name of it and i'd like to look at it again .

T26 , thanks for that link , much appreciate the offer . I filed it away in my favorites when i was doing research on this model . Good info there that has come in handy already .

T26 , i found this little tid bit at that link , these drain holes for the splash guards on the upper hull . I never noticed them before .

Looks like a fun project Carl, look forward to seeing this one come to life. Nice work on the weld seams and other little details.

Bill , its been fun alright . The research has been interesting . i'm still looking for more info .

I know you experienced builders dont need the info below so concider it blah blah blah if you've got it figured out already ......................

The transmission cover looked to smooth for me . Since its a cast piece i thought it needed to look a bit more .........well "cast " . I understand that this can be over done , especially  for the "scale effect" but i bit the bullet and went ahead and textured the cover more . I used Testors plastic cement in the purplish labeled container . After stippling it on i let it cure and sanded off the roughest of the texturing .

Then appied another coat of liquid cement to smooth down the sanded surface and shot a thin coat of primer to see how it looked .

That looks good. I always make sure I add the bolt strip at this point and ensure no seam btwn the finshed areas of the bolt strip and the cast texture of the main body of the differential cover.

Shellback

Disaster , i remember your last Sherman build here ........darn good looking piece . Do you have a link to it ? I cant remember the name of it and i'd like to look at it again .

  Looks like you done found it.

 If you didn't, well just click on the image that's at the bottom of all my postings and replies.

 BTW, that texture looks factory fresh...... some very good glacis results for the average working Sherman.

Very nice.

T26 , thanks for that reminder . I'll make sure that seam is sealed .

Disaster , i never saw that link at the bottom ...........cant see whats right in front of me .

Thanks for the help T26 and Disaster . I have the aft lower hull finished and primered .I did a little texturizing on the exhaust pipes . I dont think these were cast (were they?) but i wanted some texturing on them when i rust them up a little later on.

Mighty fine looking work Carl! 

Great work Carl,,,,,,,,,,,  !!!

Humming along just nicely.......

Looking good

Hey guys ,

I added this copper wire to the eye on the bottom of the gun craddle . I'll paint it to look like a rope later . I saw a rope attached like this in one of my reference excursions .

The support brackets for the blade hydraulic mechanism .Not much info inthe Verliden instructions on how this is all attached . I was able to get a little peak at the hooks ups from a couple of pictures ,but nothing conclusive . I ran plastic rod thru the brass plates and then the pintle hook eyes . Hopefully this is close .

Following this build. Sometimes you just have to engineer the build yourself, however you think it's will work. Cool, nice progress so-far

Sprueone , True .............

Oh yes , noticed i broke off the starboard headlight guard when i looked at this picture closer ..........i spent an hr working on that thing making it thinner Also i made brackets and sorda chains to hold the plugs that cover the holes where the headlights are removed from . I'll be leaving the bow M.G. out of its mount also . Doesnt look like it would be of any use with the blade blocking it .

Hi Shell  : )  .... long time man !

the weld seams look really good  digging 'em out first really makes them look a lot better

and the glacis cover texture looks really nice. I don't know if you were planning on adding  the 'comb' device, but I know it would be totally appropriate for your build.     Here is a link to some different styles:                                                                                                                                                                                                      http://web.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/comb.htm

 http://web.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/comb_brakelock.htm

this is gonna be a beauty,Shell

tread

Well Tread i hadnt thought about the "comb " b4 you broughtit up ..............sounds like a good idea though .

Steve , i went thru your thread on your "Jumbo" ................thats an outstanding build . Just wanted to say that .

Shellback: things looking good so far.  I think you may have placed the gun travel lock on backwards/front however.

Also I don't recall the finer details of the VP M1 Dozer (I traded mine away before using it).  However, I built up the Resicast version and found some of its part rather clunky.  I replaced them w/styrene.  You can see what I did here:

Hope this helps.

Also, here are some good pics of an M1 survivor

http://www.ferreamole.it/images/tankdozer/tankdozer.htm

This Sherman has the cast nose so I think you can see how the lower frame attaches to it in the pics.

Shellback

Steve , i went thru your thread on your "Jumbo" ................thats an outstanding build . Just wanted to say that .

Ahh gee....

I thank you.

Steve , one question , where did you get your inspiration for the re bar and chicken wire ? Ooops , 2 questions .

Thanks for the link to your build ..........

T26E4

Shellback: things looking good so far.  I think you may have placed the gun travel lock on backwards/front however.

Also I don't recall the finer details of the VP M1 Dozer (I traded mine away before using it).  However, I built up the Resicast version and found some of its part rather clunky.  I replaced them w/styrene.  You can see what I did here:

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

On backwords .............hmmm ...........i will look . Roy i found your thread on the above build of yours . The hydraulic cylinder certaily is larger than the one provided by Verlinden . Looked like an interesting build but i couldnt find  the thread with the finished scratch built blade  ......the blade you made looked like something found on a M1 Abrams , cool is what i'm sayin Thanks for the pic and help .

Roy , heres the problem . I used the gun cradle from an Italeri kit M4A1 . Here's a pic of the differences . The Tamiya kit cradle is sitting to the right side of pic .Thanks for catching that ..................  

Fixed . Appreciate the help Roy .