M4 Sherman 75mm Normandy, Dragon # 6511, Setback...

Dear All,

I just can not end the day on a negative note so some progress aswell;

The lower hull hatches are in place

Repair of the air intakes is going OK but messy atm, so no pics

With Kind Regards
Utoshita

Thanks Dave, very much appreciated!

Unfortunately I have to report 2 setbacks today:
Number 1: The Commanders periscope guard did not survive the transport:

There are 2 extra guard 'Nests' on sprue A (15) but these do not fit
Happy for advice here, leave off, get aftermarket, talk to Dragon?
I think I will start with Dragon, the M2 needs replacement anyway.

Number 2: This is embarrassing, I managed to mix up the air intakes parts F4(F3).

Mayor surgery is now required. Will be tricky to get this 100% right, it is likely that they land up with some gear stowed up against them...a reminder not to mix Cuba Libre and 1/35 kits
With Kind Regards
Utoshita

Thank You for your kind remarks Redleg12 and Guney.
I am marching on all right, just not very straight ;)

Back to the turret;

After removing the tape I sanded down the putty to sit flush with the pre-cast detail.
I then painted the lower section with Mr. Surfacer and stippled it with a short brush to simulate cast detail.

Here is the turrets lower left:

The turrets lower right:



The holes intended to position the lifting hooks where lost in the process due to a lack of attention from my side. I took out the pin vise and Eye balled the new position.
I think I got it reasonably right.
The mold seems will be sanded now that they are in position:

Moving on to the turret periscopes and their guard ‘nests' (G14), the instructions want you to drill four holes in the circular part holding the periscope (G6). These are for tiny positioning ‘dots' on the guard nests. I decided not to assuming that the cement glue is going to melt those anyway.

Care is required in this step, the guard ‘nests' are extremely fragile. Use a sharp knife instead of a sprue cutter, the sprue cutter always compresses the parts and this might be just enough to snap the parts.

The periscope itself is a clear plastic part that I have left of for now; they will not be installed until after painting.

The rest of the turret detail is left off until I have moved the kit, don't want to break things off unnecessarily.

It is not about the goal, it is all about the journey

With Kind Regards
Utoshita  

Very nice progress to date. Yep life can get in the way but it appears you are marching on.

Rounds Complete!!

Your Sherman is looking good so far, a very nice clean build. The pics are all great as is the blog.

Rob

Looking good Utoshita!

Nice detail work!

Turret Time ;)

The turret detail is very good with nicely depicted cast detail but there is one blemish, the joint between the upper and lower half under the radio compartment.
I want to create a joint between the too parts where I can fill as much as possible and sand off as little as possible.
So i have pushed the lower half as far under the radio compartment as i could.
The result is OK at the far back and on the left hand side, but on the right hand side the lower part protrudes the upper half.

I masked off the lower part and tried to flush the area with a thin coat of Tamiya putty:

I am going to allow the putty to cure for a day or so.
I will then try to sand off as little as possible with the aim to create a surface that can be detailed with liquid cement / a surface primer and a stubbed brush.
Now that the putty is on I have decided to be optimistic about it

I decided to fix the problem with the overlap between upper and lower hull by taking out part of the lip in the upper hull.

The air cleaners need a bit of attention, in each of the assemblies you get too molded on tigtening bolts and too that need to be fitted. The logic is easy; the molded on ones go into the invisible corners and the fitted ones on the visible sides:

Thank You for looking, comments are more then welcome.

With Kind Regards
Utoshita

Edit 2009-09-29:
It becomes obvioues to me when I look at my pictures that the issues that I am trying to adress needs to be pointed out in a better way, I will try to do that until tomorrow.
Stop Edit.

Dear All,
This is my Friday update
I decided yesterday to give the road wheel assemblies a black prime coat. The drive bands and the lower hull will get their share to:

I masked off the joints to ensure a strong bond later:

The road wheel assembly after a coat of "Chaos Black"

Not sure if I need filler here, suggestions are welcome?

Following Schnob and Daywalker's progress I realized today that I lost out on the fact that the cast road wheel housing is bidirectional and therefore missing 4 bolt holes for the returns roller arm.
I tried to make a template but I slipped slightly...  

Trying to fix the problem:

The road wheel assemblies are glued to the lower hull. No alignment problems J

Here is the M4 belly up, the last assembly is still waiting for the glue to cure...

Dear all,

I have not been able to stick to my timeline lately, life happens sometimes.
But here we go.

Step 1.
Construction starts with the wheel assemblies. These are reasonably straightforward multipart assemblies (6*10 pieces). I opted to attach part V5, a mounting plate to the hull instead of to the road wheel assembly, simply to make alignment of the assemblies to the hull easier in Step 3.

Road wheel assembly, the wheels are actually 2 sided and have a "glue recess" in the center of the outer part. You have the choice between a cast road wheel or a steel stamped.
I have opted for the earlier.



It is difficult to avoid seems where the outer part of the assembly half's V12/13 and V10/11 go together:

Here are the assembled parts after sanding and priming for flaws:



And with the return guide plate in place, look at these "Easy Riders" :



This is the finished assembly:

problems that you are experiencing.

http://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/Sherman%20Construction/sherman-construction.html

Paul

Utoshita - First welcome and don't worry as you can see we don't bite (exect for the Doog.....)

On the turret....you can use Mr. Surfacer to create the cast look on the lower section. It will also be helpful in the seam filling.

Shermans are not my normal area, but you can see the result if you look here as I am using it on my current M40 build which uses the M4 chassis

/forums/1179749/ShowPost.aspx

Hang in there....it only gets better.....remember shaken not stirred

Rounds Complete!!

Dear All,

Thank you for your respons and support.

DM, yes a new Photo Technique making the use of filters less important, the picure is sort of faded anyway ;)

VF8PANZER, very good link and exactly what I was hoping for. This will be my way forward.

With Kind Regards
Utoshita

This may help you out with the turret. http://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/Cast%20Texture/creating-cast-texture.html

Mark

This kit is my next build, which I will start this Autumn.

So I will be watching your build very closely.

I have the same problem with the distorted M/C gun, but I contacted Dragon and they have supplied a new one. Took a month but I'm not in a hurry...Kenny 

Utoshita wrote:

................unfortunately the camera needs an overhaul after being soaked in Vodka.

Progress is fair, the sub assemblies are OK, unfortunately the camera needs an overhaul after being soaked in Vodka.
The turret causes me some headache since the cast structure is not represented in the lower part;

Not sure how to proceed here, current thinking is to sand down the lower part so that it nowhere protrudes the upper part, soak it with liquid glue, dab it with sand paper to give it an appearance of cast structure and move on from there.

With Kind Regards
Utoshita

Utoshita wrote:

Thank you very much for this link disastermaster! My conclusion is that that the weld seem needs to be there but the area has to be conform with the cast structure. Thank you very much for your support Bill! With Kind Regards Utoshita

You're welcome.

 Here's another one. Check this link for more.

Be an interesting build to follow, nice subject.

Julian