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1/35th Sherman Crab & Universal Carrier Diorama - **FINISHED**


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I intend to start this build sometime next week once I have cleared the work desk. I shall be using a Tasca Firefly and a Resicast conversion to make a Sherman Crab. The advantage of using the Tasca Sherman is that the suspension can be easily be adjusted to give the Crab its characteristic slight nose down appearance due to having all that extra weight on the front.

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If the above goes well and I have enough time I shall then do the following and put them all together in some sort of Normandy diorama. The Wasp conversion for the carrier will only be used for the tracks and some detail items as the Wasp Mk.1 was as far as I know not used in combat in Europe.

Andrew

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Nice model. I have always been interested in the resicast conversion for the CRAB, so I will follow this one with much interest.

Cheers,

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the Wasp Mk 1 was far as I know not used in combat in Europe.

Correct. Mk IIs were used in Normandy. IICs were used, for example, in the clearing of the Scheldt Estuary.

Good luck with this. You've got a lot going on. :)

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Time for a quick update. I have spent a few evenings this week putting the Sherman together, straight from the box except for the gun which was replaced with a resin replacement from the Resicast Crab conversion. The conversion comes with two waterproofed gun mantlets, not sure which one was the correct one to use but I went with the smaller of the two. The Tasca Sherman is certainly well engineered, the bottom part of the hull comes in the equivalent of an Ikea flat pack buts fits together perfectly. The bogies/suspension are all supposed to work and make it easy to lower the front of the tank to reflect the heavy flail attached there. I was going to do everything zopped up but in anticipation of including it in a diorama I have kept open the turret hatch and ordered a tank commander from Ultracast to sit on the edge.

Andrew

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You won't need that counterweight on the turret, will you?

Good point. Some of the pictures I have of the Crab show a stowage box on the back of the turret and I was thinking that's what I had put on! Having just had a look through the Resicast conversion it does indeed come with a replacement resin stowage box for the turret so I shall fit that today. A case of less haste and more speed I think (as my old maths master used to tell us).

Andrew

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After some minor surgery I have now replaced the counterweight with the resin turret bin, the bin at the rear of the tank with the slightly deeper resin one from the conversion set and also added three dust covers to the periscopes.

Now to start adding the flail.

Andrew

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Stowage Box:

Swapping the turret 'stowage' box was a good move as the one mounted on the Firefly isn't actually a stowage box or a counterweight.

It was the armoured extension to the turret to house the radio due to the rather large breech on the 17pdr gun and the longer recoil.

They had to cut the back off the turret and then weld the added extended section to it. The radio box sometimes had a stowage box added to its rear, further extending the turret profile.

Turret - Loaders Hatch:

I think you will find that this configuration was peculiar to Firefly Turrets only and because the breech of the 17pdr.

The loader could not get past it in an emergency so a new hatch was cut for him.

IIRC Sherman V's did not have a loaders hatch on the 75mm turrets & you should also ensure that the pistol port is operable and not welded up (as would have been with the Firefly).

Hope this helps you

Build is looking good so far. :thumbsup:

Edited by Shermaniac
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Technically, the box was a counterweight that housed the radio :)IIRC, the armour on the rear of the box was 2.5" thick, compared to 2" on the sides - which is an indication of where the weight was needed.

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Thanks for the info Shermaniac, AFV's are only an occasional build for me so all help is very welcome. I have now removed the turret loaders hatch, (I shall finish off this when the milliput has hardened overnight) and the pistol port does not look like it has been welded.

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All good info and advice and you are using it to create a rather smashing looking model. :thumbsup:

IIRC the offset gun travel-lock on the rear deck is another unique Firefly feature and needs to be removed. :nerd:

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So I had a late night yesterday and an early morning today listening/watching the Le Mans 24hr and wrestling with the Crab conversion.

The first steps concern adding some resin pieces straight to the front hull of the Sherman. These went on with no problems, however it is important to make sure everything is measured accurately as per the instructions. If the angle of the resin pieces against the hull is too low then the blast shield will not clear the front mud guards when attached later.

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The next part is the blast shield and this was much more difficult to put together. The first part is to cut the white plastic cylinders to the correct length. The instructions say 87mm but I found they need to be slightly longer. Too short and the blast shield will not fit onto the attachment points, too long and it will not grip. After cutting to 87mm I have had to extend it again slightly with plastic card to get the correct length. I replaced the resin blast shield with some pewter sheet as it was much easier to bend and will be easier to put a few dents in later. Attaching these two pieces together was not easy.

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The instructions are not particularly clear on this but since there are no proper locating points getting it into position and then glueing it is awkward to say the least. In the end I decided to replace the resin retaining wires with fuse wire so that I could connect the two parts together before having to use any super glue. The blast shield is also too long so I cut this down by about 1/3 to fit better.

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Finally a picture of the references I am using. The AFV book on modelling the Sherman has been particularly useful as it has a Crab conversion build included using the Resicast conversion.

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That's it for now. Cricket and Le Mans on today - Happy Fathers Day!

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Spent the day putting the rest of the flail together. It is now locked into the position shown but the top of the hull is not permanently attached so I can still be removed to make painting easier. No major problems on this part although care is needed to make sure everything lines up. I shall add the lane markers to the rear of the hull next before tackling the chains - all 41 of them.

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I have managed to get some modelling done each evening this week and have now finished construction of the Crab, all it needs now is some paint. I also ordered an Ultracast commander which arrived in very quick time from Canada - excellent service.

Each of the shackles is attached by two small pieces of etched brass and superglue. Once set and before I could knock them off I put a small drop of epoxy glue into the small gap between the brass etch, the shackle and the attachment point on the rotor drum. Hopefully this will keep everything attached through the painting process.

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