Hi All,
I’d like to share my earliest attempts at scratch building, so I started small with 1/72 scale. Below is the completed tank.
These are the pictures before painting. I scaled it against a pencil.
These are the finished pictures…
Hope you liked them. C & C welcomed.
Cheers,
Richard
Hi RIchard,
Just so I can fully measure the extent of my inadequacy, exactly what do you mean scratchbuilt? Was this a heavily modified kit, ir did you make this up from nothing? I am not calling you out in any way, this is an amazing model, the paint alone is beyond my capabilities, I just am hoping that you started with something, otherwise it’s back to stamp collecting for me.
Bill
Hi Bill, thank you for bringing this up so I can explain the process of this build.
You got me there. Here the term scratch built can be for anything that is modified with bits of plastic or other material carved or cut and glued to replicate the missing item I think in my opinion. If I mentioned that it was fully scratch built, then it would be from nothing. In this case, at the time that this was built, there wasn’t a late Sherman with HVSS and late turret kit in 1/72 scale. Only a Fujimi 1/76 scale version was available.
I had a bit of help here. I managed to use the cast hull from an ESCI M4 kit and added scratched (these are from nothing) items around it. The turret also came from the ESCI kit but was extensively modified to the later turret using putty to build the shape and rear bustle. The gun mantlet was from the Fujimi kit but beefed up to 1/72 scale and putty for the shroud. The mud or track guards are from plastic strip.
The bottom hull came from a Fujimi kit at 1/76 scale. It was the only kit with the HVSS suspension. I added some scratched parts to bring it up to 1/72 scale. The wheels got an extra layer of plastic strip to make it longer. The track had to be extended to fit 1/72 so four links on each side were scratched from plastic strip (basically flat outlines) and attached at the bottom so it was not so obvious.
The gun was made from brass telescopic tube and coated with putty and sanded down. The muzzle brake was scratch built entirely from plastic strip. The gun travel bracket was modified and placed behind on the engine deck. The smoke discharges were scratch built from strip and tubing. The track bracket holders were scratch built. The search light was modified from a 1/35 scale bogey wheel.
I wasn’t so sure of using the term modified as it would have sounded like an up gunned version of an existing kit or the use of After Market details to bring the kit up to mark. AM products weren’t around yet.
No worries, I should have elaborated more instead of just putting up the pictures. I hope you don’t turn to stamp collecting.[:D]
Cheers,
Richard
I’d have never guessed that was 1/72.Nice job.
Very nicely done, but there has been a 1/72 scale HVSS Sherman available for decades, the Hasegawa M4A3E8. I haven’t built it in a while, but I think if you swapped out the Esci (now Italeri) hull you’d have the 90% solution.
That Fujimi M4 105mm HVSS Sherman is a bear to work with. My hat’s off to you for finding a good use for it.
Thanks TD4438. Photographs sometimes can play tricks unless theres a comparison like the pencil.
Cheers,
Richard
Thanks Rob, you may be right about the Hasegawa M4A3E8. I built the Isherman in 1985 and Hasegawa would have come out with it. Assumed there were none others since I didn’t see them on the shelves plus I didn’t have access to the latest Hasegawa catalogue and internet was still somebodies dream.[:D]
I just checked through the net and found that the Hasegawa kit is scaled at 1/67. Would also been a bummer to down size the road wheels and suspension. But would have been an easier mating with the ESCI hull as you’ve suggested rather than tackling the Fujimi kit…yeah, she was horrible alright.
Cheers,
Richard
The quality of the build is what fooled me.
Thanks TD4438, appreciate what you’ve said. Basically it’s just applying what you know from 1/35 scale to 1/72.
Cheers,
Richard