Jsut a small update:

I got the gear bays painted and the wings are now glued together. I'll finish sanding the seams on the wings tomorrow and the wings and stabilizers should be glued on untill tomorrow evening.

Cliff: Nice! I have an "Easy 8" as well! Is it the kit where you have to replace the entire suspention without any locating help other than a small diagram in the instructions?

Friul tracks are a huge improvement, but the tracks for the Shermans are not as good as the other tracks they produce:

The tracks on almost every Sherman (except those with HVSS I think) are held together by 2 brackets on the sides. The friul tracks have 2 kinds of track links: The majority of them have the brackets in line with the track links, the rest is molded with "bent" brackets. That makes it really hard to assemble the tracks, because you need the right amount of bent and straight links per track in the right places... I'd get some Model-Kasten tracks (I think they are a tad easier to assemble).

Just my 2 cents...

Cheers, Clemens

Clemons: Nice! I've got the M4A3E8 with the same suspension but of course this one has the later turret and the 76mm. I'd like to build it sometime soon but not sure if I'd go with a WW2 or Korean War vehicle.

Bitbite: Ouch! You might try building a jig to hold them while you assemble, I think The Doog has a tutorial on that on the armour forum if you'd run a search. Or as Bish said just replace them, I've heard nothing but good about Fruils but the price has always put me off. I have used the AFV Club replacement tracks- they're are annoying but better than the old Dragon ones.

You might as well try the Dragon ones though, I'd just put together an inch or two each day rather than trying to do an entire side run. At least with American style tracks there is little to no sag, so you can do the curved parts around the front drive sprocket and the rear return roller. Then all you have left is two flat pieces to go on top and bottom.

You can get AM tracks for most vehicles. I am a big fan of Fruils, but they are a bit pricey. I know there are other options.

Yes, Orange Box.  PE parts are very few. Unfortuantely, the tracks appear almost exactly as you described.  Except I count four parts for every link.  

Wonder if it's possible to get other tracks for it.  I don't want to go crazy or be cross-eyed!

Sounds like an awesome kit! I have one of their M4A3s with the 105mm gun in my stash. It has a working (!) HVSS suspension consisting of heaps of small parts. It has all the rubber "tires" for the road wheels as extra parts to make painting easier. I gotta love building that kit!

Bitbite: Cool! Was it the Orange Box kit? The M4A4 I just built came with modern rubber band tracks and only a tiny bit of PE for the mesh on the air intakes.

I hope at least they're not the old style link tracks with three parts for every track link... last one of those I put together I came out cross-eyed and a little crazy...

Gamera - My Firefly Vc got here today.  Lots of parts.  Have to assemble the tracks link by link, photoetching . . . never done this stuff before.  *passes out* 

Nah, it'll be an adventure!  I'll make stickpusher help me! 

Oh, and a thank you for the tip! 

Bish

well, you got plenty of time to work on it. I haven't made my own decals yet, but I would like to give it a try at some point.

My Jug will be part of the 368th FG. I found some fasinating information on them. They raised a lot of hell in Normandy.

Making your own decals is very very very and extremely easy. LOL I use Microsoft Word (but you can use any program like MS Works, MS Publisher, etc etc) and copy a picture into it and just print it out on decal paper. Then just follow the directions with the spray, let it dry over night, then cut it out. I've been making decals almost since I got back into the hobby 4 years ago.

well, you got plenty of time to work on it. I haven't made my own decals yet, but I would like to give it a try at some point.

The kit is the 48 scale Tamiya Jug. I've been worling on the nose art, but I don't have it perfected yet. I have the pic I want, but I'm having trouble getting the right lettering for it.

Thanks Ken, got that. And just so its official, its in. Can you just confirm kit and scale.

And I am looking forward to see what nose art you come up with.

Bish - I PM'ed you. Thanks

Thanks guys! No problem Bish. And yes, used the AK US Green modultion set on the M3, M21 WC54 and Water Tank trucks.

Clemons: Sorry, didn't mean to leave you out!

Bish: Thanks, I should have thought about checking the profile but didn't think about it.

Bitbite: Sure, no problem! Dragon just ran an excellent sale back on Memorial Day and I picked up a few kits I really didn't need to add to my overfed stash. I'd seen they were running a Fourth of July sale and thought I'd check to see if it was still going on. If you're going to do the Sherman now you might want to wait for their next big sale, I think they run a big one on Veteran's Day if you can wait for November.  

bitbite, added you to the roster.

Drink up me hearties, yo ho!

Gamera, I do still want the Firefly and I've always loved British paras.  Too many readings and viewings of "A Bridge Too Far," probably.  I was once asked, "Why are you reading that book for the fifth time?  It's still going to end the same way."  Small minds.  Anyway, you've made a sale.  I'll tell them to send you a commission.  

Still going to do the M4 for this build though.  Maybe I'll add the Firefly on later.

If you open a person profile and look in the bottom left, it does say where people are from, assuming they have filled it in.

Looking good, Bruce!

Bish, Cliff: I agree! I don't know where everyone is from, but I know one thing: Noone else is from Austria!!!

Good, I thought I had missed it. That's looking good Bruce. If its ok with you, I won't add the water truck to the roster. I'll do the same that I am doing with join and just add them as they are completed. Otherwise I will never keep up.

Gamera, I know what you mean. That's one of the things I miss about the older site, you used to have peoples locations under there Avatar. Made things a lot easier.

stikpusher

Gamera

Bitbite, do you still want to build the Firefly? DragonUSAOnline has their Orange Box Firefly Vc on sale for $27.00 US and it comes with a set of MasterBox British paratroopers. The paras alone are worth 10-12 bucks. If you don't live in the US you can probably get a similar deal on one of Dragon's other websites.

Photo of box, not sure how to get it to show up here!

Bitbite is another SoCal treadhead... apparently we live fairly close to one another... 

Ah ok great! Sometimes I forget who's a Yank, Brit, Canadian, Aussie, or Kiwi here!!!  

Bruce: Looks good! Did you use the colour modulation there? Looks like it, great looking results. 

Yes, still working on the M3. Need to work on the guns and stowage for it and the others.

Gamera

Bitbite, do you still want to build the Firefly? DragonUSAOnline has their Orange Box Firefly Vc on sale for $27.00 US and it comes with a set of MasterBox British paratroopers. The paras alone are worth 10-12 bucks. If you don't live in the US you can probably get a similar deal on one of Dragon's other websites.

Photo of box, not sure how to get it to show up here!

Bitbite is another SoCal treadhead... apparently we live fairly close to one another... 

I might have to get me that kit as well (I have the IC with composite hull already)

Bitbite, do you still want to build the Firefly? DragonUSAOnline has their Orange Box Firefly Vc on sale for $27.00 US and it comes with a set of MasterBox British paratroopers. The paras alone are worth 10-12 bucks. If you don't live in the US you can probably get a similar deal on one of Dragon's other websites.

Photo of box, not sure how to get it to show up here!

Yes, sensei.  Bish, please sign me up for Tamiya 1/35 Sherman M4.

OK, buddy, I got you covered. For a Tamiya Normandy Sherman, their basic M4 kit is perfect. Used by both US and UK forces in Normandy. If you want an affordable Sherman Firefly kit, Dragon re issued their two original ones, the M4A4 and M4 Composite Hull, Fireflies in their Orange Box/Cyber Hobby line. Hobby People over in Fountain Valley usually has them onhand in a $30 price range... When you start talking about the Tasca and new tooled Dragon kits, then you are looking at the $50+ price range...

I saw the first 3 online but all $50 and over.  I saw some awsome Normandy decals for those kits too.  But I'm looking more around $30. I hate to be stingy with model expenses but I've spent a lot on the hobby in the last month, so to keep myself in good graces with the wife, I think I I need to cool it for a bit.  At least until her/our house sale is complete (hopefully just a couple more weeks) and then I'll can go crazy for a while again. 

*lightbulb on*  Come to think of it, I don't have to decide what to build right now, do I?  If not, just sign me up as undecided for now.  Maybe I could do the Firefly after all.  I'll think of something.  Just sign me up.