IDF Group Build Mk. II 2010-2011

Slow progress on the details, but I got some done. Here's the cans and spare wheels mounted, as of yesterday:

Today I sprayed the travel lock and spare track plates. Here's the rear deck prior to instalation:

Like the "bubbly rust" on the exhaust? Here's a closer look:

I'll use this technique on all Panzer IVs from here on -- it wasn't even difficult! A little liquid glue, scatter with saved sanding dust, paint and pigment -- wallah!

And here's the travel lock in place:

I also installed the spare track plates in their frame holders. After viewing other knowledgable builds and photos, I installed them horizontally instead of vertically, and with the track plates oversprayed in camouflage base colour, as seems to have been done at least some of the time, presumably to keep those big squares of black track from being like waving a flag against the sand coloured hulls.

Last job today was to run some rusty oil wash around the travel lock and the jerrycan bearer frames.

Pioneer tools next, and paint the lights and periscopes...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thunder , WOW ! Your weathering is looking great . The technique for making the bubbling rust on the exhaust caught my attention . I'll remember that idea .

You're welcome, Shellback. I have a StuG. IV underway, I might do the muffler and use it as a second example of the procedure, and put up a blog post tute...

Pioneer tools installed today, and now working on stowage and MG, hoping to paint ligthts and periscopes in a while.

M/TB379

Sounds good , i'll be watching .

Thunderbolt379

...

Like the "bubbly rust" on the exhaust? Here's a closer look:

I'll use this technique on all Panzer IVs from here on -- it wasn't even difficult! A little liquid glue, scatter with saved sanding dust, paint and pigment -- wallah!

...

Nice!

Getting very close on the Isherman, guys! Have painted the vision ports and glossed them, done a round of dry brushing for bare metal, painted and weathered a bunch of stowage and other bits. Here's the lineup of parts to go on:

I need to oil wash the crates, and I think I might clean up the MG, the Promodeller wash has left it too flat by far. Two periscope protectors to reinstall (they fell off during handling), and the searchlight is masked ready for spraying silver. next main job will be decals, and I might get on with that directly...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Hi guys,

I'm calling the Sherman 99% done. Only the searchlight is left to do and I'll tackle that tomorrow. I couldn't see how to attach the stowage to the turret convincingly -- the kitbags are moulded with an open back as if they need to lie against a surface, which is probably why the box side pics have them glued apparently straight to the armour -- not in locations where there are tie loops or the rail around the rear. If positioned on the rail it may be possible to see that they are hollow behind, so I'm not sure what to do at this point. The bags themselves painted up nicely and look great, but I'll put them aside until I decide quite what to do.

Gallery photos coming hopefully tomorrow.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thunderbolt379

Hi guys,

I'm calling the Sherman 99% done. Only the searchlight is left to do and I'll tackle that tomorrow. I couldn't see how to attach the stowage to the turret convincingly -- the kitbags are moulded with an open back as if they need to lie against a surface, which is probably why the box side pics have them glued apparently straight to the armour -- not in locations where there are tie loops or the rail around the rear. If positioned on the rail it may be possible to see that they are hollow behind, so I'm not sure what to do at this point. The bags themselves painted up nicely and look great, but I'll put them aside until I decide quite what to do.

Gallery photos coming hopefully tomorrow.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Mike, could you fill (well, over-fill actually) the backside of those kitbags with some putty, squish them into place, then let them dry & paint them up to match?? Wouldn't be perfect, but it would close up the gaps.

Hi all,

Well, she's done! I sprayed, weathered and mounted the searchlight yesterday and did the gallery pics last night. Vance, good idea about the filler to reshape the rear of the kitbags, I might look at something like apoxysculpt. For the moment I've left them off, pending a rework of their backs. Right, onto the photos:

As you can see, the dcecals were a tad out of register. They were rather glossy too, and I cut the shine down by scrubbing pigment over them, not  a perfect solution but not bad. I chose a selection of markings and was guided by what other modelers were doing rather than the plans. Photos show a lot of variation in marking placement too.

I must say that this model is probably one of the most textured I've done yet, that HVSS running gear sure provides an ocean of mechanical detail, it's repetitious to get it all up to speed but really catches the eye when it's done.

All comments welcome, this is both my first Sherman and my first completed IDF armour, and I'm always interested in improving.

Cheers, Mike

Mike - uhh, WOW! That is a sharp-looking machine. I'm loving the big gun + big light combo, makes for an impressive looking machine.

Mike , impressive looking !

Looks good! I like the finish, not overly beat-up or weathered. IDF paint is apparently very durable, so only shows wear in very heavily used areas like grab handles, tool box tops, etc. I think you nailed it.

I have done absolutely nothing in the past week, been on vacation, and now back on a long work week, so don't expect to get much done soon, but do enjoy seeing progress from you guys....

Thanks Vance, Shellback and RBaer! I certainly had a ball building this one, there are only a few fiddly bits and generally it's a well-engineered kit. I had a lot of fun, and the research process was entertaining as always.

My next IDF armour should be the M113 recovery vehicle, and there's a P-51D in 1948 camo that's just begging to be done too. Oh, and finally finish the last details on that poor Merk II from IDF I...

M/TB379

Awesome build Mike

The pic's you posted will be of a significant sorce of reference for my future IDF Sherman builds , particulary the painting and weathering .

I must agree on how great the HVSS and wheels look along with the tracks .

All in all , your IDF Sherman is something sure to be admired .

John .

Thanks, John! I do appreciate it! I've certainly learned from studying the fine builds by other modellers and if my results can serve to help others in turn, I couldn't be happier.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thunder , is that M113 recovery vehicle the Academy kit ? Seems i have one of those .................

Yes, that's right. It looks pretty good in the box, though I find myself wondering that the crane has no internal supporting structure, it is simply applied to the roof of the vehicle -- does anyone know if this is correct? It doesn't seem right that a crane that can lift an entire powerpack would not be rooted into the vehicle's chassis in some way.  So I ask myself, did Academy apply an external detail to a kit that comes with an interior which actually represents the APC or ambulance version? The answer is of course to leave the back ramp closed, then nobody is he wiser...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I never thought about the internal support for the crane .....................time to google and see what i can find .

As it happens , the first of my three 1/72 IDF Armour  orders from Tracks n Troops arrived today ;

The M113 Fitter and Command vehicle are designed to use with Trumpeters M113 kits ;

Here's some close up pic's of the crane interior support piece ;

A scan of the instruction sheet ;

Another close up ;

Not sure if the pic's are of any help with the 1/35 version , perhaps they might help a little .

On another note , a couple of Korean War Armour builds have stalled , so I have re-started on the Cpl Overby resin M51 after drooling over the pic's Mike posted of his 1/35 build  ;

For some reason Dragon molded two wheels onto the bogie arms , which makes it a little awkward airbrush the hubs and then the wheel rims , oh well , I might hand brush the rims with some Gunze H-18 steel after airbrushing the bogies ;

The seperate two wheels dry fit nicely into position , I must say Dragon sure do make nice Armour kits .

Hopfully more pic's to follow on the 1/72 M51 .

John .

Ah-ha! So there is a support! Thanks, John! I get the feeling Academy supplied the interior of the ambulance version, IIRC there's a casualty treatment station to starboard, which seems not quite right for an engineers' vehicle. I must pull that kit and have aother look, if I can modify the interior for an open tailgate it would be great, but otherwise I'll close her up...

M/TB379

Lok at this link . This guy used the Academy kit and scrathed built the interior of the Fitter . Its Belgian but it should be the same shouldnt it ?

http://idfmodelling.free.fr/view.php?name=kit_veh_pictures/m113_10e

Inmy usual frantic haste to upload pic's I forgot to include these two of the small support piece that fits on the iside of the hull side . You can just make out a similar one in the link Shellback posted ;

Its the part marked with a red dot ;

John .

Helo H34 i found this picture of the interior ,

Thanks, guys -- food for thought here, maybe an open rear is a possiblity...

M/TB379

Do it! IDF fitters'  tracks are busy, make great models. And if you get back to the Merk I, I guess I'll have to dig out the Merk II I was doing in the same GB, still unfinished.

Thank's for posting the pic of the interior support piece Shellback , even in the 1/72 scale it wasn;t all that clear as to the actual position , the pic will be of immense help .

Only a little progress on my Cpl Overby M51 , I got the bogie pieces glued together and I gave all the wheels and suspension pieces a few coats of Tamiya XF-20 , 57 and 59 for the Sand gray scheme ;

I might find some time to start on the M48 A5 105mm as well this weekend .

Back to the M51 , the resin sill along the side of the upper hull is extremely thin and quite brittle and a small section has already broken away , so I'll use Dragons seperate sill piece and the PE to replace the very front track guard section ;

John .

I'm still here.........quiet though.

Primer's on, hope to have pics up this week end.

Still here too -- always interested in IDF subjects. Frankly, since I seem to have lost the ability to spray metallics lately (can't figure out why yet...) I've been eyeing off some camouflaged Mustangs, one of which is IDF 1948. if we were to dive into an IDF III I'd cut the shrinkwrap on that one in a heartbeat, and match it with the Fitter...

Cheers, M/TB379

Hi RBaer ,

My progress has been a little slow on the M51 , I have managed to get the bogie pieces and wheels airbrushed

These two IDF reference books arrived today

Each book contains over 390 pages of great info on the IDF Halftracks and Vol 1 starts with the history of those early sandwhich armoured trucks as well .

I did finish an IDF 1/72 M7 Priest for Thunderbolts (Mike's) "Have Gun Will Travel" GB ;

I kit-bashed the Italeri Fast assembly M7 Priest with the M4 Sherman bogies, wheels, tracks and engine.

I plan on doing another one in the not too distant future , along with a milicast resin M32 recovery tank kit-bashed with a Dragon M4A1 small hatch sherman . I would like to have the Sherman lifting the engine from the second M7 Priest build .

I've also started a 1/72 BM-24-12 Katyusha for Mike's Have Gun Will Travel build , so I'll post those WIP pic's here as well .

John .

Still lurking this one as well!