M4A1 & M18 WIP

Toshi

Everything looks great, I'm looking forward to more of your WIP.

Toshi

 

Thanks Toshi, and I'll update the WIP over the next several days.

Cheers

T26E4

Harry: totally up to you but a fairly well-known mistake about the Italeri M4A1 is the step in the gun tube about 3cm from the mantlet. It should be smoothed in with some putty. The Italeri designers used a de-milled fake barrelled display M4A1 when they drew up the specs for this kit. I'd recommend you swap out the awful tracks too. Make sure you glue movable suspension parts so that all twelve road wheels are flat on the ground -- another error with those super tight vinyl tracks. All roadwheels should be an a level plane. Hope these help

 

Duly noted Roy, and I had to go back upstairs to take another look at the gun barrel before my old eyes could see it....

Thing is; I'm unsure how much additional cash I'd invest in such an old kit, (replacement barrel & tracks), plus this one is now earmarked for the back of a country road in a different diorama which is planned to be set around November 1944. While I do want models I build to be reasonably accurate as well as "looking" right, I can live with some netting over the 76mm and gunk covering the tracks in this particular case.

However, the Brit tank diorama I have planned -- and which this Italeri kit has now been transferred out of -- will be set in an urban scenario, so thanks for the advice regarding roadwheels. The approach I've been taking has indeed been to make any suspension parts moveable, (when the kit is designed that way of course), and then once the tracks are on and I'm happy with the "sit", then I'm actually fixing the suspension in place with superglue. 

What I need to do now is decide on which particular kit I ought to do for the Brit diorama. I suppose one of the Fireflies will work, and I'm swinging toward the Tasco Ic Composite Hull version at the moment, but we'll see.

The Academy M18 is not quite the right shape either according to several reviews I've seen on the web. I think these kind of issues eventually come down to what each of us will deem to be "reasonably accurate", and that's always subjective. At this point, having only worked on four armor kits since returning to the hobby, I'm finding that my own personal "toleration level" for kit inaccuracies is quite forgiving -- but that's not saying I'd accept gross errors included in kits -- they're somewhat too expensive for that to occur just too often.  

Cheers

Everything looks great, I'm looking forward to more of your WIP.

Toshi

Harry: totally up to you but a fairly well-known mistake about the Italeri M4A1 is the step in the gun tube about 3cm from the mantlet. It should be smoothed in with some putty. The Italeri designers used a de-milled fake barrelled display M4A1 when they drew up the specs for this kit. I'd recommend you swap out the awful tracks too. Make sure you glue movable suspension parts so that all twelve road wheels are flat on the ground -- another error with those super tight vinyl tracks. All roadwheels should be an a level plane. Hope these help

Incidentally, I originally intended to finish the Italeri offering in British service as a Sherman IIA, but on reflection, think I'll revert it back to an American operated tank and go for the Dragon "Operation Cobra" version in the New Year -- if I can get my hands on one, that is.

Cheers 

UPDATE -- both hobby shops in Hong Kong that I normally order stuff from have plenty of options for ETO Brit Shermans.

ridleusmc

I see you're keeping the side skirts on the Sherman.  It was rare for them to be worn in combat, but they do look good.  I like the interior detail in the Hellcat.  How did the kits go together?  Were there any issues with assembly?  

-Chris

 

No major issues with the M18 assembly so far Chris. Even the "infamous too-tight tracks" went on without too much drama. BUT, a really horrible feeling is beginning to dawn on me that I might've got them on back-to-front. I'll check on that, but if I have indeed fouled-up then I'll just live with it cos there's no way they're coming back off again..!!..

The tracks on the Sherman were an absolute nightmare....

Way too hard and inflexible, and so brittle that they broke on me every time I tried to fit them around the drive sprockets, (old?? -- it is after all, quite an old kit). Superglue didn't work to keep them in place either -- well, not the locally bought stuff I was using at any rate. I eventually used a hairdrier to soften them up enough to get the things formed around the drive sprockets and secured in place with tiny drops of 2-part epoxy, which really was about as much fun as it sounds. 

If I had easy access to aftermarket tracks the horrendous kit tracks would've simply been trashed and replaced, but with the Christmas postal rush coming up I decided to just keep plugging away at them. Might revisit them sometime next year though.

The broken links were glued individually in place on each of the the top runs -- which is the reason why I decided to use the side skirts on this particular model.

The main assembly process on both AFV's is pretty much finished now, although they do need a bunch of additional painting and detailing work -- the Hellcat more than the Sherman of course. I'll be getting on with them next week and hope they'll be completed by the weekend as I've got dozens of figures that I need to swing over to doing.

Cheers

I see you're keeping the side skirts on the Sherman.  It was rare for them to be worn in combat, but they do look good.  I like the interior detail in the Hellcat.  How did the kits go together?  Were there any issues with assembly?  

-Chris