IDF Sherman M1.

[Bullbasket]

I've decided to put my other Work in Progress on the back burner for a while because I am missing one vital part.....enthusiasm! So while the Centaur becomes a Shelf Queen for a while, I'm going to make a start on Tamiya's IDF Sherman M1. M1's were based on M4A1 76mm tanks and the majority of them came from French stock.

Tamiya released this kit a few years ago and is  bit of a mixed bag. Two of the sprues are a bit long in the tooth and originated in 1987, first appearing in Tamiya's M4 and then the M4A3. The small sprue for the .50 cal.mg is a bit more up to date, 1998. When the M1 was released in 2011, Tamiya included two new sprues which included a new upper hull and a new turret, along with a couple of IDF crew figures. Another good thing they did was to include parts to fill in the open sponsons, something that had been lacking on Tamiya Shermans. Unfortunately, they still used the original lower hull which has a problem, albeit a small one, with the base plates for the suspension units. This is best illustrated by the two photos further down. The VVSS is also not the best available. Because of this small problem, I decided to use the lower hull and running gear from Dragon's M4 Hybrid.

Most M1's used T54E1 tracks, but the one that I wanted to depict used T49 tracks, so once again I placed an order with Panda tracks for their set. I've used their products twice before and they make up into a very nice set of tracks. It pays though either to purchase Pandas track assembly jig or make your own. I did the latter and it makes a hell of a difference.

In addition to what I have shown, I also bought a set of decals from Sabingamartin for the M1, and an M1A2 76mm main gun from RB Models. I chose this manufacturers main gun because it includes the muzzle brake, something that Aber doesn't do. You have to graft on the brake from the kit.

 

 

The next two photos show the nearly thirty year old sprues.

 

 

 

The next two photos show the newer (2011) sprues and the 1998 mg sprue.

 

 

 

In this photo can be seen the lower hull and VVSS from the Dragon M4 Hybrid.

 

 

Finally, these two photos show the discrepancy between the left and right side VVSS base plates.

 

 

 

 

So, now to get some work done.

 

Regards,

 

John.

[fatfingers]

Got one of these that I intend to do as a Ugandan tank at some point with Bison decals. It's a shame they used the running gear from a 30 year old kit! 

 

Will watch with interest . 

 

Regards 

 

Steve 

[Bullbasket]

Thanks Steve. Yes, why Tamiya mixed and matched is beyond me (ok, yeah! economics!) because the running gear needs so much attention to bring it up to scratch. Also, the holes around the sides of the transmission housing are just not acceptable today.

 

John.

[Carius]

Interesting project 

[FrancisGL]

Good info, I'm going to project ..., cheers mate

[Bullbasket]

On ‎07‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 10:49 AM, Carius said:

Interesting project 

 

16 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Good info, I'm going to project ..., cheers mate

 

Thanks both. Hopefully I'll post some updates in the next couple of days.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

So far, I've managed to assemble most of the Dragon lower hull, which included adding the suspension base plates, transmission cover, final drive and the rear hull plate. One thing that is missing on all but the later Sherman kits, are the eight bolt heads which should represent the bolts that attach the transmission cover to the hull. I fixed this with a hexagonal punch and die set, and glued the bolt heads in place.

 

 

As can be seen from this next photo, the Tamiya hull fits onto the Dragon lower hull very well. All that was needed was some sanding of the edges of the sponsons and then in it went.

 

 

Rather than use etched brass for the front fenders, I thinned down the edges with a blade and sanding stick. I've also removed the small stiffener where the fender butts up against the cast hull. This will be replaced with thin card.

Right, I'm off to get high on MEK.

 

John.

[Carius]

Nice progress 

[FrancisGL]

It is at least curious that the parts of the two kits fit without problem ..., cheers mate

[Ripaman]

Nice start John, I was thinking the same as Francis regarding the two kits fitting together 

 

regards

Richard

 

 

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, Carius said:

Nice progress 

 

3 hours ago, Carius said:

Nice progress 

 

2 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

It is at least curious that the parts of the two kits fit without problem ..., cheers mate

 

1 hour ago, Ripaman said:

Nice start John, I was thinking the same as Francis regarding the two kits fitting together 

 

regards

Richard

 

 

 

Thanks for the comments. I was a bit concerned at first with regards to the fit, but as it turned out, the two mated better than some upper and lower hull parts from the same manufacturer. As I said, it only needed a bit of trimming and, bingo!

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

A few jobs that needed doing before moving on to the suspension units. Whenever I decide on a particular tank to build, I always find once I'm committed to it, that it's not as straight forward as I first thought. This one proved to be no different. At the rear of most cast hull Shermans, they usually have some kind of shield, be it the standard sand shield or just a strip on metal. The one that I'd picked had extensions to the side frames that protruded out past the end of the cast hull. I made these from .5mm card and fixed them in place.

 

 

 

Even though this is a more recent moulding, Tamiya still insist on giving us pot holes for the pioneer tools to attach to, so I drilled them out and plugged them with stretched sprue and then trimmed them flush. They would be sanded and filled later along with the three attachment points on the hull rear that are for the folding stowage tray hinges.

 

 

Up underneath the rear hull, there is a protective screen around the exhausts. Neither Tamiya nor Dragon include this in their Shermans, but Tamiya does include an exhaust deflector in the M1. It's very similar to the protective screen, so I cut out a slot to go around the exhausts and fixed it in place. It's slightly too short, but hardly noticeable. With regards to the exhaust deflector, I had a couple of Shapeways 3D printed items that I could use instead, shown at the foot of the photo.

I also made up the brackets for the deflector and glued them in place on the engine doors..

 

 

 

Shermans carried an auxiliary generator and the exhaust was positioned under the left sponson and came out at the rear. I made it from stainless steel tube, then super glued it in place.  

 

 

Another thing that gets left off of radial engined  Shermans, is the hole in the rear hull plate. This was so that the engine could be cranked over. I drilled this out with a .8mm drill bit.  

 

 

That's it for now. Next job is to get the suspension units mad up and the Panda T49 tack assembled.

 

John.

[Ripaman]

Looking good John.

 

Regards

Richard

[FrancisGL]

NIce upgrade-homemade..., cheers mate

[Bullbasket]

7 hours ago, Ripaman said:

Looking good John.

 

Regards

Richard

 

1 hour ago, FrancisGL said:

NIce upgrade-homemade..., cheers mate

 

Thanks for looking and for the comments.

 

John.

[TomCZ]

Very inspiring work ! Have one in stash too

[Etienne]

Not a specialist of Shermans but closely following your build ... what I see is nice and neat.

 

E

[Bullbasket]

10 hours ago, TomCZ said:

Very inspiring work ! Have one in stash too

 

Thanks Tom. It's a good kit but a bit of a mixed bag. To me, one of the worst aspects of it are the old suspension units with the track skids divided in two.

 

John.

3 hours ago, Etienne said:

Not a specialist of Shermans but closely following your build ... what I see is nice and neat.

 

E

 

Thanks Etienne.

 

John.

[PlaStix]

This is a very impressive project John. Your attention to detail is first rate. Looking forward to seeing more.

Kind regards,

Stix

 

[Bullbasket]

Thanks Stix. It's that attention to detail that is going to slow me down a bit now. It took me a couple of hours last night to do one suspension unit (you'll see why when I post next), and there are six of them, plus I've got to assemble the tracks. Thankfully I made a jig for this, so that cuts down the time  bit.

 

John.

[Carius]

Very nice upgrade indeed

[Bullbasket]

Thanks Carius.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Most of the IDF M1's had the VVSS units with the upward sloping trailing arms and Dragon's items are a good starting point but could do with some improving. There ae twelve separate parts to each unit. At least Dragon supply the road wheels with backs to them unlike the hollow Tamiya ones and they also have the three bolt heads at the bottom of each unit which are missing from some makers kits.

 

 

 

 

 

The later, plain pattern of drive sprocket was the most common one found on M1's. Dragon's sprockets come in four parts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are four ways that the units can be improved. First, the track skid is a bit on the thick side. I thinned the leading edge down by scraping with a blade and cleaning up with a file. Second, the four retaining bolts for the track skid are missing, so I replaced them with heads using a punch and die set.

 

 

 

The units weren't handed, so therefore could be fitted on either side of the tank. It just meant that the trailing arm could be bolted to the front or the rear. Whichever face it was bolted to, the opposite had four bolt holes in it.

 

Where the rear trailing arm attaches to the unit there should be another four bolt heads, but before I fixed them in place I glued a thin piece of card (6mmX4.5mm) there to cover the join line which would have been nigh on impossible to get rid of because of where it is. 

 

Next up, the tracks.

 

John.

[Etienne]

On 14/12/2016 at 0:00 PM, Bullbasket said:

It's that attention to detail that is going to slow me down a bit now. It took me a couple of hours last night to do one suspension unit (you'll see why when I post next), and there are six of them, plus I've got to assemble the tracks.

 

Hi John, don't worry, that's exactly why we are here waiting for your updates 

 

Nice job around the suspension !

 

E

[FrancisGL]

A very meticulous improvement..., cheers mate