I know I was suppost to work on my Tiger 1 as my next model but due to the mistake of the painting I need a airbrush for my birthday (March 18), I got it but I also got a model of a 1/35 Dragon’s Firefly. I don’t know why they called it a Firefly (looks more like a sherman) but not just it’s my second WW2 tank but my first Dragon’s kit.
I need some Ideas for the Firefly which I hear may of you have, here are some questions:
Why is it called a Firefly not a sherman?
When and where did this tank fought in?
Any hint on how to build the Firefly?
It would probaly be in another diorama but I don’t which the scene yet, no rush.
The firefly is another one of thouse British sherman mods and has the 17pdr anti-tank gun on it. If you want to build it out of the box have lots of patience with tracks, if you want to add a bit to it I would suggest a new set of tracks (for ease of assembly) and maybe a new barrel (the kit one sits at a bit of an angle. www.armouredacorn.com this is a site with some Canadian firefly’s on it and in my opinion the Canadian firefly’s always looked better[8D]. All firefly’s faught in WWII with Canadians and British as well as other Commenwealth Allies in North West Europe.
Ah Yes the tracks, when I open the box I ask myself “Where are the tracks”, all my tanks track appear out of the box (since it is made of rubber) but soon I realise you needed to make the tracks yourself, never have I thought of making the track of the tank. but how can it be install on the tank?
Hi T-Rex: do a search here or on the other armor modelling sites about assembling individual link tracks. Conversely, I’d recommend the Kalmbach book “How to Build Realistic Tanks and Artillery” Lots of good pointers.
Also googling Sherman Firefly will generate a ton of info for you .
The insructions say that the paint job of the tank is most on color, 50% light green 50% olive green, wich probely means mix light green and olive gren, and so I did with the seconde container of the airbrush, both tamiya water base model paint, looks likes olive green except lighter, perfect macht for the tank. Unlike my tiger, this model will be painted after most assembly is on, except the accesories and luggage on this tank.
I don’t recall this tank in czech so again no sherman for the czech diorama.
As far as I know, only US and Soviet forces entered into Czech. Commonwealth forces were in Italy and the northern shoulder of the NWE theatre.
The Fireflies were painted SCC15, which resembled US Olive drab upon application. Supposedly, it faded a slightly greener tinge than the US color. Whatever your final color, it should look very close to olive drab (despite what the directions say).
Oh its still gonna be olive green, but what’s the diffrence between olive drab and olive green? anyways the tank mit be in a diorama since the sherman was one of the most common allies tank in WW2, there a rare color image of a sherman crew that found a dead german soliders in I believe france 1944, its would be my first “dark side” if you know what I mean. Another is a color painting of two sherman is a ruine city in france 1943, but that sherman seems to have some kind of shove like spike on its for, my firefly dosen’t have this and I can’t srachbuild the piece, don’t know how?
I won’t be building the firefly for a while since i’m working on the tiger 1, doing good so far but only 10% maybe 5% done, still a long waqy to good, thanks for the help, keep in touch.
I wanted to buy some nomandy 1944 figures but they were u.s soldiers, need british. I will probally put the firefly in anothe diorama but I have no idea what to make the scene, plus I don’t know a thing about the firefly. any idea?
There are definitely figures on the market that will match your Firefly. I know for a fact Dragon does a British/Commonwealth infantry figure set for Normandy and NW Europe. I’m sure there are others available too. As far as a dio goes, try a Google/Google Image search for Normandy campaign, Operation Goodwood, Operation Epsom, Market-Garden, or any of the other battles that occurred after D-Day in the Commowealth sectors of Normandy. That should give you something to start with.
HAHa, operation marcket garden you say, excellent, I can use my game CALL OF DUTY (which has most of its level in operation market garden) I could make it a convond with a willie jeep, and an supplie truck moving in a city in germany or a farmland in normandy, maybe a german infantry attacking it, yes at least I have a idea.
I built the Dragon Firefly kit some years back. I remember that it came with two bonus figures, the TC and a foot soldier. Also there are some British figures available from Dragon, actually there was a set for Operations Market Garden.
Here’s a link to a diorama I made with the Firefly:
Concerning choices for infrantry supporting the Firefly. If you want to use paratroopers during Market Garden the majority of them would be US, either the 101st or 82nd Airborne, watch Band of Brothers. The British 1st Airborne were on the opposite side of the Rhine from their armor support. Although you can use the British paratrooper figures to represent the Polish 1st Airborne Brigade who were are the west bank of the Rhine. There were some joint actions near Driel with British armor and Polish paratroopers against the SS armor units.
I don’t think the Polish Airborne Brigade wore the same color berets as the Red Devils. The beret color may have been black, I am not sure and someone else may have that information. It looks like they wore the later Mark II helmet.
Yes, this week I learn alot of operation market garden, the british troops in Rhine were assisted with shermans (I could tell cause there barrel was short, not long like a firefly) but with panzersherk, tigers and panzer the german gave them everything they got to stop them, fortunatly the british managed to destoyed the german HQ at Rhine, allowing there convoy to move in.
I haven’t sarted on the tank yet, mostly been busy with the Tiger but I don’t assume tigers and firefly were at the same place. Now that I have the pliers to cut the PE parts and a huskey compresseur I can start building it while the tiger is drying, beside is almost done, Maybe If I finish it in 1 weeks, I can submit it to the western canada model contest.
Not true. Actually Michael Wittman one of the great Tiger commanders (Villers Bocage) his tank was knocked out by a Firefly. So you could depict a Tiger and a Firefly together. After all the Firefly was developed to knock out the Tiger and Panther tanks.
Humm, not a bad idea, maybe. but for the contest the tiger and firefly will be seperate.
I Hear of Micheal Wittman, but I thought he survive the war, after all he was on of the best tank commander in WW2. I mit but I would like my tiger (the one i’m makeing now) to be still in one piece, even if it was difficult to keep it in one pieces, maybe another time.
One of the many books I have in my reference collection is Villers Bocage Through the Lens
It has many great pictures of the battle and destroyed vehicles on both sides of the battle. There are some fantastic photos that can be turned into a diorama.
If you can locate a copy I highly recommend it for reference.
I could need more info on tanks, don’t have alot of books anyways.
I started constuction today, first is the lower body and wheels, (at least this tank has alot less wheel of the tiger) they sort of look like train wheel, why do sherman wheels look like that? Anyways i always paint the road wheels before setting the tracks on or even putting it on the main body. Any way of setting them up to paint. hury hury hury, 5 days before contest, i should be done with the lower body today, tomorrow top half, then turret, and friday, paint and decals. should be alright, thanks for the help.
As Brumbles wrote DON’T rush! I entered my Firefly in a competition in all over grey primer coat as a work in progress to show other modellers the work I had completed thus far. Yet I still managed to earn a Bronze award against completed and finished kits. There was a lot of competition on the table and I was glad I didn’t rush the paint job to enter. I was going to put a number of hours into finishing before the competition, but a friend at the local hobby shop told me not to rush the paint job and spoil all the effort I had put into it.
So this was how I entered it at the show.
And this was how it turned out two days after.
So again don’t rush it. A week later and I just finished the groundwork and attached it to its base. So it is finally complete.
