let the fun begin!

Oh cool, already like it! 

Very cool. Love them Shermans.

BK

Hi;

       Looking at what you've already done, I would be glad to count rivets with you any day. My fave Armor is a Softskin. M8 Greyhound and it's many iterations! Do you get to New Braunfels,Tx. at all?

Looks good Russ

Thanks all. And oddly enough, we get to New Braunfels a lot, just spent a few days behind Goofy's by Canyon Lake in the RV park there, ate at McAdoo's, cruise through Gruene now and then......  yeah, we're there fairly often. We'll have to meet up sometime.

I was very disappointed when Nationals got canceled, all those vendors right here in San Marcos? I was ready.

So, a little more on the model: I decided to use a set of tracks out of the Tamiya Korean War Sherman, oddly enough they have shallower chevrons than the tracks in the M-51 kits and work great on the Academy lower hull. I took a shot at assembling some Kaizen T-80 tracks.....  never again. The Tamiya tracks will work fine. Then I got the rear hull plate details started and most of the engine deck too. Just a bunch of different parts, and it all fits pretty good.

IMG_4142 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_4143 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

It's just a matter of sticking stuff on now.

I like how well this is going so far.

Thanks Mike. More done today: fenders from the Tamiya M-51, and hull side stowage started, Dragon and Academy parts. I also put the mantlet on and blended the turret texture after having to fill and sand the seam.

IMG_4172 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Okay: for a "batch 3" tank, or something post '73, I needed to change the engine deck and rear plate, basically adding louvers and an exhaust to the engine deck and blanking the exhaust port on the rear plate. That done, I started on the left hull side. I'm running out of spare parts....

IMG_4261 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_4260 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Top freakin' notch, as always! 

Thanks Mike!

Like how this is turning out. 

I got home from work yesterday and sat down at the bench, thinking I'd do a little on this one, and every time I started rooting through my six or seven boxes of Sherman parts I'd find something the I was saving for an M50 build I'd begun many moons ago using an old Dragon M4A4 as a starting point, combined with parts from their M51 kit which, typical for Dragon's older Sherman kits has lots of extra parts, in this case a complete M50 turret and other hull parts. I was spending much more time "organizing" than modeling, so I thought I'd just go ahead and stick the M50 parts together as I came across them, but I also realized the old MP Models M50 kit I had was a better, more accurate hull and turret, and it went downhill from there. It didn't take too long to get the MP hull together, then some Academy bogies, Tasca idlers and sprockets, and once I had that out of the way I found the final drive assembly I needed for the Dragon-based kit (old Dragon stuff, trenches for hull welds, big locator holes in the hull for tools, etc) and, well, after a very late night at the bench, I have this:

IMG_4321 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Oddly enough, now when I find a cache of parts for pretty much anything IDF Sherman, one of these can use it, and I actually made some progress on the M51 too.

Yup, I'm working on three at once, but it's almost an assembly line. The two M50's will be slightly different as well, with the MP based one being early "production" and the Dragon based kit TBD, but probably as late as I can make one that's still VVSS. More research is called for.

That is awesome. You have how many extra Sherman parts?! 

Sounds like one of them is going to give you some more weld bead practice. 

Oh, how fun!

Mike, I have at least six boxes of Sherman parts, a few of which have only a couple of parts out, and after inventory (ha!) I found two Italeri kits, one in a Testors box of the original M4A1/76 and one M36B2 in addition to the parts boxes. I used to build LOTS of Shermans....

And yes, the Dragon hull is kind of weird with its deep and wide troughs instead of raised weld beads, and it has dimensional issues too. It would make a good basis for an M50T since I have to re-do so much of it. That being said, it'll never be a "contest" model. I started it well over 10 years ago and let's just say I'm a little more careful now.

Well crap. That's a lot of Sherman kits to work with. What have you got there? Almost two full platoons? Lol

I remember when I first logged in here. It would take me a month to get a good paint job with ye ol hairy stick. An airbrush opened up my world lol. So I get that last part.

So how many Sherman's have you got in the production line right now??

Ah....   these three, but if I add the Academy M-10 that's on the shelf of Neverneverland, and the M4A3/105 HVSS that's in the case but only 90% complete, five.

I think.

You can never have too many Shermans! 

Gamera

You can never have too many Shermans! 

 

Agreed.

RBaer

Yup, I'm working on three at once,

One more and you'd have an entire Platoon!

Tanker-Builder

My fave Armor is a Softskin. M8 Greyhound and it's many iterations! Do you get to New Braunfels,Tx. at all?

Museum of the American GI, up HWY 21 in College Station is having an open house weekend after this.  Their Living History Weekend is 27-28 March.

What I can't remember is whether they have an M-20 or an M-8 (they had several back when they were at "the farm" off Cherokee Lane, back in the day).

They are offering, though "Ride in a Halftrack" to go wother "Ride in a Tank" on LHW.

I've got a neighbor that wants to go......

Russ you are a modeling machine! Great work mate.

Exactly how many kits does one have to build to have enough spare parts to just whip another kit together? Wow, this is pretty cool to watch.

BK

Well, I'm "retired", working part time and take advantage of every minute I can to model, something I've always had to put on the back burner. I've always enjoyed shopping the vendor stands at shows, and pick up a lot of older kits, sometimes missing parts, sometimes started, even sometimes intact. With all t he new releases going on recently, the old stuff is coming down in price, and I'm not afraid to jump on something I have no real interest in building as boxed. Looking at my stash,, it's easily two thirds partial kits, sometimes just boxes of parts loosely related. It makes me happy.

I do have a little more progress on all three, just small bits mostly, but some "enhancement" on the two M50 turrets. I'll post up soon, and I'm also going to separate the M51 from the other two, it's getting cluttered in here.

Just the M51 here now, nothing major to show but I am plugging along. Every time I think I know which bit to stick on I have to go back and find a pic, but it's still fun.

IMG_4856 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_4857 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

I'm realizing that I have enough stuff to also do a very late M51 on the cast hull.........

'I had a bunch of extra Sherman parts so I built a couple tanks!'

Somehow that makes me giggle...

As usual you're doing a great job on them!

You're making me twitch, Russ. That itch is coming back, and I'm needing that itch.

Excellent!