Dragon Sherman Firefly 1c 1/35

[Shockwave Rider]

With the varnish still drying, I'm calling this one done and photographing it.  Aerials need to be fitted and, rather distressingly, I appear to have lost a small part that fits on the rear of the commander's hatch

 

 

This is Dragon's Sherman Firefly 1c.  I've had it in my stash for years, always meaning to build it , but put off by the individual track links.  I haven't the patience to put them together, and bought AFV club's T62 Track for M4 VVSS. No idea if it correct for this Sherman, but I wasn't about to put those links together.

 

 

Having bought the tracks, I put them somewhere 'safe', which meant I 'lost' them, then 'found' them, only to 'lose' them again as I didn't have time to build the tank. Roll of a few repeat iterations and years, and I finally manage to get both together, start the build, then stop the build for house improvements i.e. double glazing and replacement kitchen.

 

I finally get up the gumption to restart the build, got to the point of painting it olive drab, only I discovered I had sprayed faded olive drab - a sort of sand. Back the tank went to the shelf of doom as I figured what to do.

 

I normally do aircraft, and turn to tanks when I get fed up with the rigours of getting perfect finishes on planes. However, my tanks are usually completed as fresh out of the factory i.e. a simple paint job, with no weathering.  I finally worked up the enthusiasm to get going on this tank again, and decided to spread some sort of dark green over it in a desperate attempt to make it look sun faded.

 

 

Basically I sprayed a little, brush painted a little, dry brushed a little, splashed it all over a little, and relied heavily on transparent burnt sienna and burnt umber for the rusty bits. I don't really have a clue what I am doing, as I normally go for a pristine finish.

 

 

After about a half a day elapsed time of faffing around like this, I'd had enough and decided it was time to fit the AFV tracks. First a clean with soapy water. Then a coat of Halfords Flexible Vinyl spray. I find it is gives a good base for paints.  However, when dry fitting the tracks I noticed they looked a little tight...too tight in fact to fit the tracks.

 

Undaunted I simply stretched the tracks, and soon one began to fit better, and then the other one snapped in half! The air turned blue for several minutes. In the end, I worked out a plan. Stick the broken track together with the overlapping joint provided by AFV. I used superglue, rather than the technique of applying a hot screwdriver to melt the nibs on the joint.  Then I offered the track up to the tank, ensuring the broken end met over a lower wheel.  The track was then stuck to the road wheels with copious quantities of super glue.

 

I wasn't really enamoured by the Dragon kit. Attachment points seemed vague to non-existent, while the front sprockets wouldn't fit; needing a bit of hacking. It also seemed over engineered. You can see part of the problem with the left front track. It looks splayed, much Wall-E when he got squished.

  You might also note a little raised bit in the middle of the right track.  There were a few other areas which caused me much lip pursing.  I like my old, simple Tamiya tank kits.

 

 

I sort of painted the yellow triangle, but tried to make it look as is this was a tank that had gone through quite a bit, with the crew having to repair and paint bits.  I didn't bother with unit markings. Quite a few photos I see of Fireflies show no unit markings; either deliberate or simply hidden under much grime. Also, it occurred to me that if you were in Panther or Tiger country, the last thing you need is a nice bright, colourful unit insignia to make it easier to spot you.

 

Alternatively, I could have loaded up the tank with all sorts of equipment, and thus neatly hide any unit markings. I was too lazy to do so. I have another, exciting, tank to be getting on with.

 

I photographed the tank in the garden in full sun. In many ways this was a mistake. The sun tended to remove contrast and sort of bleach out the colours. The faded tops and sides do not look as sandy as on the model, and the green I splashed about is simply not green enough. Sigh. Better efforts required next time.

 

Just for the record. My camera/lens combo is a Canon 800D with a Sigma 150-600mm contemporary.  I simply stood about 3m (10 feet) away from the tank, zoomed in, and photographed it. I had a minimal field of depth.  It seems to work, and provides a nice hazy background. I was too lazy to switch lenses.

 

The overhead shots were obtained by me leaning out of the first floor bedroom window.  🙂 🙂 🙂   Glad none of the neighbours were about.

 

 

I shall now take my next, continued build, from the shelf of doom. A King Tiger (Late).  I have the turret built, but that's about it. I will complete this one, before tackling a Tortoise and then Crocodile.

 

Angus

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by Shockwave Rider
Correcting grammer and removing duplicate image

[Johnny_Sokko]

Looks good from here. You handled the weathering very well.

[McNab]

Looks great ! 

[Buzby061]

I do like that. Weathering is nicely done. 

 

Got to agree with you about the tracks having built one. They certainly are a pain in the bum. 

 

Pete

[Mirrorman]

Nicely finished! It is a kit that needs work doing to improve it.

[Johnny Tip]

Great paintjob, really looks like heavy metal...

One question -is it correct to put the .50cal on a Firefly?