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1/35 M4A2 76mm "Wet" Sherman


Nigel Heath

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On 2/11/2018 at 9:27 AM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Incredible metalwork as ever Nige!  :thumbsup:

 

Nope that had the access door for a M4/M4A1.....Looking back at your initial sprue-shots I don't actually see a M4A2 rear hull plate!  :doh:

 

I wish I could see exactly what Italeri have done to be sure.....It seems a very confused tooling!  :o

 

@Bullbasket, @JackG, @AgentG would you confirm or refute my assesment please? 

 

I think you will probably need to remove the detail on one or the other and scratch your own.  :wall:

 

On the bright side it's the easiest of the types to make and you already have an exhuast.  ;)

 

 

Cutting out and replacing the engine deck was correct for an M4A2 configuration. The kit appears to be lacking the proper M4A2 rear wall and exhaust. Rear mounted engine access doors are not on an M4A2, nor or the canister style  air filters.  

 

G

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I have got a little bit more done today. I started work on the Panda tracks, quite a few of the holes are flashed over so I used a 0.7mm drill to clear that away:

 

P1150698_zpsqvy16erb.jpg

 

Before not too long I had the first section cleaned up and assembled ready to compare to the kit tracks:

 

P1150699_zpskc1xyunf.jpg

 

These after market items are a clear step up from the kit offering. As it's such a Herculean task my plan is to work on the tracks from time to time as and when the mood takes me.

 

The Meng nuts and bolt heads arrived yesterday:

 

P1150703_zps9csavnin.jpg

 

These look great so I got to work installing some of the nuts on the underside of the bogie parts. The 1mm nuts looked of an appropriate size so I broke out a new scalpel blade and used that to cut them off:

 

P1150704_zpsvxjehfjo.jpg

 

The use of a sticky pencil and Humbrol liquid poly were a great help in getting this little job done. I set up the first one as a master to copy subsequent ones:

 

P1150705_zpswmpf7jox.jpg

 

I should get the remaining ones finished tomorrow and then be able to break out the airbrush for the first time on this build.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

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4 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

I have got a little bit more done today. I started work on the Panda tracks, quite a few of the holes are flashed over so I used a 0.7mm drill to clear that away:

 

P1150698_zpsqvy16erb.jpg

 

These look great so I got to work installing some of the nuts on the underside of the bogie parts. The 1mm nuts looked of an appropriate size so I broke out a new scalpel blade and used that to cut them off:

 

The use of a sticky pencil and Humbrol liquid poly were a great help in getting this little job done. I set up the first one as a master to copy subsequent ones:

 

P1150705_zpswmpf7jox.jpg

 

I should get the remaining ones finished tomorrow and then be able to break out the airbrush for the first time on this build.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

 

You must have the patience of a Saint!! :angel: Amazing.

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Today after getting a coat of dark grey RLM 74 on my He-280 (in the background) I put some Alclad grey primer straight into my airbrush (no need to clean it out when going from grey top coat to grey primer) then I applied the primer to all the readied running gear parts:

 

P1150708_zpsa4gtryqj.jpg

 

After an inspection session and a little remedial work here and there with filler and some sanding I was ready to apply the olive drab. Here's how that looks:

 

P1150709_zpsbst1qrjs.jpg

 

I have also being doing a bit more work on the track links. I am storing all the cleaned up links in their own dedicated container system:

 

P1150710_zpsrljju9hn.jpg

 

The next job is to paint the rubber on the tyred wheels and once that's done I can start to assemble the bogies. It's my birthday next Saturday and I have family visiting me so I doubt that I will get any modelling done next weekend so see you in two weeks time.

 

Until then, bye,

 

Nigel

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Magnificent work Nige.....Hope you are back on track with the main features of the build, Italeri did you absolutely no favours whatsoever on that front. 

 

The detail you are adding looks superb and the tracks are massive improvement.....If you can get the model sitting just right on its tracks the rest of the build tends to follow naturally, they are the 'make or break' part of an AFV build IMHO.

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If you can get the model sitting just right on its tracks the rest of the build tends to follow naturally, they are the 'make or break' part of an AFV build IMHO.

  •  

 

To help the model sit down nicely on it's tracks I think I'm going to add a chunk of lead sheet inside, a bit of weight has got to help.

 

 

 

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Well my relatives aren't turning up until tomorrow now so I got a bit more done today. To mask for the rubber tyres I needed to make some masking discs, the largest punch I have is 12mm in diameter, it looked like it might have worked but was just a tad too small so I broke out my compass cutter and after a few goes had the right size, about 13.5mm as it happens:

 

P1150717_zpsbldx5w0w.jpg

 

I was going to paint the rubber Tyre Black but looking at several reference examples  a not so dark grey looks closer so I sprayed them with Black Grey RLM 66. Once dry to give a bit of tonal variation I rubbed the running surface with dark grey pastel chalk:

 

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/a597/nheath100/1-35 M4A2 Sherman/P1150721_zpslvck56st.jpg

 

That will need sealing with some varnish before proceeding any further.

 

Next a bit of headlight action. These are moulded solid, these painted silver as per the kit instructions would look really naff so I looked out a final size drill to drill them out, 3/32" as it happens:

 

P1150719_zpslnorvq8x.jpg

 

I started to drill them out with a 0.8mm pilot hole, then went to 2mm:

 

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/a597/nheath100/1-35 M4A2 Sherman/P1150720_zpsrtjtakh7.jpg

 

After the final drilling with the 3/32nd drill I then used the end of my round riffler to get a more hemispherical hole. The job was finished off with a liberal application of liquid poly:

 

P1150722_zpso0dihawp.jpg

 

My plan is add reflectors to them using aluminium foil and finish with a clear punched disc. These are rather fragile so I think I'll leave them off the model until much later. They will also be easier to work on like that.

 

With a bit of luck I should get some more done in the morning so see you then.

 

Nigel

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The very nice work continues. Especially on the headlamps. I only have the one headlamp on my Sherman, with a clear plastic lens, and I forgot to silver the back in my hurry to get it fixed in place! Doh!

I'm not a rivet counter, but I did notice that your wheel masks don't cover the wheel rims, so they will end up looking like 'rubber'. I'd have thought it better to spray the tyres first, protect them with annular masks, then spray the hubs? Yeah, I know, but I'm in a bad mood after losing a game of chess due to rubbish internet connection and I'm feeling very picky! :D

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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I did notice that your wheel masks don't cover the wheel rims, so they will end up looking like 'rubber'. I'd have thought it better to spray the tyres first, protect them with annular masks, then spray the hubs?

 

Normally I would spray the tyres first as I think its better to have a bit of paint over-spray on the rubber rather than rubber colour on the hubs (as this sort of over-spray often happens in reality) but in this case I felt that as the edge of the tyres was so narrow, masking would be a bit of a struggle. Personally I think Italeri have got the tyres a little on the thin side. Edit: Apologies Badder I just realised that the hub mask you are commenting on is the undersized 12mm punched one I first made (you can see there is no compass point hole in the centre), that's why the rim looks exposed. Anyway you can judge my efforts below. To fix the pastel chalk the first job of the day was to apply a coat of satin varnish to the tyres and then when dry the wheels were unmasked:

 

P1150724_zpsz4tluqdq.jpg

 

I then applied a Payne's Grey oil wash to them. Here the one at the front is the last to have the excess wash removed. The one at the back is the one with the pronounced shrinkage:

 

P1150725_zpsdsjenjvh.jpg

 

At this point I realised I could not assemble the bogies with the damper thingies in place. I decided that the best solution was to razor saw through the axle:

 

P1150726_zpsqz10fgsc.jpg

 

I could then crack on with bogie assembly, here is the last one with liquid cement applied to the mounting holes ready for assembly:

 

P1150727_zpszyolmln6.jpg

 

You can't really see, as the kit plastic is such a close match to the OD, but all gluing surfaces are clear of paint due to my earlier masking work.

 

Clamping front and rear was required to get all the joint surfaces in contact:

 

P1150728_zpsrfjczhi1.jpg

 

The next job was to deal with the seams as in reality the bogies are a solid casting:

 

P1150729_zpsrkh9fmur.jpg

 

Filling the seams under the trailing rollers was awkward but the bogies are fully articulated so I could move them out of the way as far as possible to gain a degree of access:

 

P1150731_zpsdurpxgkh.jpg

 

Here all the all filling has been completed:

 

P1150732_zps2sm0uvt5.jpg

 

While that was hardening up I turned my attention back to the track skids. I have realised that the trailing edges should actually be tapered so I modified the master accordingly:

 

P1150733_zpsvrq9qkom.jpg

 

Some while later I had finished the remaining four to give me all six required:

 

P1150734_zps5o1qylrt.jpg

 

By now the filler had hardened up so I cleaned up the first bogie assembly:

 

P1150735_zpsudccxl42.jpg

 

Well that's as far as I've got this weekend, much more progress than expected. I'm really looking forward to applying those track skids and the associated bolt heads.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

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Due to the snowy conditions I got a day off work today and made use of this getting some more done on my Sherman. I'm still using Photobucket but that is playing up something rotten for some reason so I uploaded these photos from my Flickr account. After a second application of filler in the form of Squadron white I finished cleaning up the bogie seams:

 

 

P1150740

 

The next job was to add these raised, cast bosses. I first punched out some 0.9mm discs of 0.4mm card and then after gluing them in place with Humbrol Liquid Poly I drilled them out with a 0.5mm drill  then finished them off with a fillet of extra thin superglue. This one was marked up as the master to use as a guide for the rest:

 

P1150741

 

As a reference, this is what I was aiming at:

 

P1150742

 

Here they are all done:

 

P1150743

 

Next I added all the brass track skids:

 

P1150744

 

Now for the bolt heads plus washers. I started with a 1mm bolt head but that looked over-scale so I cut that off and used the smallest 0.8mm Meng heads. The ones under the front curve were tricky to place, access was too restricted to use my sticky pencil so I used a cocktail stick with a blob of Blu Tack on the end:

 

P1150745

 

Here is the first one finished:

 

P1150746

 

The extra thin superglue I am using grabs almost instantly giving virtually no time to fine tuning of the head's positions. I think I will try using Liquid Poly first and then when in their final resting place secure with a fillet of thin superglue. But that's now a job for tomorrow.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

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