Bullbasket Posted September 6, 2017 Author Share Posted September 6, 2017 57 minutes ago, FrancisGL said: Inclredible mix!!, nice job..., cheers John 2 minutes ago, Ozzy said: Nice going John, that looks like a right lucky/unlucky shoot. Thanks both. Yes, it depends on which side you're on. But it wasn't the only one. Champagne copped another in the upper left hull. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentG Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 Looking forward to this one. More please. G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 7, 2017 Author Share Posted September 7, 2017 59 minutes ago, AgentG said: Looking forward to this one. More please. G Hi G, thanks a lot. I'm putting some more together now, so it won't be long. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 I wondering how many incomplete Shermans do you have at this moment? Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 8, 2017 Author Share Posted September 8, 2017 ....about five!! John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 12, 2017 Author Share Posted September 12, 2017 The state of play so far. As the upper hull that I was using was Dragon's M4, the rear hull plate was wrong for this build, so I drilled around the parts that I wanted to discard and then cut it out with a sharp blade, and then made a new one from 40thou card, and glue it in place. Along the top and down the sides I glued some thin stretched sprue and soaked it with MEK and textured it with the tip of a pointed blade to represent weld beads. Note the small bulge at the top of the plate on the RHS. This is pure supposition on my part, but as far as I can tell, Champagne was hit by two AT shells when it was knocked out. One entered the left side upper hull and probably tore through the engine compartment and glanced off the inside of the rear hull plate, causing the bulge. Anybody knows different, I'd be glad to hear. To replicate this bulge, I added a spot of Milliput and then blended it in with wet and dry. To reinforce my theory, the rear section of the engine deck has quite a gap at the rear and is slightly distorted. I added the exhaust for the auxiliary power unit from a piece of stretched sprue with the end drilled out (ringed in red). When I built my other model of Champagne, I had to scratch build the exhaust deflector, as the one in the Tamiya M4A3 kit was a bit on the clunky side. Thinking that I would have to do the same with this build, I was pleasantly surprised to find that on the sprues that I had ordered from Asuka for the engine deck, was a six part deflector which was far more accurate and finely done than the Tamiya offering. Here it is in place along with the extended lower hull side plates. Also in place are the two exhausts and the tow bracket (Tamiya). As with most Sherman kits, the eight bolt heads on each side, which hold the transmission housing in place, are missing. So using a hexagonal punch and die set, I punched out the 16 bolt heads from 15thou card and glued them in place. The six VVSS units were then glued in place and as I had suspected, the one with the Academy swing arms was slightly higher than the rest, but hopefully once on the base, it wouldn't be noticeable. Next up is the engine deck. Thanks for looking. John. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted September 12, 2017 Share Posted September 12, 2017 Are you be scratch building the whole engine deck or just part of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 12, 2017 Author Share Posted September 12, 2017 No, I've got complete sprues from Asuka, which contain the whole of the engine deck for an M4A3. I've already dry fitted them and they fit perfectly. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted September 12, 2017 Share Posted September 12, 2017 Nice scratch building John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 12, 2017 Share Posted September 12, 2017 Shermany and thus good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Wasley Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 Coming along John,love looking at your work,the detailing is an inspiration.Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 13, 2017 Author Share Posted September 13, 2017 10 hours ago, Ozzy said: Nice scratch building John. 7 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: Shermany and thus good! 3 hours ago, Jim Wasley said: Coming along John,love looking at your work,the detailing is an inspiration.Cheers. Thanks a lot to each for the encouraging words. John. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancisGL Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 Extremely accurate, very good job..., cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 14, 2017 Author Share Posted September 14, 2017 1 hour ago, FrancisGL said: Extremely accurate, very good job..., cheers John Thanks for the kind words Francis. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripaman Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Another one of your fantastic builds coming up John will be following on Regards Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 15, 2017 Author Share Posted September 15, 2017 4 hours ago, Ripaman said: Another one of your fantastic builds coming up John will be following on Regards Richard Thanks Richard, and very welcome you are too. Jon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 Great modelling again John. I dread to think what damage that round did on its way through the interior to finally hit the rear of the hull Looking forward to the next installment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 17, 2017 Author Share Posted September 17, 2017 2 hours ago, clive_t said: I dread to think what damage that round did on its way through the interior to finally hit the rear of the hull Many thanks Clive. Yes, me too. I'm just assuming that is what happened as I can't think of any other reason for that bulge in the upper rear hull. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 Seems very plausible to me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share Posted September 19, 2017 One of the two hits that knocked Champagne out, struck the upper rear hull, as can be seen in the first photo. To replicate this, I drilled a hole through the side of the hull and roughened it up with a triangular file. Engine door bump stops added to each side from 40thou card, plus the lifting eyes. I added thin strips of Milliput around the bottom of each item to replicate weld seams. The rear light brush guards came from an Eduard set. The left hand rear light has been removed. The Dragon hull is the same for M4's and M4A3's, so the depression for the grouser intakes were filled with Green Stuff and sanded smooth. I did make an attempt at scratch building the A3 engine deck, but I made such a lash up of it, especially the intake slats of the doors, that I binned it and went for a replacement deck courtesy of Asuka. The rearmost plate is quite distorted, probably due to the AT round and most of the securing bolts have popped, so I removed them with a scalpel and drilled the holes out. The brackets that were used to secure the pioneer tools have been removed at some point, but there are still some remnants remaining. I've arrowed these in red. The two white dots each side of the rear plate are where the grab handles have been removed. The final photo shows how the rear of the plate was thrust up by the impact of the shell. On the right hand side, only the rear portion of the rear light remains in place. Thanks for looking. John. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 Lovely detail, great work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share Posted September 19, 2017 52 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: Lovely detail, great work. Thanks Sgt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etienne Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 (edited) Another very nice and detailed Sherman and once again a great temptation to buy one or more Sherman's kits ... Edited September 19, 2017 by Etienne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share Posted September 19, 2017 51 minutes ago, Etienne said: Another very nice and detailed Sherman and once again a great temptation to buy one or more Sherman's kits ... Thanks Etienne. You have to get a Sherman, but get a Tasca/Asuka......they're the Rolls Royce of the Shermans. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris B Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 Good job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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