AntPhillips

Its a straight rebox of the Academy kit with new decals, there are a few reviews etc on the web, here's a link to the Scalemates page: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/academy-1393-m10--107515

The Anatomy of the Ship book on HMS Victorious has a couple of pages dedicated to a set of line drawings for Victorious' sea boats, if any one would like a scanned copy I'm sure I can arrange it.

I'm old enough to remember this kit when it was first released by Academy, and seem to recall comments at the time concerning the interior not being appropriate for a British Honey, yet another case of a manufacturer not doing their research fully and/or not fully understanding the differences between variants.

If you look at the instructions for the 2010 reissue of the Honey kit it shows the hole and the panel insert: https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/5/9/6/224596-27-instructions.pdf I would think it probably represents an escape hatch. If you cannot thin the kit part down sufficiently I'd just cut a new one from plasticard using the kit part as a template and fit it flush.

As it happens, I've just bought another Dragon Vc kit, I've yet to try any of the Tasca/Asuka kits as they are generally out of my price bracket, hopefully this one will be priced as competetively as the Easy Eight kit.

Spotted this one on Fcebook this morning, for December release apparently:

I have the Anatomy of the Ship volume for Victorious, it includes many detail drawings the photos below show the aft starboard side gun mounting. It would seem there was a simple single rail around the gun mounts. Theres also a photo of forward guns showing the simple rail. Hope these help.

I'm working on the Crocodile version of this kit at the moment, its at pretty much a similar stage as your's, with the obvious exception of mine having the armoured trailer too. It is a lovely straight forward build, although apparently it does represent a post-WW2 tank rather than a late war one. The Osprey Modelling the Churchill tank does include a list of some of the very simple mods required to backdate it, I'll post a copy later when I get home.

The Heller 1/72 sherman kit actually includes several variations of glacis plate that illustrate the differences very well, see the 2nd picture in the link below: https://www.172shermans.com/kitreviews/Heller/SBrezinski_M4A2_prev.htm Hope this helps. Ant

Here's a cross reference list US to British: M4 - Sherman I (small hatch only, with exception of 105 mm Howitzer version that had large hatch hulls) M4 Hybrid - Sherman I hybrid M4A1 - Sherman II (initially only small hatches, but later large hatch hulls with 76 mm gun were issued particularly in Italian campaign) M4A2 - Sherman III (small hatch only, the large hatch versions were never issued to British units) M4A3 - Sherman IV (not used by British except for some trials) M4A4 - Sherman V The British system also includes a suffix that denotes the gun type: No suffix - 75 mm gun Suffix A - 76 mm gun Suffix B - 105 mm howitzer Suffix C - 17 pdr gun (Firefly) The Eduard kit is a small hatch M4A1 without direct vision slots, these were used in Normandy, mostly by 4th Armoured Brigade. The M4A1 was used extensively by Commonwealth forces in N Africa and Italy but photographs show they had the direct vision slot in the front of the drivers and machine gunners hoods. Hope this helps.

On the subject of the Boeing Clipper, take a look at this site, an epic story of courage and determination: https://medium.com/s/story/the-long-way-round-the-plane-that-accidentally-circumnavigated-the-world-c04ca734c6bb

Airfix did one in 1/144 scale, it was originally released in 1967 and was last released in 2005 I believe. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-sk602-boeing-314-clipper--144140

You should listen in to yesterdays Jeremy Vine show, Rod phoned in when JV insinuated that the layout was not all Rod's work, Rod was most insistent that it is, although he admits to seeking help with the electronics side, building construction and weathering is his forte apparently. Not only did Rod phone in but he was then joined by Jools Holland and the pair of them just went full hog into a conversation about weathering etc. Steve Lamacq was also on as it turns out he's a model railway guy too. You can listen to the show on the BBC Sounds app, the Rod bit begins about 30 minutes in, alternatively if you have facebook, check this link out on the BBC R2 page:

It sounds like there's a get out clause, so should a new government "decide to take a different position" on the contract, this saga could yet run and run

Great looking Matilda, cracking job for a first AFV. I was under the impression that Bronco revised the engine deck tooling in later editions of the kit, although I may be mistaken about this.

Nice job with the upper hull and the loaders hatch, its really coming together now.

HI JD, Great builds, although I think you may attached the transmission housing bolt strip upside down, the angles don't quite look right (it's an easy mistake to make, ask me how I know ) Bolt Strip by antdphillips, on Flickr I may be wrong about this though as it does seem to look better in the last couple of photo's you posted. Happy modelling Ant

Hi John as promised a little fly-around of the Dragon Firefly Ic upper hull. I hope these help, although I think Bigfoot's link pretty much shows what you need anyway.

Hi John, Would some pics of the Dragon Sherman Ic kit parts help, I took some last night of the All Round Vision Cuploa for Mirrorman, could easily take some of the upper hull tonight if it would help. Happy Modelling Ant

A picture paints a thousand words........ Probably self explanatory but part no.1 is the adaptor ring and part no.2 the cupola.

The Dragon Firefly 1C kit has the all round vision cupola as an option in the kit, I'll check it tonight when I get home.

Airwaves (nee KK Castings) did 2 conversion sets one for IIRC an AVRE Mk IV and the other a Churchill NA75, both sets used the same replacement hull front with square drivers hatch & rectangular side hatches with a dedicated turret respective to each conversion set. This was pre AFV Club kit days and there were also conversion sets available from Resicast, Inside The Armour and Castoff amongst others. Regrettably I had both KK Casting sets and sold them off in the great stash clearance of 2007-2009. Typically now I have a couple of spare Tamiya Churchill's and would like to get hold of one or both again, but they seem to be as rare as hens teeth these days, and rarely appear on EvilBay.

Looks great, the Italeri Sherman really does go together well considering its age, and your composition of the tank, figures and base really does capture the essence of the original picture.

It must be a pretty inspirational photo, as funnily enough I have plans to build the exact same tank in roughly the same setting, there are markings available from either Bison or Star Decal (or both), I have the sheet at home, I'll post the No. up when I get home. The Italeri kit is pretty accurate in outline, although it will need some surface texture added to the hull, transmission cover and turret as Italeri's interpretation is as smooth as the proverbial babies bum. Other things I've noted in my preparation are the rubber chevron track and what looks to me like flat return roller bogies (AFV Club do these), I found this colourised image recently too and it does help pop out some of the details that were hidden in the original B&W shot.

Fabulous build and presentation, I was umming and aahing about one of these and following your WIP thread was the final push I needed to get one, and especially so as it contains markings for the 53rd (Welsh) Division in action at s'Hertogenbosch in 1944