Mike got me looking at my stash of Shermans, and while I have quite a few, I decided to use up some spare parts instead. I’ve always wanted to do the M-51 built on an M4A3 hull, so out came the parts boxes. I’m starting with an Academy lower hull and running gear, basically from a whole kit but the turret is off pretty noticeably, a Dragon M4A3 upper hull, one of the late ones with good weld bead detail, and a Tamiya M-51 turret. I did graft a rear hull plate in from the old MP Models m-50 kit.
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?
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.
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.
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…
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:
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.
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.
IMG_4141 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
