AntPhillips

Looking good there John, I'll be interested in seeing this one progress to the painting stage.

Just managed another hour with the Frankensherman, fitted the sun compass bracket on the side of the turret just ahead of the commanders cupola, and managed to get the main panels onto the underside, just need to add some bolt head details in a few places: We're going away for New Year and I'm back to work on Thursday, so thats probably it for 2019, hopefully some more updates at the weekend. Happy modelling Ant

Well that's Christmas done for another year, it's been a fabulous time for family gatherings, but even though weve been extremely busy, I have managed to grab some modelling time in amongst the festivities, so here's some photo updates of the last week or so's progress. Firstly the rear engine deck is completed including the extra filler cap and it's bullet splash and the removal of the 2 inner filler caps adjacent to the engine intake cover: The M4 105mm turret had the cast in thickened cheek armour, Tamiya sort of represent this by showing a lip below what would be the thickened area but then blow it by continuing the lip around the entire turret, so it needed to be filled in, it turned out to be a relatively simple job of fixing a strip of 10 thou card around the entire turret ring except for the area under the thickened section, this strip was then blended in with a touch of filler and sanded back, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, although I do still need to make a semicircular notch under the gun mantlet, I've also blended in the pistol port, still need to add the sun compass bracket: The next job on my list is to add the details under the hull, I'm going to copy them from a Tasca/Asuka M4A1 lower hull plate, as the M4 and M4A1 use the same engine. Thats the bulk of conversion done now, just need to get all the little details done. Cheers and Happy New Year to all. Ant

Hi John, I've also seen that scheme and could swear I've also seen the photographic evidence that backs it up, but I'm buggered if I can find it now, I'll continue to look and will post if and when I find it.

Nice work so far, I have to make some sponson fillers for the M4 105 I'm working on, but need to profile the edges to account for the differing material thicknesses wher injection plastic meets resin, as the rest of the build is actually fairly straightforward, the sponson fillers could be next. I have got a Chesapeake Models full resin 1/35 M4A2 Direct Vision kit, I've had it many years and the main reason I haven't built it is because I actually find resin kits are in fact slightly intimidating , I think thats why I'm going the FrankenSherman route as a prelude to diving into a full resin kit later .

No pics today, as I didnt get much done yesterday, the little one went for a sleepover at her friends, and the Mrs insisted that we spend some quality time with each other without the distraction of TV or modelmaking, so we went out for a meal instead. I did manage to fit the extra filler cap and protective ring that Das Abteilung mentioned above. I'll post pics later.

The underside of the Tamiya lower hull is also devoid of any engine access hatches and or the crew escape hatch a by product of them using the same lower hull for their M4, M4A3 and M4A1 (M1 Super Sherman) kits. I will be adding these as although they cant be seen, I know they aren't there. Conversely, I've used the kit wheels as although they are the correct pressed steel type, they only have fronts, there is no detail on the reverse side, other than on the idler wheels. I thought I had a set of resin wheels in the spares box but can't put my hand on them at the moment.

Yep, already got that, just haven't fitted it yet, they're the parts that I'm borrowing from the Dragon 1c kit. I haven't done any British-ising of the turret yet, I'll be sure to add the bracket and the kit does have the all round vision cupola, I believe only the very initial batch had the split hatch cupola and they went to US and Free French units initially in the UK and then NWE. They are upswept bogies, I thought I might have to swap them out, but for once the kit bogies are as you say OK as the M4 105 was a relatively late production type (Feb '44 onwards).

Little bit more progress tonight, firstly some mods to the engine deck, the M4 105mm doesn't have the 2 fuel fillers abreast of the engine intake grill, so I had to remove the moulded in filler caps and fill the resulting holes, a couple of pieces of plastic rod have filled the hole and I'll cut them flush once the cement has cured fully. There is a new filler cap to add with it's own bullet splash ring further back on the deck and luckily this part is included in the Dragon Firefly 1c kit and isn't used so I'll pinch it for this one. I've also filled in the remaining tool location holes on the rear plate, as usual the camera has highlighted a couple of spots that require further filling and sanding I've also made some progress on the lower hull, particularly the transmission and the suspension bogies. As Tamiya have used the same lower hull on most of their Sherman kits, the front end of the hull is actually shaped to suit the 3 part transmission housing, so there are a couple of fairly large holes to fill if using the cast transmission housing. The wheels have a nasty seam down the centre line I've sanded them but the line is visible in places, I'm not too bothered at moment as I'll either revisit them or hide it at weathering stage. Thats it for now.

I'm sure I've seen it done with Humbrol Maskol too.

Never seen anything from Formations in 1/48 (probably because its not my scale), but if its anything like their 1/35 stuff it should be good. I look forward to seeing some progress pics in due course.

I've just checked this kit on Scalemates and it does have the revised tooling that was used in the Dragon 6182 Firefly Vc kit. I built the original one (following the tweak and correction list from MilMod magazine) and will have a 6182 Vc kit following just behind the FrankenSherman M4 Howitzer kit in my WIP thread. I can't wait to see some Sherman progress.

I'm in and will be following, I haven't got hold of a Centaur as yet, but there is a Cromwell shelf-queen hiding in amongst the stash, and lo and behold an Asuka M4A4 / V turned up in the post at work this morning . Does this boxing of the Dragon M4A4 have the revised hull parts of correct length as I recall that the original ones had an overlong lower hull?

Excellent workmanship Dan, I'm going to have to invest in some UK DPM decals for my tank crewmen.

Whilst I remember, this is the decal sheet with the markings for the M4 105 mm of the 20th Armoured Regiment of the New Zealand 2nd Armoured Division in Italy 1945. 20191218_233745 by antdphillips, on Flickr 20191218_233802 by antdphillips, on Flickr

Just a little more progress, after the advice I picked up on the FB Sherman page, I've filled the n-shape cut out on the rear hull plate just need to blend it in now. I've also added a strip of plastic under the hull sides of Tamiya upper hull part to get rid of the step due to the resin upper hull sides being ever so slightly deeper than the mating injection moulded parts. I also need to fill in the tool mounting location holes on the rear plate as they were relocated on the howitzer tanks. And a quick couple of the upper hull dry fitted to the transmission housing and lower hull parts. I'm quite pleased with the fit, the transmission housing does need to have some casting texture added too. That's it for now more to follow soon.

I suspected as much but it was the only WW2 vintage truck carrying a Bailey Bridge parts photo that I could find Fordson WOT - check GS body - check New Zealand division - check Bingo, I think you found it Honest sarge, he turned into me lol

I found this site that has a picture of a truck with Bailey Bridge parts, link to page: http://shiny7.uk/shinyseventhonthegustavline.html Hope this helps.

There's another pic of an FV432 with .50 cal, and also pics of the M109's in the Concord Operation Granby book screenshots below: Granby FV432 by antdphillips, on Flickr Granby M109 by antdphillips, on Flickr Granby M109 2 by antdphillips, on Flickr

I have some mods to make, I posted the pics on the Modelling the Sherman Tank Facebook page and its been pointed out that the M4 105mm had a deeper rear hull plate without the n-shaped cut out, so I will have to revisit that. I'll post more pics once I've got some tangible progress.

Hi John, It crossed my mind, but as I had to change the upper hull backplate too, I decided it was easier to do 1 straight cut across the hull, than what would probably been 4 cuts around the engine deck and I wasn't convinced I could get them all square. as it happens the cuts across the upper surface are along the weld lines so I have to re-instate them at some point.

Over the years, I've collected various Sherman conversion parts, to help me build a collection of British & Commonwealth Shermans, some of these parts have become superfluous as firstly Dragon and then Tasca/Asuka have widened the range of mainstream Sherman variants available. One of the sets I acquired along the way was a Tank Workshop large hatch Sherman M4A2 upper hull, but as my knowledge of British Shermans increased I realised that in fact very few large hatch version were used by British & Commonwealth units, only the M4A1 with 76mm gun and the 105mm howitzer version which was based solely on the M4 hull in B&C service. Dragon have released an M4 (105mm) kit but it's fairly hard to find and quite expensive too, as it happens I recently picked up a secondhand Tamiya M4 Sherman 1 that the previous owner had swapped out the 75 mm turret for a 105mm turret from the Tamiya M4A3 howitzer kit, trouble is the Tamiya M4 hull has small hatches and is thus incorrect for the howitzer version, so I got to wondering if I could combine the front half of the Tank Workshop conversion hull with the rear half and engine deck from the Tamiya M4, to produce a fair representation of a large hatch M4, so after a bit of research and comparing parts I decided it was feasible and would be close enough for me. It helps that Tank Workshop designed their kit for use with the Tamiya M4A3 kit and that kit & the Tamiya M4 share many common parts. So here's a couple of pics of the work done so far: As you can probably see, I've still go a little bit of work to do, as there's a slight mismatch on the height of the 2 hulls at the joint but it nothing a small strip of plastic a little filler and and a sanding stick won't cure. I've got a set of decals for a New Zealand unit in the Italian campaign or as most markings are generic I might go for a British unit as I know that 9th Lancers also used them in Italy and I believe 4th/7th Dragoon Guards operated them in Holland too.

Me and the better half watched the first 2 episodes after which the Mrs decided she had seen enough and it was only after I realised that there were only 3 episodes that we decided we might as well watch the 3rd one, well, thats an hour of our life that we'll never get back, I think you can definitely say that the BBC literally lost the plot with this one The only upside being it made me want to download Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds to my Spotify account so that I could listen to it again in the car on my commute, altogether a much better version.

Glad you're on the mend Dan and look after yourself fella

To be fair to Trumpeter they have revisited and retooled aspects of this kit a couple of times, after the initial release they corrected some inaccuracies regarding the position of a couple of fuel filler caps and also some dimensional inaccuracies around the front mudguards, I think they also improved the fit of the turret bins too. The original kit was reissued with the retooled parts but there is no indication on the boxes to say so, and there are still original issue kits in circulation, the Airfix release supposedly had the revised parts too, but I picked up one from eBay last year that seems to have the original unaltered parts, of course being secondhand that could be down to the seller mixing and matching kits and boxes. The Kosovo and Op Telic releases had the retooled parts from the outset. The later Enhanced Armour kit has substantial changes to the moulds including a simpler all new turret without seperate bins, essentially only the hull and part of the running gear are common to the earlier kits, it is overall a much better kit to build.