I am planning converting a 1/16 sherman firefly.
but I could not find any good top view picture of real tank.
any link to some good detail pictures?
thanks, tom
Here’s an M4A4 firefly
http://www.modellismopiu.net/m+gallerie/main.php?g2_itemId=179858
Top views you want are views of either an M4A4 or M4 (dependent on the base variant). The external Firefly-specific features are minimal. What 1/16 kit are you using?
Check a website called tanxheaven. They have a lot of pictures of various tanks and other AFVs. They will most likely have pics of a Firefly.
Edit-I can’t seem to be able to pull up the site. Maybe you will have better luck.
tanxheaven has gone the way of the Dodo bird, Warhammer. A real loss to the modelling community. They and AFV Interiors used to be foundation sites for AFV research. Some others abound however. Below is the text of an article I wrote for Boresight about 2 yrs ago. There’s a lot of good stuff there (some is out of date however)
General Modeller’s tools:
- Tony Matteliano’s has the most comprehensive collection of links to modeling websites: http://www.scalemodelindex.com/. For our discussion, Tony’s updated list of useful AFV research sites is pretty incredible: http://scalemodelindex.buffnet.net/armref.htm.
- http://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/contentdm/home.htm, Digital collections of paper documents from the Combined Arms Research Library collections. Operations documents and histories, obsolete field manuals. Interesting stuff.
- http://www.primeportal.net/models/john_loughman/database.htm, An enormous database of articles of many AFV modeling magazines from Don Busack’s primeportal.net. Everyone should download this one!
- http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/, Hobby Search, an online shop, has digitized many manufacturers’ direction sheets. If you’ve lost the Tamiya M26 Pershing directions, go here and print one out.
Photo Collections:
- http://ardencim.free.fr/page56.html, 1200 photos from the ardennes44 website.
- http://community.webshots.com/user/jtrowbridge5, Dennis Trowbridge’s collection of various museum and vehicle rally photos and historical images
- http://community.webshots.com/user/shiryon, Gallery of IDF-related subjects, by the host of the IDF-armour-group.org.
- http://community.webshots.com/album/550833578RUsEmU/0, 2000s of German soldier’s personal photos.
- http://dana-nield.com/vimy/Default.asp, Dana’s site hosting photos from the Canadian War Museum at Vimy House.
- http://danielcesar.fotopic.net/, Nice collection of US Armor in Tunisia.
- http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/photogallery/, Images of surviving US and British Lend-Lease equipment in Russia
- http://maquettegarden.free.fr/, Great images of equipment from Pierre Piveteau’s personal site.
- http://milveh.tripod.com/Pictures/wwiivets/rudy/, Collection of a US vet.
- http://panzervince.membres.jexiste.org/USArmor/Files/8-Galleries/Head.htm, Gallery of a larger informative site.
- http://patriciodelfosse.ar.tripod.com/, A few Argentine AFVs.
- http://protein.informatics.indiana.edu/jaalbrec/panzerdb/museum.html, Andrew Albrecht’s 1200 picture collection of mostly German subjects from the Patton and Aberdeen museums
- http://public.fotki.com/pcmodeler/reference_gallery/armor_reference_photos-1/, Museum and restoration vehicles from the pcmodeler.com site, by Mark Fergel
- http://rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/, Galleries with Soviet WW2 period photos
- http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/hetzerman/Aberdeen%20Ordnance%20Museum/, TJ Whelan’s collection of excellent Aberdeen pictures.
- http://svsm.org/gallery/walkarounds, Collection of armor images from the Silicon Valley Scale Modelers IPMS club webpage.
- http://vincesgallery.smugmug.com/History, Great collection of museum and restored vehicles by Vincent Abbott.
- http://www.afvgal.8m.com/index2.html, Gallery from a Japanese webpage.
- http://www.agencephotosmemorial.com/index.asp, Searchable collection of images related with the 1944 Battle of Caen, France.
- http://www.amv-lilliput.org/modelli/photo/index.htm, Gallery of Italian model site.
- http://www.armourinfocus.co.uk/, Collection with heavy coverage of the Churchill Infantry tank.
- http://www.armymotorcars.com/html/index.html, Lots of softskin pics.
- http://www.awm.gov.au/, Searchable collection of images from the Australian War Memorial
- http://www.bibl.u-szeged.hu/bibl/mil/ww2/kepek/tanks/index.html, Info site on WW2 armor hosted in Hungary.
- http://www.britishpathe.com/advanced_search.php, Huge searchable collection of WW2 images.
- http://www.bundybovines.com/, Color WW2 image collection hosted on this site. I’ve seen these images collected elsewhere before.
- http://www.ceris-normandie.com/archivesnormandie/, Huge searchable collection of WW2 images.
- http://www.chars-francais.net/, super research collection of all things dealing with French AFVs, including histories, AFV data, color renditions and photos.
- http://www.cultura.marche.it/cultura/mostraguerra/default_sik.asp?page=1&order=id%3F, Online collection of 7727 images from the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum of London. Wartime images of Polish forces in the Mediterranean theatre during WW2.
- http://www.detailpics.co.uk/, Lots of museum gallery pics.
- http://www.dolin.estranky.cz/fotoalbum/FOTO-1939-1945, Czech site hosting many WW2 images.
- http://www.ferreamole.it/, Lots of good info to scroll through regarding Italian armor and US vehicles used by Italy. For their various galleries, look under “Indice degli argomenti”. Uniquely, check out their tech manual scans of US armor: “manuali technici”
- http://www.ffsmc.com/, Fighting Frog’s Scale Models Club: Great museum walkarounds, requires registration but completely worth the extra step!
- http://www.finescale.com/FSM/CS/forums/264590/ShowPost.aspx, Aberdeen images from a discussion thread on the Finescale Modeler website forums.
- http://www.itzproductions.com/, Bill Klingbeil’s personal hompage with Aberdeen pics
- http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/, Searchable collection of 6000 images from the British Imperial War Museum
- http://www.jagdtiger.de/index2.htm, 1200 museum photos.
- http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html, US Library of Congress digital image research portal. Tons of Americana including military images
- http://www.maquetland.com/v2/index.php?page=photos, Nice images from a French site. They provide easily downloadable photo zip files. Just click “telecharger”
- http://www.modellismopiu.net/m+photo/showgallery.php?cat=590, Gallery images from the Modellismo Più club website.
- http://www.npswapa.org/gallery/albums.php, 100s of WW2 Pacific theatre, held by the National Park Service
- http://www.panzernet.net/panzernet/stranky/galerie/galerie.htm, Polish website collection of German WW2 AFVs.
- http://www.primeportal.net/the_battlefield.htm, Don Busack’s incredible collection of images of modern and older equipment.
- http://www.tanxheaven.com/index.htm, 1000s of very detailed pics of all sorts of AFVs and artillery, multiple eras
- http://www.thetankmaster.com/english.asp, Vyacheslav Ryzhenkov’s personal site with many Russian subjects.
- http://www.toadmanstankpictures.com/index.htm, Chris “Toadman” Hughes’ site with many Littlefield Collection subjects. Also a great source for photo CDs
- http://www.trackpads.net/tanks/sosfindlay/index_2.htm, Interesting WW2 database with some photos.
- http://www.ullsteinbild.de/, Search engine for 1000s of German-related subjects. Search keywords under “
Tanxheaven has been gone almost two years.
They had a server crash and lost all data… will probably never be back up.
Here’s a good alternate:
Edit- Oops! Roy beat me to it.
I had no idea that it was gone. It has been probably a year since I was last on it. That really is to bad.
Thank you all for info.
I am going to use tamiya sherman to start.
again, thanks, toom
Am I correct that you’re converting the Tamiya 1/16 M4 (105) HVSS kit? I seem to recall there are some aftermarket companies that cater to the 1/16 field. I wouldn’t be surprised if some major conversion doesn’t exist.
You should know that the closest actual Firefly to the M4 (105) HVSS would be the US M4A3 Fireflies. All Commonwealth Fireflies were build on older M4 and M4A4 and M4 Hybrid hulls – none of which resemble the Tamiya M4 (105) HVSS.
I know that Tamiya sells a 1/16 17pdr barrel (as an upgrade to the M4 (105) I suppose) but there’s a lot more to an accurate Firefly than just a barrel change.
Contact me offsite if you need more info Tom. Rgrds, RC