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Showing results for tags 'Everything but the kitchen sink'.
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The Tiran is on hold at the moment, so in the meantime, as I have a lot of the build on my laptop with me, I'm going to do mini WIP on a project that I did a couple of years ago. Being one of those modellers who is forever raiding one kit or another for parts, I tend to find that I'm left with several boxes with incomplete kits in them, usually Shermans. So every so often, I try and use them up and build a complete model from what's left over. I did it before when I built the French M4A3 Champagne and I'm going down a similar route when I build the same tank again, only as it is today. This WIP is about the Israeli M50. Not exactly as the picture on the box depicts as that's HVSS. I'll be doing an early VVSS version. I won't be doing the usual and posting photos of the sprues etc, for obvious reasons, so instead, I'll give a little background to the tank. After the founding of the modern state of Israel, the IDF acquired many second hand Shermans from several different sources. These held their own against the surrounding Arab nations for a while, but it soon became apparent that the 75mm armed tanks were being outclassed, so a search was made for a more powerful main armament. The outcome of this was that they fitted the gun from the AMX-13, the CN75-50 which itself was a development of the German 75mm Kwk42 L/70 of the Panther. The first 50 M50s were converted using VVSS. They were based on M4A4's but the Chrysler Multibank engines were removed and Continental R-975 installed as at this time, the IDF standardised on this engine for all Shermans. Unfortunately the additional weight of the gun and the counterweight on the rear of the turret proved to be too much for the engine and suspension, so all subsequent M50s were converted using HVVS and Cummins diesels. So to the build. I had the Dragon M50 kit and from this I used the upper and lower hull and the turret. The first job was to add the eight bolts on either side of the hull, just in front of the forward suspension back plate. These I punched out of card with a hexagonal punch and die set. Next up was the transmission housing. This came from the early Dragon kit of the Firefly 1c Hybrid. Once the final drive humps were in place, some filler was required around the joints and in some ejector pin marks on the bolted flanges. More tomorrow. Thanks for looking. John.