Bullnuts Op Lightfoot M4A1DV *FINISHED*

[bull-nut]

With my Op Husky Sherman getting to the point where I'm waiting for bits to arrive/cure, I thought I'd get started on that staple of British armour modelling subjects, a Sherman from the El Alamein battles in late 1942, specifically, Cricklade of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, 9th Arm Bd, attached as support to the 2nd New Zealand Division.

A fairly well known, I think, picture of the tank in question:

 

 

Sprues: missing parts are being used in my Op Husky build. Also shown are the tracks that arrived in the post this morning from Gaso-line in Paris. I've had to chase Friendship models for the upper hull and bogies, as despite ordering them at the same time as the tracks, they still haven't shown up.

 

Not shown is the AM decal sheet by Bison that came to me courtesy of the most generous @Bullbasket.

 

Some people may ask why I'm using the kit turret for this build, rather than the Husky build. Well the Husky mantlet will be covered in waterproofing fabric, and I intend to use that to cover any flaws in my resin cast M34 mantlet which is still cureing, and since I have no resin turret either, its got to be this way around if I'm going to keep working on this GB in between detailing the Husky lower hull..

Edited March 29, 2018 by bull-nut

[Ozzy]

Nice build bull-nut,

 

not seen those tracks before, looking forward to seeing it all come back together. Are you going to add any figures?

[bull-nut]

1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

not seen those tracks before, looking forward to seeing it all come back together.

First time using resin tracks for me too. Fortunately they come Link and Length rather than a full length strip, I'm not sure I'd fancy trying to bend them around the running gear.

 

1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

Are you going to add any figures?

Quite possibly, I'll see how things go. The personnel in the picture look to be wearing regular temperate battle dress, rather than the tropical kit, so that makes things easier. I may even have a stab at that folding chair!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

What kind of camouflage is that in the B/W photo ? It looks interesting ? 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

[bull-nut]

16 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

What kind of camouflage is that in the B/W photo ? It looks interesting ? 

 

Specifically:

CRME/ 42497/ G(Cam) 19 Oct 42 Drawing No.A/142/1

 

This was a set of drawings laid out by the Camouflage Directorate, GHQ MEF that specified patterns and colours for vehicles and equipment then in use in theatre. It covered everything from towed field artillery and AT guns, staff cars, jeeps, trucks and lorries, right up to tanks of all sizes. each type had a specific pattern that was supposed to be adhered to, and the colours specified were Desert Pink base colour, with Disruptive patterns in, in order of preference, Dark Green, Black(SCC14), Very Dark Brown(SCC1A) & Dark Slate (B.S.34). Sharp undercuts (main gun undersides, transmission cases, sides of A15 Crusader turrets for example) were painted gloss white to minimise dark shadows.

In the case of US supplied equipment, I think it is possible that the original US OD No9 was left as the disruptive pattern

 

Mike Starmer, here on BM self publishes a series of booklets on British vehicle camouflage from the interwar years right through to post war, that include cleaned versions and transcripts of the original orders. The pertinent one I will be using here is Alamein and After 1942-43.

 

Hope that wasn't too much of an info dump  

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Dump on sir, dump on. 

 

I could probably use your help confirming the features on the various M4A1s I'm looking at (especially #2). 

[bull-nut]

16 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Dump on sir, dump on. 

 

I could probably use your help confirming the features on the various M4A1s I'm looking at (especially #2). 

Ask and you shall receive, my thoughts now in your thread, though be warned that I am by no means an expert on the subject.

[Bullbasket]

On ‎02‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 21:06, bull-nut said:

In the case of US supplied equipment, I think it is possible that the original US OD No9 was left as the disruptive pattern

Reading an article by Steve Zaloga in MM some years ago when he built a Sherman ll, I believe he stated that the lower hull  and suspension was left in the original olive drab when the desert colours were applied by base workshops.

 

John.

[bull-nut]

Thanks @Bullbasket, the picture above certainly looks as though the hull sides are still in OD No9, from the tonal variations it seems very close to the disruptive patterns on the upper hull., although the tone doesn't change significantly across the stowage box-turret transition, so I'm thinking that the pattern may be Dark Green on the hull uppers after all. Mike says that the green used was close to SCC7? as used for temperate tilts, but formulated for solid surfaces, so I think I'll go with my SCC7 mix that I have made up already.

With regards to the bogies, they look to me as though they were repainted, but that the paint has been abraded off, probably by the sand cloud kicked up as the tank is moving. You can see that the front bogie still has quite a fair bit of light coloured paint on it, where as there is almost nothing on the rearmost bogie. It also looks, to me, as though the front bogie facing the camera has stamped wheels fitted, as opposed to the cast ones on the other two bogies? There is a lot of mud/sand caked into them, but the ribs look shallower, and closer together, than on the other wheels. Or am I just imagining it?

 

On a lighter note, look what arrived in the post this week

 

 

So I cracked on and fitted the gun mount and closed hatch castings to the new turret, since the texture that is cast into it matches the hull texture, and mixing the resin and plastic sections would stick out like a sore thumb. Also added various kit parts to the upper hull and cleaned up the bottom, need to add the sponson filler plate as on my Husky build, and fit the front tinwork.

 

 

And while I was at it, I fitted the front and rear styrene parts to the metal hull.

 

 

A spot of filler needed there, me thinks. Test fitting shows that the rear plate on the resin piece is fouling the air cleaners, so I'll need to thin it down a little before I fit the two parts together. Still need to knock up some jigs for the various brush guards, turn some sprue down into assorted lights, and add actual periscopes to the hull hatches. Not to mention drilling out the gun mount to accept the main gun, scratch up a rack for the Flimsys, and source a pair of 1/48 M1919 barrels.

 

Someone tell me again why I'm doing this .

Edited January 14, 2018 by bull-nut

[Ozzy]

You have been busy bull-nut, those goodies look nice. 

[fatfingers]

2 hours ago, bull-nut said:

Someone tell me again why I'm doing this .

For your sanity and the good of the hobby! 

 

Regards

 

Steve

[Badder]

Nice job. Way more work than I'd ever consider, so congrats and good luck!

 

Cricklade, and Highworth in the same GB!

Did you know that a Flak 18/36/37 88mm could fire from Cricklade and hit Highworth?

Only the people of Highworth would be upset.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

Just had a look and it's less than 9miles and could be hit with an

Edited January 14, 2018 by Badder

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1/48 barrels shouldn't be to hard i would think ? A good # of early war aircraft used 1919’s in rear gun positions or some as main armament like the P-40. Check out Aircraft A/M im thinking ?  

Edited January 14, 2018 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[bull-nut]

37 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

1. 13 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

1/48 barrels shouldn't be to hard i would think ? A good # of early war aircraft used 1919’s in rear gun positions or some as main armament like the P-40. Check out Aircraft A/M im thinking ?  

 

That was my thinking, just need to find time too do it around work/family/building. Web shopping while operating self propelled machinery is sort of frowned upon

 

1 hour ago, Badder said:

Nice job. Way more work than I'd ever consider, so congrats and good luck!

 

Cricklade, and Highworth in the same GB!

 

Thanks @Badder, a few more and we'll have an entire RWY Troop!

Of course the brush guards would be easier using etch, except that 1) I don't have much luck getting etch parts to match up, and 2) by the time the frets are shipped to me, I could have the parts scratched up from simple jigs anyway.

 

I sent @TeeELL my copy of Cricklade as a Sherman III, so we may well see another one yet!

Edited January 14, 2018 by bull-nut

[bull-nut]

Change of plan. I have managed to pick up an M10 IIC from a certain auction site, probably not for this GB, but it uses the same track and bogie frames as the M4A1, these also contain all of the lights and brush guards for the M4 series models, but the M10 uses it's own parts, thus leaving me with a full set of Lights and Guards for this build.

 

I have also noticed that the Tamiya kit uses the intermediate, lipped three piece transmission cover, while from the timescale involved, I would imagine that Cricklade was fitted with the initial, in-lipped, version. If anyone has any definitive information as to when the lip was added to the three piece cover, I'd love to here about it. Meanwhile I shall have to go consult Google.

[bull-nut]

Quick update, but quite intensive, all surface details short of the on vehicle tools are now added, bogies cleaned up and the track runs assembled. I had to grind away the a lot of material from the lower edge of the hull sides, since the front tinwork snapped off while cleaning up the hull. Not a big deal, I had to add sponson bottoms anyway, so I killed two birds with one stone and ran the new sheet part straight through to where the front tinwork will go. Drilled out my mantlet casting to accept an RB metal barrel, and added it and the rotor shield to the mantlet. Periscope brushguards were added in the same way as my Op Husky build.

 

 

Glued down the upper hull after still more grinding with the Dremel, and added the front tinwork, lights and brushguards. The Hull MG ballmount is just a sanded piece of the kit sprue.

 

 

Next job is to clean up the tinwork, add the MG barrels, Tools, and scratch together some No19 set aerial bases. I also need to raid my Crusader1 and make a casting of the turret stowage box.

Edited February 28, 2018 by bull-nut

[Ozzy]

Nice progress bull nut, 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Smashing work, love the texture to the hull and the tidy detai you've added. 

 

Interesting to see a modular track unit build on a Sherman, most of the braille kits are bit inconveniently designed for that technique (band-tracks), but I might give it a go with an Italeri/ESCI or Eduard/Extratech kit (all four have L&L).....The UM kits I'm building at present have L&L too, but I just wouldn't trust the fit for a modular assembly (and they look a bit funny)! 

 

[bull-nut]

@Sgt.Squarehead: Thanks, I used to build the tracks and running gear after painting, but I think I prefer the modular style and will be adopting it for all of my future armour builds.

 

Progress continues slowly but surely. Tools were added from the Hauler resin/etch set, also tidied up the front tinwork alignment. Checking my reference photo again showed that Cricklade had no brush guards over the rear light clusters, (so off they came and were replaced with the lights from my M10 kit, and the resulting holes filled), and mounting brackets for a Sunshade disguise (which I added with some narrow strip plastic and channel).

 

 

Unfortunately, the TC Hatch casting turned out to be thinner than wafer thin, and splintered to next to nothing, so I've had to order some new resin to recast it. I'm now very pleased that I didn't reuse the Composimold.

 

So jobs for the next week include, mounting the MG's, casting a new TC hatch and stowage bin, fabricating the aerial bases, and upgrading the M2HB with the RB set. Hopefully then she'll be ready for paint.

[PlaStix]

Another fine looking model in progress. 

Kind regards,

Stix

[Ozzy]

Just catching up bull nut, nice scratch building on the sunshade brackets.

[bull-nut]

Almost, but not quite.

 

The M2 .50 has had the RB upgrade set attached and the  bow and co-axial MG barrels are fitted. The new cupola casting came out much more solid than the first attempt, largely I think due to my using the correct type of resin so I have fitted that as well.

I added the various lifting eyes with .5mm brass rod bent around a 1.6mm drill bit, and also some semblance of the antenna bases using 1.2mm plastic rod, the wedge on top of the turret bustle made a convenient mounting spot to put the second antenna for the No. 19 set used by the British. The hoop guard of the B set was made from a scrap of etch fret, with copper wire supports fitted into a hole drilled through a plastic rod antenna base. Only two supports at the moment, I'll try for the other two later, but right now I need a break from small fiddly scratch building. Why does no-one make British WWII antenna bases in 1/48?

 

 

Edit: Yes, I have noticed that the .50's barrel is not square to the receiver, I'll fix that now.

 

Moulding the stowage bin has proved more complex than I first thought, since I managed to over heat the Composimold and warp the master. New master obtained, and a new Silicone rubber mould is now curing, that will need a few days, then I can pour the resin.

 

Off to my FLGC this evening, to give the 43rd Wessex a run out, so I think tomorrow I'll see about getting paint on the track/bogie assemblies.

Edited March 18, 2018 by bull-nut

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Impressive detail as ever. 

 

Annoying that you can't find all the aftermarket in 1/48.....Dan Taylor does a Sherman upgrade set with British antennae mounts and stowage boxes in both 1/76 & 1/72, perhaps you should drop him a message and suggest he widen his range to 1/48?

[bull-nut]

@Sgt.Squarehead Thanks. It is a little frustrating that 1/48 seems to take third place for after market producers behind 1/35 and Braille scale models, but we are still a relatively small market. Things are improving slowly though, so I wouldn't be surprised if, in 5-7 years, the AM availability for 1/48 is close to what 1/35 has now. If I could trust myself not to make a pigs ear of it, I might consider entering the market myself on a part time basis, but not knowing where to start with etch and turned components holds up the aerial bases at least. I have had some success with resin casting recently, so maybe I should start there?

 

On the subject of which, the stowage bin mould has fully cured and I've got a few casts out of it for this and future projects. The new resin is making things soooo much easier. No pics yet, because the batteries are all flat, but I'll see if I can get some up later today.