ARMOR - Sherman Family Group Build

I finished the bogie assemblies and rollers. The upper and lower hull are together as well as the turret. I am going to turn down an aluminum main barrel; hopefully it'll look better than the kits. The plastic is soft, and I was surprised to not find location marks for the return rollers.The instructions give out measurements. Is this standard practice on Dragon/ DML Shermans kits? If anybody ( Robert! ) has tips for these individual track assemblies, I'd be most appreciative.

Thanks , Dan

I haven't replied in awhile.

Finished lower hull and am currently throwing together a bunch of Eduard's PE on the upper hull. After reading current posts though, I'm going back to my bogies to do some more modification. I also couldn't get the sponson templates to line up and and I ended up creating my own. I'm also a husband, father of 2 young'n's and currently a fulltime college student in my last year of Computer Science - MY PLATE IS FULL! Still, I'm able to find an hour here and there. Tonight, I'm finishing up the hoping to finish up the PE on the top deck so I can move on to the turret.

For all you Audie Murphy fans, "To Hell And Back" has been running alot lately on one of the Cinemax channels.

Dan - when it comes to DML and HVSS suspensions .. yes that's typical. In the instance of the M50, they just used the lower hull from their M4A4 kit and gave the dimensions. As far as the tracks go with that kit, other than the tedium of clean-up and the addition of the center guide, they are probably the easiest Sherman indy tracks to work with. Just be patient and work slowly, being sure to keep them in a straight line. Build them in lengths then paint and weather before attaching to the kit.

gnsnow - not to worry, it's not a race so there's lots of time. You're the second person to mention that the sponson template didn't work ... hmmmm.

I managed to get my 3rd rack done tonight. I'll leave the 4th for tomorrow.

Did some of the interior details in the hull. Scavenged seats from a parts box, scratched a transmission housing, control levers, bulkheads, some interior cables and little odd bits. Not alot but just enough that if you looked past the figures in the hatch you'll see some detail.

Did the detail on the underside of the driver hatches and scratched some periscopes. Made a modification to the hatch and notched the rim of the hatch openings.

Did a couple of bogeys so I'm almost finished with those. One more and some detail. Once this part is done I can set it aside till paint.

Ive been jumping around on the assemblies and doing a sort of modular build. Keeps it interesting and avoids some of the tedium. I like the plastic in the DML kits. It seems a little softer and scrapes smooth. Sanding it is a bit of a chore as it scores easy. And I've had to burnish or use a really fine finishing paper after doing some sanding.

I think I'm going to add the telephone box on the rear of the hull. And do a little stowage stuff just as a side trip. Get away from the rest of the build for a bit.

Glad to see everyone is moving along.

Mike

Progress report on my goat Ram.

Even though this beast will never be dimensionally correct, it is starting to come together a bit. The major work today was on the rear lower hull. Idler wheel mountings were fitted using bit and pieces from Italeri and Dragon. The plate over the mufflers was built up using plastic card (still needs to be cleaned up a bit). The bustle basket is from a DML kit, and the hatch covers and 3 piece bolting plates on the transmission cover come from the old Tamiya Lee kit. The entire sponson sides were sanded down removing any details related to the side doors that were once there. These were replaced by the ventilators on the sponsons. The pistol ports were sanded down on the turret and the spaces puttied in. And finally a gutter which seems to be on all cast Canadian vehicles was gouged out at the rear of the upper hull.

Suspension time tomorrow.

Robert, thanks for the sites, they help alot. I'm going to get a progress pic or two in the A.M. I just got home from work and got my reading caught up.

QUOTE: Originally posted by scubaboy99 Ok, few questions (again, new to armor). What color were the seat cussions in the tanks, both the actual chair type and the fold down circular ones? Also, what is the shade of white in the inside, or is it just "white"? Tanks for all the help (pun intended)

US tank manufacturers used black. Some UK refits may have been brown.

Ron

Robert, the Ram looks great!

Worked a bit on the turret last night and put together the tranny and interior portions of the differential / steering brake housing from my castings. Also fit it into the differential housing (nose), but haven't glued it in place or added details. Dry fit some interior parts also, such as hull braces, bins and ammo racks.

Ron

M32 progress report update:

after seeing so many great posts yesterday, i went home totally stoked 2 work
on my project !

- added a couple of plates of applique armor 2 the hull sides

- made brackets 4 spare drive sprockets out of brass strip

- drilled holes 4 lifting hooks & brackets in upper hull

- started cleaning up flash from suspension parts (just a little, not 2 bad, really)

- assembled & installed tranny housing

- did some dry fitting

mine looks just about like Domi's at this point, except i didn't fill in the ejector pin marks below the sponsons... which is very bad of me, i guess...

but since the upper hull isn't glued in (got a bit of work 2 do on the interior first) i can always go back & fix that at some point if i have 2...

Domi: did u fill urs in because u know it'll b visible, or just because u r a great modeler w/ good work habits ?

frosty

I think the template for the sponsons might be too small, if someone played with it, an enlargement may make it fit right. Some simple mesurements, a basic math would reveal the proper enlargment percentage. I just used the idea from the template and "direct measured" my own. I checked again, and I printed it out at 100%, perhaps "fit to page" will work better, but I haven't tried (and probably won't).

Perfect day for painting here! It's 75 F with 15% humidity.

Wind Chill here is around -15°F.. air temp isn't bad... +11. Skiing this weekend!!

Ron

I've got a long way to go, but here's what I've got so far.

looking good there, robert and bob!!!!!

hey bob. i didn't know you were building the m 7 priest too. i see yo too had fit problems on the left side of the fireing compartment. did you have any trouble with the front fenders? i am a litte farther on mine got the upper and lower part together and working an the boige wheels today. didnt get nothing done on it yesterday. will try to put up some pcs later

YIPPEE!! I finished all the ready round racks!!! Now I'm onto the next steps.

Congrats M1!! Ga mine is the Kangaroo version. Yes the fenders were a bear, need to do some filling when I put the upper hull on, I finished the rear hull today, still need to work on the seams. The front armor plate that closes the gun opening was not fun.

Decided not to worry about interior until necessary and got started on my M4A3 105mm last night, turret is about done and I can add the 105mm breech when I get one. Did all the do-dads (ammo cans etc) waiting for glue to dry. Now I need to find another project to work on while glue dries (2.5 ton 6X6 ?).
I ran into some major gaps at the final drive when test fitting the upper and lower hulls(see pic). Did I put something together wrong?

They're comin' along all! Open house tonight at our school, also grading for end of term. The O-H starts at 6, so... what to do until then... enter some grades... seems it's another bring your tank to school day.

Ron

ok here are some pics as promised i hope. still havent got this posting pics down yet. yeah bob i didnt relise that their was no gun thier so i furgured you were building the kangroo version. also does any one haveany tips on how to remove file marks from plastic i heard brasso was good for that? so here goes inpost a few pics i hope.

http://rongeorgc.com/modules/gallery/upload?page
i hope this works
nope it didnt work so what i do wrong?

Ga.modler - went and looked on Ron's site but couldn't find your pics there. Part of the problem was the url .... some how you ended up with a wrong letter in it.

Great progress guys and gals !!!! Good to see some pics starting to show up too.

Ga.modler - to remove file marks I use different grains of sandpaper to clean the area up.

Well, that was relaxing (before the parents show up). I like the way DML always puts all sorts of spares in each kit. Just now I didn't like the naked backs of the 'bogie wheels', so I used a jeweler's saw to cut the spokes (wheel centers) out of the spares in the kit and attach them to the backs of some of the wheels. Now, I also have spare roadwheel tires for my M32, and won't show off the undetailed backs of the bogie wheels when the kit is done.
Two bogie units assembled, but not cleaned up.

I know.. the easy way to do the same thing would be to get aftermarket wheels, but I grew up with sheet styrene being the aftermarket detail 'kit in a bag' and it's a hard habit to break. (I do have an AM engine kit!... so I'm getting there.)

Ron

Sherm, bob and derek,

Nice work on your shermies. Hope I can catch up with the build soon.

ok thier now .dummy me forgot to upload them to rons site what a dummy.

gnsnow - I had the same problem the instructions they provided were a little on the confusing side.

Derek - I don't think you did anything wrong because I came up with the same gaps.

Thank you to whoever put the picture looking down the commanders hatch on ron's site. That was exactly what I was looking for.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Ga.modler ok thier now .dummy me forgot to upload them to rons site what a dummy.

ROFLMAO

Here they are:

Derek - you did nothing wrong .... it's a Tamiya gap ... easy enough to fill.

Trevor - where's the pic looking down the turret?

Glad i didn't screw up step 1! Now where is the squadron green?