ARMOR - Sherman Family Group Build

Two thumbs up, Dan. Great build, superb paint job and impressive details.

Your work deserves nothing less.

As I already mentioned out in the regular forum ... great stuff Dan.

You and Dwight have done the IDF proud.

Pick your favourite 4 pictures and e-mail them to me please, along with a little build description and I'll get them up onto the site.

Boybuddho, KICK ARSE!!! I love it.. Now I haven't really be following this build so forgive my ignorance... Is this a strait up kit or a bash? If a kit which ones and what mods have you made? The paint job looks great ...everything is great... EXCELLENT!!!

Congrats!

Well, it looks like I'm about done with my Isherman...







Regards, Dan

That's a cool tip, Ron. I'll take note of that. Thanks. Hmmm. With all these tips...my hands are itching to.....He-he-he.

Peter,

QUOTE: Detail painting the Achilles interior at the moment, and casting the additional 27 rounds required for replacement of the tubes incorrectly supplied by Acadamy for the internal racks.........oh what fun.

You amaze me! I admire your tenacity, attention to detail, and mostly your skills!!

Thanks for the offer of the wheels, that's really generous of you. But I think I can come up with an alternative to having them shipped half way around the world! I followed Robert's advice and looked at my 2nd generatin Firefly Vc kit, and there are two sets of unused roadwheels in there. I'm not sure if there are any idlers or not.

Of course, I could break down, make a couple of impressions of the front of the wheels, and do a resin casting of either enough for an insert or half the wheels and glue them onto the kit wheels. I've never tried any castings. This could be the opportunity! There are also a couple of am wheels sets in at Great Models that include idlers for about $9. I don't know if they are the right style or not, but they are a possibility!

Thanks, again, to all of you. This is the kind of stuff that makes the forum in general and the group builds in specific very valuable!

Thanks for all of the kind words.

I guess I need to clarify, I felt the pictures were nearly worthless because I put a lot more TLC into it than my camera can capture. I'm almost afraid to move on to weathering, but I'm away from home until next week and I have some time to think it over.

I've enjoyed this group build so much, I'm looking forward to the next one (a couple of projects to finish first) - how about a WWI - Pre-War group build?

Dwight, you could leave off a 'duckbill' here or there to simulate hitting a rock or some such and shearing the thing off! I talked to a vet who said he slid into a curb in some city and took about half of them off of his tank in one blow... I wonder if his TC understood his pain?

Ron

Bill, I have the Acadamy Achilles and it comes with a choice of idlers too.

It may be a while getting to you, but if you want the spoked type (too late for the solid, they are on the kit) drop me an e-mail and I'll send them to you. Or else, maybe post a thread asking if someone closer to your home is prepared to cough up their 'spares'.

Detail painting the Achilles interior at the moment, and casting the additional 27 rounds required for replacement of the tubes incorrectly supplied by Acadamy for the internal racks.........oh what fun. (I don't think even AFV clubs Achilles has the right stowage...anyone know?) Panther build is taking up time on the achilles too. Just not enough modelling time available.

Thanks Sherm. I don't want these pieces to go to waste so I'll use them. I had the old Dragon M4A4 and I can see that the Firefly seems to be from a new mould. Better detailed I might say. The lower transmission cover already has a rough steel texture as well as the turret. And hmmmm the 17 pdr looks good, too. It even has the .50 cal machine gun included where the old M4A4 doesn't. A tank commander figure and a british infantry are also included. Some PE parts same as the old M4A4.

Nice kit overall. I know I will have a blast doing this one.

Dwight - yup .... used on nearly all variants of the Sherman

Sherm, I have the Dragon Firefly VC and it comes with "optional" duckbill track extensions. Have these been used in the actual VC's?

Sorry, I am just looking into the box. Nope no plans for building it yet. And no....no...no. don't temp me into doing it. He-he-he.

QUOTE: You have the old Firefly kit IIRC.

Actually, I have the older Vc kit. I don't know if it has extra idlers or not. I''ll take a look. Thanks to both of you. (Might be cheeper to buy an am set of idlers than to get a tube of milliput, though!

Thanks Dan I've got it to work. All I had to do was go back to the site and read the FAQ. It's amazing what you can learn by reading.

Robert there must be somthing screwy with my computer because I have been at your other web site before and it worked then. But with Dan's help I can see all the finished Shermies.

Great tip Latch !!!!! A simple "casting method".

Bill - There's two ways you can correct this fairly easy without resorting to the AM products. You have the old Firefly kit IIRC. In that kit are a spare set of open spoked idler wheels. Go ahead and use them. Often Shermans mixed and matched their road wheels / idlers with whatever was available.
The second way would be to use the set of solid idlers that come with the old Firefly kit and turn them down to make an inset for the new set and then you can use the open spoke style for that Firefly.

gnsnow - your Shermie is looking great ... and has already been stated, no wasted pics here.

QUOTE: Originally posted by wipw Sorry I didn't comment earlier, latch. It looks really great. Lots of TLC on that baby, I can tell. Nice work!! Robert (or anyone else that can help) H E L P ! ! ! ! As Robert aluded to in an earlier post, the back of the idler wheels on the DML Firefly are HOLLOW!! Can someone please tell me where to fine replacement idlers for this thing??! Thanks

You actually don't have to buy replacement idlers.

Get you some Talcum powder and some Milliput or similar epoxy putty.

1. Roll up a good size ball of the milliput and then coat it with Talcum powder.
2. Then press the "ball" onto the side of the idler with the detail. This will give you an impression of the detail on the "ball". This will be your "form".
3. Set the "form" aside to dry. Make sure your "form" is DRY!!!
4. Roll up a "snake" of Milliput and place it into the cavity on the back of the idler.
5. Dust the "snake" with some Talcum powder.
6. Press the "form" onto the "snake". If you've got the right amount of "snake" in the cavity on the idler, it will fill the void and the "form" will transfer the detail from the front of the idler to the Milliput "snake".

You then have instant detail for the back of your idler.

The Talcum powder is important to keep the "form" from sticking to the Milliput "snake".

If I wasn't clear how to do this, then drop me an email and I'll try to explain it better.

I've done this many times and it works OK for this purpose.

Thanks Frosty ~ : )

Gnsnow...Nothing wrong wit the pics...great looking build.

Robert, I tried your site and had the same problem but the free html viewer program works there too. I guess older computers don't recognize .htm files?

well, I'm going into the final stages with this m10. as always I leave my road wheels and tracks till last and that's what I'm on now. so I got to do that all my accessory parts (baggage, field telly, spent mg cartridges, murphy, extra track links, etc.) and then weathering.

gnsnow: That shermie is loooooking goood. Don't worry about the pictures. We shermie lovers know a good shermie when we see one.

Sorry I didn't comment earlier, latch. It looks really great. Lots of TLC on that baby, I can tell. Nice work!!

Robert (or anyone else that can help) H E L P ! ! ! !

As Robert aluded to in an earlier post, the back of the idler wheels on the DML Firefly are HOLLOW!! Can someone please tell me where to fine replacement idlers for this thing??!
Thanks

QUOTE: Originally posted by frostygirl Latch, boybuddho,DDT: looking good, fellas ! the BARV is extra-cool (i'm in a 'main gun-less afv phase rite now, w/ kv-t tow tractor & m32 arv in progress & a tiger bergepanzer as the next project in the series ); r u going to paint it light blue like the one i've seen in the UK mags ? frosty

Yeah Frosty, the BARV will be "light blue". I think the actual color is "Royal Navy Gray". Robert sent me the color info. and a close match.

I'll put a little British "Khaki" around the white stars. I've only got pictures of three of these things at D-Day, and all of them are the RN Gray with the Khaki fields for the stars.

Thanks for the compliments Everyone.

Gnsnow, Your sherman is looking very nice. I don't think your pictures are worthless. Don't be so hard on yourself.
mark956

QUOTE: Originally posted by mark956 The BARV is looking good latch. Did you use a PE set on your bogie assemblies? If so what did you use to get the curved bend on the track skid? mark956

Thanks Mark,

No PE set being used on the Bogies. Just using strip brass from the LHS. I used a jeweler's screwdriver to form the front curve. Just put the shaft up against the brass strip and bent it around the screwdriver shaft. I used a set of small needle-nose pliers to form the two bends in the back.

Y'know, ol' Joe public wouldn't know the difference between a dry or wet stowed Sherman, much less the diff between a Sherman and a Panther... To them a Tank's a Tank and a Self Propelled Howitzer is a Tank... Glad you could get the applique armor off.. I'd have just left it!
The little Joe generator worked out well, the inside of the hull is painted, now for a bit more detailing before puttin' it all together!

Ron

Looks pretty good to me, too. Sorry you ran into the problem with the applique armor. That really sucks to find an error like that. At least it's nice when you can recover from them! Way to go.

agreed!! very clean build!!!!

Gnsnow, not useless photos, looks like you're doing a very nice job!

Ron

Latch, boybuddho,DDT:
looking good, fellas ! the BARV is extra-cool (i'm in a 'recovery afv' phase rite now, w/ kv-t tow tractor & m32 arv in progress & a tiger bergepanzer as the next project in the series ); r u going to paint it light blue like the one i've seen in the UK mags ?

as 4 me, i didn't get as much work time as i'd have hoped last weekend.
went ice skating w/ the sibs on saturday, & watched 'Pirates of the Carribean'
on a friend's basement 'home theater' w/ surround sound & huge screen.
it was SO much fun !

but i didn't slack off completely...

i did some more work on interior parts:
started building the fighting compartment stowage bins
( used .020 & .010 styrene sheet 4 this)
dimensional fabric paint (thanx 4 the tip, Domi !) to make the handles on the
driver's controls)
styrene rod & brass wire for various little bits

no pix this time... my apologies again!
got 2 go to ronusmc site 2 look at mike (renarts) sherman interior again !

frosty

Here's some nearly worthless progress pics (my digital camera sucks).

Since I took these I removed the applique armor on the hull and repaired the damage I caused during that removal (sanded sides, replaced knocked off PE and bogie).