SleeperService

Sadly this is becoming a regular thing in other, larger circumstances too. While I appreciate that announcing product ahead of release helps sales it has to be balanced with the risk that exactly this sort of thing will happen. However the need for co-operation from knowledgeable folks means some notice must be given. Adapting what I advised at a former employer may I suggest the following: Establish 'ground rules' such as sheets always available in X and Y scales released together, never do a re-print, etc. Select some subjects that you can research and others for kits that are on the market. Start polls in various forums, at shows you attend, etc. for the subjects suggested. Allow space for suggestions with contact details. If you like the look of a suggestion follow it up requesting help and advice (offer freebies to useful people?) Announce the product publicly shortly before it is available That should put a brake on copying, keep flexibility, attract collaborators, and mean your sheets hit the market only when the kit actually appears. No re-prints means those who are uncertain will buy rather than wait helping cash flow, however if demand is huge the initial run can be extended. Don't overlook older kits, conversion possibilities, smaller manufacturers, and even film subjects on sheets things the big boys won't offer in the box but may mean a few extra sales. The number of aircraft in service with multiple users is vast but few are covered by decal options even when several conversion options exist. It may be a niche but it's likely a huge one.

I've been doing the heavy work in the Sherman Tank STGB but will be back on this at the weekend. Physio managed to reset my shoulder and the smallest piece of bone was removed yesterday afternoon. Still a bit sore but I've got my right arm back again. Got to love keyhole surgery and the NHS, Thanks to the person who called off and opened the slot I shot into.

I like the way they are thinking. I could go for one of those.

Ooh this has gone a bit cerebral best drag it back down to my level @PlaStix I've been beavering away at the running gear for my effort which means lots of careful sanding and alignment on Pershing running gear. Very, very tedious indeed but I'm getting towards the end I hope. Once that's done I'll just have the turret to sort and assemble the upper hull parts. Oh and have a huge clean up of plastic shavings, dust and such. The resin bits for my two original projects appear to be taking the scenic route to SleeperCentral

That's coming along very well Stix is there no limit to your talents?? It looks like Tamiya have altered the upper hull piece to get the roof plate arrangement better. My very early purchase is wrong and quite different to yours. Very nice work and flawless paintwork too.

Hello Out There... Well things have been a bit two steps forward then one back but things are starting to look better After a lot of confusion and muttering I realised that the resin tank hull was based on the Tamiya offering which has several issues including the position of the roof line break. In between opening the suspension cutouts I've thrown together a new upper hull using black styrene as it was on offer and I like a bargain almost as much as a pie This view shows where I was ten minutes ago-ish. The 17pdr lower hull has it's suspension part-fitted and the rest cleaned up. The cast FDA for the T68 Flametank arrived today from Ian at Friendship Models it's from their Jumbo conversion set. Very well cast and with care taken to ensure it is user friendly. That'll be fitted to the outstanding hull later. The tank hull-top is in the naughty spot before I remove the detail parts and scrap the rest, Ian also offers a M4A2 conversion which I would use but feel a bit bloody-minded at the moment, an M4A2 based gun tower in Italy has also come to my attention.... Next thing is to start going through the other builds on here and get impressed/demotivated/inspired. Then it needs to be turret time and doing the torsion bar suspension for the E4, I see much scraping and careful measuring in my near future.

Hi Stix Thanks for that, it was getting to the point where each thing I fixed threw up a new problem so I cut my losses and took an easier route. The upside is finding the root cause of several issues with Tamiya and HB Sherman kits which show up in the running gear when assembled. That has meant I can get the running gear built for the original projects confident that they'll look right when done. Today I shall be mostly filling in ejector pin marks on Tamiya tracks....

Greetings All. After a lot of effort and coffee I admit defeat on modifying the HB hull tops. So I robbed my Tamiya kit of the hull top which I modified and, with other parts needing duplication, left them with my bestest buddy who knows resin. That accounted for last weeks work more or less. Realising that I couldn't get too far without the parts I needed I went stash mining and will be adding to the effort. Meet the M4A2E4 quite a handsome beast with new legs and shoes. I had barely started a conversion some years back which stalled due to lack of information The hull is a Masters Productions item based on the Tamiya M4 with engine area tweaks. However the driver hoods aren't right for the M4A2 (or the M4 actually), the front is covered with trenches and the poorly defined grille is not good and has already been removed. Hauler 48061 offers grills from the M10 which work. So I set to work Rather than modify the resin glacis plate I simply cut it away leaving the drivers hoods in place and used 1.0mm sheet to make a new one. I cut away the hood sides to allow more of the same to make the welded hoods as the original. The hull ventilators were removed as they were ill-defined and in the way. Then gaps were filled including the holes for Tamiya's tool parts. I despise Tamiya's metal hulls so used the Adalbertus item to build a styrene lower hull with the floor plate extended 5.5mm for the new suspension. The hull sides should be 15.25mm to the underside of the sponson correcting this is easy enough and will make everything else a LOT easier! The nose piece needed the bolt strip removing and an extension added to get it in the right place with the top edge 18.5mm from the bottom edge. The sponson floor will be 1.0mm sheet and a rebate has been cut into the resin to take it. I believe the bolt strip for the sand-shields is the root cause of this error where it is moulded onto the kit hull side and the depth taken from the lower hull to compensate. The upper hull height is correct by my measurements. Still to be added is a strip of 0.5mm card rear on each side from the final drive casting. I believe the angled lower edge at the hull rear was vertical then the upper plate angled forward to put the top edge in the same position as the standard tank. This would avoid any unneeded extra work in the engine compartment. My plan is to get this built while I wait for the cast parts to avoid inactivity in this GB. That has been my downfall too many times.

Apache had the E4-5 consisting of the E5 flame gun and E4 sponson fuel tank standardised as the M3-4-3 bow mount flame thrower in 1945, the infantry type was only fitted to M3 Light tanks. There's a great history of all of them HERE it is essentially a tube of the same diameter as the .30cal barrel. The hull mg was stowed above the transmission tunnel when removed. Six were fitted to M4A2 tanks of 3d Tank Battalion 3d Marine division used on Guam 22 July 1944, more were available for Iwo Jima and Okinawa for the 4th Tank Battalion 4th Marine Division as well. Although used frequently the main armament POA-CWS-H1 was much preferred. This main system saw 4 examples each with 4th and 5th Tank Battalions on Iwo Jima mounted on M4A3 tanks first action 21 February 1945. Subsequently more vehicles were issued to the 713th Tank Battalion 10th Army seeing action on Okinawa from 19 March 1945. In 70 days of operations 41 were KO'd (26 repaired) with no crew lost in the vehicles.

The lifting loops were moved to the outer edge of the hull from December 1944 or thereabouts. The wing mirrors seem to appear at the same time and were fitted to all tanks but only rarely used after being issued to an active unit, the mount is just behind the front lifting hoop. I think the Bold Division turret is a new release from them as the parts look much better than the Cromwell offering. You might find THIS PAGE very helpful as the TMs are an excellent source of detailed information. Awesome choice of subject too.

Bending the Hauler lightguards is made a lot easier by using the shank of a drill as a mandrel. I share your pain with 3D printed parts some are unusable as we've both discovered. I'm stunned that the cast armor roof for the driver & co-driver positions has been left off, Likely the most obvious casting symbol on the vehicle.

There were several different Sherman flamethrowers including one type with the British Crocodile. What decals have you got and I can go digging. The main gun flamethrower type is just one of a variety. It can be a very messy subject.

Sorry I've just seen my name mentioned. If you want to change the tracks let me know I have a mate into 1/35 Shermans.

Greetings fellow Shermaniacs! Well an interesting time has been had doing a compare and contrast between the various components which should all be the same...but they're not....and they don't match any plans, dimensions or photos I've found. The picture below shows a bit of the problem Not a single dimension on those two matches, in some cases not even close. The E8 hull on the RHS is too narrow by 2mm+ the other by only 1mm. The engine decks are different widths with the E8 being right but the outer plates have been molded at the wrong angle hence the narrow hull. However the E8 kit contains TWO engine decks the original hinged type and the later torsion bar type which was fitted when the tanks were rebuilt post-WW2. Sprue T goes into the spares box followed by the turret Sprue J, and Sprues B, N and Q, both sets of tracks go in the bin. They are chunky and hard to fit then will sag into the sprocket over time even without tension. The Firefly will have a set of T66 track taken from a Tamiya M4A3E8 the T68 will have 3D printed T84 rubber chevron track. Having far fewer parts around made the next bit much easier and will be a tactic employed in future. So the first job is to modify the hull tub to the M4A3 configuration I found it easier to remove everything behind the escape hatch to get a flat surface the reinforcing angles are Plastruct angle, the reinforced floor is 0.25mm and the other parts 0.5mm sheet. On the hull sides the upper suspension mount and final drive locating pin have been filled with stretched sprue. Finally I turned to the rear plates The M4A3 G1 part is pretty good, the E8 plate M55 (LHS above) is appalling but at least the hinges are better. Note the difference in size!! They're attached for now but I'm not sure they'll remain... Turning to Sprue H from the VVSS kit I cut the bottom of the rear bustle from the base cutting vertically added a 1.75mm spacer to the top and attached it to the turret top, as molded the bustle is far too short. The turret top piece needs the undersized loaders hatch filling and a strip adding to the outer edge of the commanders cupola to correct the exaggerated curve of the corner. Once set solid the molded detail can be removed including the strip round the commanders hatch. The final task this session was to reduce the HVSS frame L20 by 1.0mm, This is simple: remove the damper assembly, cut 1.0mm from the top edge of the frame, stick it back together. 12 times in this case. Now I need some skull-crusher coffee and put my thinking head on while I work out what I'll do about the hull tops. Large hatch M4A3s were built at two plants Chrysler Detroit and Fisher Tank but both these projects are Fisher vehicles as they built all the Jumbos and 75mm wet tanks. I know that I'll only correct the hull top once and then get copies cast. However I do it it'll be tedious... 'til next time Thanks for reading and see you soon.

The pair of them must know what they're doing from THIS £320k in 2014 to THIS £450k now, both sold August 2017.