I was wondering if there were any/ many WWII Canadian armour kits out there? It appears to me that the Tamiya Universal Carrier kit should be good to go with the right decals. I also understand that the Tamiya M3 kit comes with Canadian decals but is there anything else that needs to be modified? Apperently Canadains also used Sherman tanks as well but there are several on the market . Is there any kits out there that do not need and aftermarket help? If anybody can give me some direction I would appreciate it. I basically want to build some fairly accurate WWII Canadian armour without getting into the $$ for aftermarket pieces. Thanks
Many Allied AFV kits come with Candian markings. But for those kits that do not, Ulracast makes a line of decal sheets in 1/35 of Canadian markings that you can use on the appropriate AFV kit.
IIRC the Dragon Firefly Vc comes with some Canadian markings.
Thanks for the comments guys. It’s not terribly hard to get aftermarket Canadian WWII decals. I’m still trying to figure out what vehicles are accurate out of the box and still available. Sometimes the Canadains put their own pieces such as a turret on someone elses hull. Haven’t found the Dragon Sherman Firefly vc yet.
The Tasca and DML Vc’s and the Tasca V should do nicely. You may need to get am markings. I think the Bronco Staghound even comes with Canadian markings.
One of the Tasca or DML Sherman III’s might do as well, but I don’t know which of the Sherman III variants we used.
It would be handy to have a complete list of models that feature Canadian markings OOB.
I have the Tasca VC Firefly kit and bought the reference book on the composite hull Firefly…not much good for the kit I all ready have. Searching for reference photographs can be frustrating as many sites about Canadian armor are more text than reference material.
*I have asked my significant other for the two reference books on Canadian WWII vehicles in the Squadron mail order for X-mass. Hopefully Santa (she) gets them ordered! [:D]
I’m not aware of any Canadian specific re-turreting of tanks. They used what the UK used: i.e. British equipment and US made lend lease equipment. Some Canadian built vehicles (Ford Carrier, various trucks, RAM OP, RAM Badger) were used as well.
I know of a few Canadian armour kits, Bronco makes a couple staghounds that are Canadian and AFV Club has an Achilles kit that comes with Canadian markings.
i built the Achilles in Canadian markings a few months ago and really liked it
http://www.internethobbies.com/afvclub135ac.html
and i have a Bronco staghound with Candaian markings that looks good to but i have not built it yet
These are the two staghounds
http://www.internethobbies.com/brmo1stmkiii.html
http://www.internethobbies.com/br1cat1stmki.html
hope that helps
[:)]
Thanks alot for your help guys. I found out about the Staghound and the AFV Club Churchill (has Canadian markings) as well. It’s the Shermans I’ve had the most problem with. There were soo many varients and trying to find the right kit that doesn’t need any mods has been a chore. I think I’m slowly figuring it out though. The "grizzly " for example was an M4A1 with different tracks and idler wheel. And to tell you the truth I don’t know alot about tanks as it is.[:D] Some of the Sherman kits should be good out of the box even if they don’t come with Canadian decals seeing how the Allies did share their armour with each other.
I just started to collect armour kits and have a few German kits and was planning on getting more. They seem to make such a large variety of interesting armour compared to the other countries. But to be honest after watching “Schindlers List” again, it left a bad taste in my mouth for German anything. I’ll still build what I have but I’m not building a shrine to them if you know what I mean.
Can you tell I’m Canadain by the way I spell Armour ?
Fellow Canadian here. As Shermans go, they closely match what their UK brethren held. In NWE, they had Sherman Is, IIs, IIIs and Vs. These are M4s, M4A1s, M4A2s and M4A4s. They also had a good complement of Firflies built on M4s and M4A4s.
Here’s an article I wrote about differing variants
http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/Sherman%20Corner/shermanvariants.html
The Grizzly was the Montreal Locomotive works M4A1. I don’t know of any evidence their being sent overseas – mainly sent to training facilities in Canada itself. Their idler was the same – the drive sprocket was different as the CDP (Canadian Dry Pin) tracks had a different pitch than normal Sherman tracks. If you watch “Band of Brothers”, you’ll see that the M4A1 sherman that appears in some episodes is one of these Canadian Grizzlies – just look at the track and drive sprocket.
Thanks for that. Still a little confusing considering there were minor variations on variations.[:S][:D]
Do you think either the Dragon M4 DV #6579 or the Dragon Sherman MK Ic Firefly Hybrid #6228 would work well representing a Canadian used WWII tank?
Agreed!
Basically its easier to have the reference picture with you when purchasing the kit(s) (kit bashing) and AM corrections / conversions. I have a excellent reference book on composite hull (cast front hull welded to a plate steel welded rear hull) Fireflys that includes photographs of Canadian vehicles in action. Two interesting photographs show every second track link with ‘L’ shaped steel extensions that are at least 18"! I am not sure if this is for traction, ground pressure, keeping infantry away or shear mean appearance!
The book is:
Armor Photogallery # 21
Sherman IC Firefly by Wojciech J. Gawrych
It features walk around photographs of a IC vehicle in the National Museum of Military History - Located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The opening picture of ‘Photohistory’ shows a famous picture if a Canadian IC from the 8th Princess Louise’s (NB) Hussars covered in Churchill tank track armour . Two more pages further in show about 10 photographs of Canadian IC Fireflys in action.
Grab your reference picture(s) and hit the LHS eh!
Here’s a site you may find right up your alley… one dedicated to Canadian Armor.
I’m not 100% sure but I think this is the same kit I was referring to in an Orange box version with some extra goodies. I may very well have been mistaken on the markings options also as it seems it only has 2 options for a couple of Brit tanks
It’s not around right now, but I hear that the Maple Leaf Models site will be up and running some time soon and they had all sorts of Canadian goodies. Also check out http://www.servicepub.com/ I haven’t bought any of their books but they seem to have good titles and it’s mostly about Canadians.
P.S. It’s good to have a thread about Canadian armour… It’s not always easy to find.
Thanks guys. SuppresionFire, your probably right. It may boil down to having the reference pic. when picking out the kit.
I did see the armouredacorn site before but not the servicepub site.
Jester75, I saw that kit before and I was thinking that should be pretty darn close. Don’t know how good a kit it is but being a Cuberhobby, I’d guess it must be half decent.
I want to get a fairly accurate kit but I wouldn’t worry about every little detail. You never know, something could have been added out in the field that was out of the ordinary as a quick fix or something.
Somefella
There are two books that I recommend. They were wrote by Barry Beldam and Steve Guthrie. They are" Camouflage and Markings of Canadian Armored Vehicles in World War Two, Part 1" and "*****Part 2 ".
They cover Canadian vehicles before they left Canada and after they arrived in Europe.
On a different note to Stickman re. the Achilles.
In Squadrons “Armour in Korea” there is a picture of an Achilles on the docks in Korea and pictures of Shermans with the bulldozer plow installed in Canadian use and markings.
A couple of years ago, I was attempting to get info on Shermans with the plow to scratch build the attachments needed for the plow at CFB Gagetown Armoured School. The warrant I spoke to tried to get me any info they had which turned out to in vain. So he put a call thru to the Canadian Forces Museum in Kingston, Ontario. The curator knew nothing of Canadian Armoured vehicles going from Canada to Korea. He said that all equipment used was initally from the U.S. . When I told him of the book I held in my hands showing the picture of the Achilles on the dock in Korea, I had to pass the phone back to the warrant for him to verify that I was telling the truth. Wow some curator!
Spoke later with my father in law who served with RECME in Korea and serviced said vehicles, he said the curator was full of S*#T. There were many Canadian supplied vehicles (Armoured and Soft skin) that were shipped over from Vancover docks.
I came acros a book in my local library that was an overview of the RCAC and it did mention a bit about Korea. It said that the Achilles weren’t used operationaly as fas as anyone can tell and that the Sherman used ant least initially were bought/leased (can’t remeber which) from the USMC. I’m sure lots did get shipped over from Vancouver but in the begining we did use tanks from the US.
^^^ Those two books are all I want for Christmas! [A]