Building this for a GB, but decided to make a separate thread for those interested (as well as getting feedback from the Shermaholics out there).
Started off with Tamiya’s 1/48 Ic Firefly, but can’t say it will be the basis of the build as not much is being used. It is combined with TankWorkShop’s M4A4 hull combo set, after market 17 pdr. gun, and some PE from Hauler and Part.
It’s a resin casting, but is more of a soft plastic and quite flexible - which may be the reason for the problems - read on…
Beginning with the hull floor, it is a bit wonky. On one side, the center curves outwards, while the opposite is slightly curved in. Could be just the nature of the beast, or a quality control issue.
Four main pieces glued together. I didn’t bother sanding too much of the ‘yaw’ shape of the floor as it won’t be noticeable. Another problem area now is one side wall comes up short, (interestingly it is on the convex side of the curved floor edge).
Dry fitting the transmission housing, it looks it can be corrected by placing a shim in the space. A little more sanding should close the gap, and make sure every angle is perpendicular.
Sherman Vc finally taking shape. After cutting the floor and attaching the front piece, replaced the lost detail with a thin strip of sheet plastic. Both upper and lower hulls had to be braced from inside to correct the wobbly shapes to the walls. This resin is not the type I’m use to. Very soft, and not very strong when thin - recycled product?
The back plate that over hangs the hull also had deformed corners. To achieve crisper edge here, a thin strip was glued across the bottom, filled in, and then sanded.
The port hull side wall was still misbehaving, yawning inwards. Squadron putty to the rescue - this will take several sessions of building up and sanding.
A single thin sheet of plastic was used to cover the hollow sponson areas, and once that was sandwiched between the upper and lower hull sections, I noticed the back plate wasn’t parallel with the bottom hull. Another shim made of sprue, was strategically placed in the suspect corner, with a clamp holding it in place while the glue dried.
Front detail is now done, just one more shackle to make.
I’ve reworked the major weld lines, masking the edges off with Tamiya tape, brushing on a couple layers of surfacer, and then scouring with the sharp end of a knife before it completely cured.
The spring on the hatches was made by twisting speaker wire around a small drill bit.
Suspension and road wheels are on. Rear hull detail also complete. Using period photos as reference, scratch built some details (1. and 2.) to hold rear storage bin in place. Detail # 3. are just some brackets which, I believe, were used to hold in position the deep wading gear.
This update deals with the tools and their respective brackets on the hull. The bottom section of the deep wading gear will be scratch built. This will require elevating the storage box at the rear to provide clearance for said gear, though I can’t figure out why the bin seen in these photos is upside down:
I’ve also removed the spare tracks and have to redo this. Photos show those stored in the provided racks had the guide teeth removed, while the remainder had the teeth on backwards:
The only regular gear I’ve left off the tank were the gun cleaning rods, though I did attach the clamps for them. They likely were placed in the rear bin. There should be a sledge hammer too, but none provided in the kit.
I’ve raised the rear tool box to make room for the deep wading gear, of which I completely scratched based from what I could make out in period photos.
The turret needed some changes:
1.) removal of the gun port, which was pretty straight forward grinding and then puttied over.
2.) cast turret cheek armour. Did this with first layering 3 sections of .010" plastic sheet, and then puttied over and smoothed out.
The footman loops are really small. Found best way to hold them was with a section of rolled Tamiya tape (sticky side out). Another piece of tape on the turret helped with the placement.
The cast cheek armour was something stumbled upon after noticing there was no sign of the pistol port in my reference photo. Upon further reading, I learned that this usually meant the cheek armour was added during the casting process. It really isn’t noticeable, except at the bottom.
I was lucky to find this diagram, though intended for a 1/35 build, and a decent photo to give a general idea of the look to go for.
I used three separate sheets of sheet styrene so it would be more pliable around the curves of the turret. Each piece was cut smaller than the previous, though they all share the same bottom edge to form the distinct lip. Also, each section of sheet was sanded slightly before another was added on top, as .030 inches is the suggested thickness for 1/35 scale. The third and final layer roughly represents the flat portion.
Final shot before primer and paint, but afterwards will add some more spare track, a towing cable, a few fuel cans and a Browning to the commander’s hatch.
After spraying on some diluted surfacer, the cast look of the turret and transmission seemed to be all but lost. So I brushed on some surfacer, and while still wet tried the stipple method with an old synthetic brush. The result resembled more ‘sand in paint’ finish, so tried some foam from a sanding stick (that’s the blue thingy in the pic.)
It looked better, but after all surfaces were done, I brushed it over with lacquer thinner, followed with some gentle sanding. With these enlarged views, some clean up on other surfaces is required.
In April of 1944, Britain issued S.C.C. 15 as a colour equivalent of US Olive Drab. A very close match, only after fading was a difference readily detected, as it would become more green. It is unknown whether Fireflies were completely repainted in this new paint, as orders specified there was to be no wasteage if the lone purpose was to make all vehicle colours uniform. There certainly would be a fair amount on the turret due to modifications with the new 17-pdr. Perhaps the hull, depending on how much work was required for the seabourne invasion.
I used one of Mike Starmer’s suggested colour mixes for Tamiya paints:
5 parts XF81
1 part XF58
1 part XF71
For the first spray coat, I tried something different by adding close to 50% red to the mixture, reason being two fold. First, this would help in conveying an olive hue. Second was sort of a test on the colour wheel theory dealing with complimentary colours. The compliment of green is red, and mixing the two resulted in what looks close to a hull red. This deeper shade would be useful in shadow areas while at the same time still remain vibrant.
Pic#2 introduces the S.C.C.15 mix onto the model - I decided to add a few drops of red into the airbrush cup. With the smaller scale build, it was difficult to retain some semblance of the first layer without compromising coverage in non-shadow areas. (pic #2)
Finally, the original mix was applied, concentrating more on the turret. You have to look closely, but you can see a bit more of a green tone in pic#3.
Weekend was spent on designing, and then affixing my home made decals. There is a loading number chalked in white on the front, but plan to try to replicate that later in the build using a very sharp pencil crayon.
Those markings that were printed on white decal paper still need their edges touched up. These set of pics looks to have some darker hues on the vehicle, but is all due to the application of the future coat. I have started some weathering on the lowers. Just a couple basic washes with Flory’s product, followed with some wiping away with a damp brush.
Closest font I could find for the serial number can be downloaded here:
http://www.dafont.co…ubberstamp.font
regards,
Jack
