Bullbasket Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 7 hours ago, Valenstitch said: This might be a bit random, but in my time in the Army the only time I ever remember any kit or tools being properly stowed in the brackets intended for the specific item was on Chally 1 where there were no alternatives, no bins, nothing! We used to put the scoff in the compartment where the TOG`s should have been but the early vehicles didnt even have it when they were issued! I guess it`s just one of those things that I immediately focus on when I look at completed models, the vast majority of modelers seem to fully stow their models with all the correct tools and kit as if they have just been issued brand spanking from the QM, yet during my service most of the time we had substitute kit, substitute tools and some times substitute vehicles! Granto Yes, I know what you mean Granto. When I built my IDF M1 Sherman, I did exactly that and left a couple of items off as per the photos of the actual tank. I'm flying home tomorrow so I'll check the Robert Manasherob book on the M50's and see what I can find. Just have to say hello to SWMBO first. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 (edited) 6 hours ago, Etienne said: Hello John, another very detailed and intersting build The only problem is that I'll be obliged to hold you responsible if I get a Sherman-mania !! so I'm looking forward to seeing the next steps ... Cheers, E Hi Etienne, Thanks a lot. I can only offer my deepest apologies. It is a highly addictive condition. I was struck down with it 12 years ago, and since I have lived here, even the best medical help in France hasn't been able to cure me. The only thing that alleviates the condition, is to go out and buy anther Sherman kits. But that only increases the craving more. For me, I'm afraid there is no hope. John. Edited July 2, 2017 by Bullbasket Can't spell to save my life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antoine Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 How many boxes are needed to consider yourself as lost? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackMax12 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 It's like Tiger II's, one can never have too many. All your extra detailing makes this Sherman look special and the mix and match parts collection sure blends together well. Keep it up John, Lloyd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 6 hours ago, Antoine said: Splendid! So far, you used no less than: Dragon Firefly Ic Hybrid Dragon M4 Composite Hull Tamiya M4 Tasca Sherman II El Alamein Together with the original M50 box, that's five different Shermans! 21 minutes ago, Antoine said: How many boxes are needed to consider yourself as lost? Hi Antoine, Now there is a question. Including the 1/48th scale kits that I have, there must be at least 20 Shermans in my stash. I don't think that any of them are complete so there will be more Frankenshermans to come. I think I became lost once I'd past the 10 mark. I have around 15 built and there are still many that I want to build. I've done one M51 and there are still another 3 different M51's to build. Add to that the many M50's and Super Shermans, I've still got a long way to go, and that's without the Chilean ones and of course, all the Commonwealth and French Shermans. At my build rate, I think that I should have completed it around my 120th birthday! John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 30 minutes ago, BlackMax12 said: It's like Tiger II's, one can never have too many. All your extra detailing makes this Sherman look special and the mix and match parts collection sure blends together well. Keep it up John, Lloyd Thanks a lot Lloyd. As I've mentioned before, It was a build that gave me a lot of enjoyment. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 Nice scratching with the added features. Good job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antoine Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 With 20, I've to consider myself lost... Similar interests, with Israeli and other "modern" shermans, together with French ones from WW2 and Indochina. I would be interested in you Chilean machine, wonder how you'll tackle it. I suppose it's the 60mm M50? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 46 minutes ago, RichO said: Nice scratching with the added features. Good job. Many thanks Rich. Appreciate it. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 23 minutes ago, Antoine said: With 20, I've to consider myself lost... Similar interests, with Israeli and other "modern" shermans, together with French ones from WW2 and Indochina. I would be interested in you Chilean machine, wonder how you'll tackle it. I suppose it's the 60mm M50? I'm afraid that there's no hope for you Antoine. Greg Beuchler does a very nice, and comprehensive conversion for the Chilean M51. Hopefully, Santa Claus will bring me one this year. I picked up a set of Bison Decals which covers a whole bunch of S.American Shermans As an aside, I didn't realise that the French used Shermans in Indochina. I knew about Chaffees but not Shermans. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 14 hours ago, Bullbasket said: Thanks Kris. I'll check my references tomorrow when I get back home. John. Just let me know what you decide. It gonna help in the future Sherman projects. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 4th Update. Turret. Dragon's turret for the M50 is a good starting point, but needed some work to make it more acceptable for an early model. The first, and most obvious thing that needed attention, was the shape of the rear of the bustle/counterweight. It's not straight across as Dragon have depicted it, but more pointed. But first, the ventilator on top of the bustle had to be removed as it would be too far back once the alteration was made. Pieces of card were glued onto the rear of the bustle to give the rough shape and then it was filled with Milliput. When it had hardened, it was sanded smooth and a new ventilator from Dragon's M51 kit was glued in place and blended in with filler. The right hand aerial base was drilled out as the kit's one is a later version, and added a conical base for the left hand one from Bronco's British M-24 Chaffee kit. I raked out the weld lines with an Olfa P cutter and filled them with Milliput and textured them with a small screwdriver head. The commanders hatch in Dragon's M50 is the later vision type which is incorrect for this build, so I took the flat, split hatch from Tamiya's M-4 and detailed it with etched brass periscope brush guards and a .50 calibre machine gun barrel clamp, brass wire grab handle and a locking lever for the machine gun post. One of my reference photos shows the loader's hatch with a plate welded onto the top. This has some casting numbers on it, so I represented this with a square of 5thou card and Archer casting numbers. I sliced of the hatch springs and replaced them with thin wire wound around a .5mm drill bit. I'd used the pistol port on another model, so this one came from Academy's M51. I originally glued the smoke grenade tubes in place, but after checking photos, I couldn't find a single one showing them fitted to the early M50's, just the base brackets. So they were razor sawed off and the brackets drilled out. Final parts on the turret were the two aiming devices, the loaders hatch lock, the searchlight cable plug made from stretched sprue and punched out caps, and the grab rail running around the rear of the bustle. I couldn't use the kits one because of the extension, so I made one from 20thou rod bent to shape, and then glued it in place with MEK. I strengthened the joints with some super glue. Finally, the main gun comes from DEF. The main barrel is aluminium with a resin muzzle brake and is a vast improvement on the kit offering. That concludes the construction side of this build. Off home tomorrow so I'll eventually get around to the painting stage, and the tracks. Thanks for looking. John. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 Beauty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antoine Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Where does your references comes from? Gannon's books, or Manasherob's? Both? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antoine Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Bison had a decal sheet including French shermans in Indochina. They had also two sheets concerning South American tanks, the one with Chilean M50 60mm, and another one including M41 and M24. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antoine Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Here there are. Indochina South American shermans South American tanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 2 hours ago, Antoine said: Where does your references comes from? Gannon's books, or Manasherob's? Both? 2 hours ago, Antoine said: Bison had a decal sheet including French shermans in Indochina. They had also two sheets concerning South American tanks, the one with Chilean M50 60mm, and another one including M41 and M24. 2 hours ago, Antoine said: Here there are. Indochina South American shermans South American tanks Hi Antoine, To answer your first question, the answer is both. As well as the Chris Gannon book, I have most of the Lioness and Lion of the Line books which I can recommend to anyone with an interest in the IDF. Also, have a look at SVSM Gallery Walkarounds. There are hundreds of photos of all kinds of AFV on there. Thanks for letting me know about the Indochina Sherman decal sheet. I have 35194, S.American Shermans which I will use for the Chilean M51. I think that it's no longer available. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingsman Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 A very nice build and lots of useful pointers: thank you. I'm watching as I have an early VVSS M50 project in my stash, but I'm intending to cross-deck the M50 turret - suitably updated - onto an M4A1 or M4 Composite hull, although an M4A4 is also an option. I was originally intending to cross-kit the Dragon M50 and Italeri M32 to also produce an HVSS Cummins-converted M32 as well, but the Italeri kit is not without its well-known problems and I've got hold of a Tasca suspension set and other bits for it. I also got a set of 3D printed welded-hull M32 brackets, rear recovery hook and other bits from Click2Detail. Now I'm wondering whether to bin the Italeri M32 idea in favour of a Dragon chassis and use the redundant M50 chassis to make an SLA open-topped APC. The M32"B4" on an A4 hull was a bit of a stretch (pardon the pun!), but I have photo evidence that at least 1 existed (probably a UK conversion of an ARV Mk1, subsequently given to Greece along with other M32s to support the Centaurs). We can never say "never" with IDF Frankenshermans, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. So, do I stick with this idea and go buy another M50 to do the SLA conversion? But then I'll need another different VVSS hull to use up the turret and the spare DEF CN75 gun............ I already have 11 assorted Shermans, mostly M50 and M51, an M32 and an M36 in the stash. Not sure that's quite enough............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Great progress John. The turret looks just the job! Looking forward to seeing it with some paint on. Kind regards, Stix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 On 01/07/2017 at 21:42, Kris B said: Nicely done. If I can suggest something do not make same mistake I have done on my Sherman. For me was to late to correct it, byt for you is not. The long crowbar have a different mounting then the most of the kits doing. Look on the photos : Hi Kris, OK, so I'm back home now and I've had a look at the Lioness an Lion books by Robert Manasherob, and it would appear that there were several different configurations to the way that the pioneer tools were stowed. I found some like the photo that you posted, some like the way that I have depicted and some where there was a square metal loop half way down the bar. I know that it's a colour profile, but in Vol.1 of the books that I mentioned, the tank that I've modelled has got no brackets at all on the right hand side. Bear in mind that this model was built a couple of years ago, so there's very little chance of me revisiting it now. I'm just going to put it down to poetic license. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 On 03/07/2017 at 12:28, Das Abteilung said: A very nice build and lots of useful pointers: thank you. I'm watching as I have an early VVSS M50 project in my stash, but I'm intending to cross-deck the M50 turret - suitably updated - onto an M4A1 or M4 Composite hull, although an M4A4 is also an option. Yes, I've got another M50 to do, only that one will be an HVSS. I've got a Tamiya M4 that I (wrongly) built as a Firefly 1c, so it's for the knackers yard where I will salvage the glacis plate. But it will have to wait a while because the present day "Champagne" will come before it. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 21 hours ago, PlaStix said: Great progress John. The turret looks just the job! Looking forward to seeing it with some paint on. Kind regards, Stix Thanks Stix. If I get time, I'll post the painting stage tonight. If not, tomorrow. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 5th Update. Painting. After a detergent wash to get rid of any grease, the model was given a coat of Halford's grey car primer. It brings all the plastic, metal and filler parts together. Next, Tamiya black was sprayed along the panel lines and into recessed areas plus all of the running gear. The base colour for these early IDF tanks causes much discussion. It's supposed to be near to the olive drab used by the French post war, but not the same. I've seen many people's interpretation of it, ranging from plain OD to brown. I've got a bottle of MIG's IDF Green which I use now, but at the time, I didn't have this, so I mixed Tamiya XF62 olive drab and XF51 khaki drab 50/50. Allowing for the way that the Middle Eastern sun alters the colours, I was fairly happy with the results. The M50 that I had chosen to model from the Lion and Lioness book, was available from Sabingamartin, so once a coat of Tamiya Clear had been applied and dried, the decals went on. The only problem that I had was applying the air recognition cross of St. Andrew to the engine deck, because of the gun lock. This was fairly easily remedied though, by cutting the decal in half. Thanks for looking. John. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilHendry Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Looks great! And... YAY - PHOTOS!!! I began to think photos on BM were a thing of the past, after the Photobucket debacle! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Superb work. You can plainly see the Sherman shape, but that gun barrel is enormous! I imagine the muzzle velocity would have meant that if that thing hit you, you stayed hit! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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