Crossing the Rabbi.

[Bullbasket]

So as we’re clear, this has nothing to do with the Jewish religion or a Scottish poet, it’s a river in Italy. I built this model a few years ago, before I joined BM, so it’s never been on here before as a WIP or even an RFI. At the moment, I’m experiencing some problems with a certain black dog, which is making modelling something which I have no interest in, but I’m using this build as something to get my interest going again. I still have my notes and some photos of the build, so bear with me and I’ll post the build bit by bit over the coming couple of weeks.

  

 

I saw a photo in a Concord book “British Sherman Tanks”, of a Sherman lla of the Queens Bays crossing the Rabbi river in Italy and thought that it would make a good model subject.

I had in the stash, Italeri’s M4A1 76mm, and although an old kit, it was according to what I read about it, basically accurate. Steve Zaloga did an article for MM some years ago and said just that.

 

With any luck, I'll get on and start posting the build tonight or tomorrow.

 

John. 

[AntPhillips]

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. 

[Carius]

A beautiful project my friend. I will follow with interest 

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, AntPhillips said:

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.

Hi Ant,

You're right, because I've done it twice! A couple of years after I built this one, I did it again in 1/48th scale.

When I built this one, I used the Bison decal sheet 35089, and when I tried to apply the "lll B" to the stowage shelf, the characters were too tall (I'd used an etched item from Aber), so I had to cobble them together from various sources.

Good luck with the build when you start it.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, Carius said:

A beautiful project my friend. I will follow with interest 

Thanks Carius, and you are most welcome.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Lower Hull.

I started off by adding the 10 missing bolt heads to each back plate for the VVSS units, and the dozen or so ones from the idler back plates. In total, about 72 bolt heads. If memory serves me right, that took the best part of an evening. What I did forget to add though were the eight bolt heads that are missing from each side of the lower hull, just behind the drive sprocket. Oh well. Win some, lose some!

The drive sprocket is from the Italeri kit, but the idlers were left over from a Tasca Sherman ll.

 

After gluing the rear hull plate in place, I used the kits less common round air cleaners as I believe they were the type used by the Queens Bays tank. I made a new bracket from card for the towing hook, and added tow shackles front and rear from the spares box. The steps on the transmission housing are etched ones from Eduard.

I added some basic interior detail, using left over parts from the Academy Grant, as I would be leaving all of the hatches open, allowing a lot of the interior to be seen.

 

I was unable to use the VVSS and road wheels from the Italeri kit as they are the wrong type; upswept return roller brackets and open five spoke wheels. The ones that I used came from the Dragon Hybrid Mk.1c. I thinned the edges of the track skids, added the missing bolt heads and drilled the four holes on the leading face.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

John.

 

[Redcoat2966]

Looking forward to following this one John.......I got a gasp of distress .......when I said at the latest MAFVA meet, that "I'd never built a Sherman..and that they were all nearly the same".........so I took the plunge, and picked up the ASUKA Model - British Sherman VC Firefly........so will watch along for any tips on detail etc, on this one.

 

Looking good so far maye.

 

Regards

Redcoat

[Bullbasket]

33 minutes ago, Redcoat2966 said:

"I'd never built a Sherman..and that they were all nearly the same".

Simon, that's very nearly heresy! It's like saying Bernard Manning looks like Pierce Brosnan. I did smile though when I thought about comparing an early M4A1 with an Israeli M51.

You've picked a good one for a first Sherman build. The Tasca/Asuka kits are probably the best on the market and a joy to build, plus they have an excellent spares service.

 

John.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Bullbasket

[Soeren]

Wow 80 + bolts added? I enlarged the picture with the running gear in place, wasn't able to see any. But I know. The details you added and the effort you put into a model, that is most of the joy.

[Bullbasket]

29 minutes ago, Soeren said:

Wow 80 + bolts added? I enlarged the picture with the running gear in place, wasn't able to see any. But I know. The details you added and the effort you put into a model, that is most of the joy.

Yes, that's the trouble. As soon as the suspension units are in place, you can't see the bolt heads. But at least I know that they are there, and yes, I did enjoy doing it.

 

John.

[Redcoat2966]

I hope my Asuka has those bolts............if not, there's the first job on the list.....I'll have to dig up some bolt heads..

 

Any specific reason John for the new idler?

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Redcoat2966

[Bullbasket]

I haven't got an actual Asuka kit, but I just checked the Tasca Vc that I have and it does have all of the bolts in place, including the eight just behind the drive sprocket. As for the idler. If memory serves me right, the one in the Italeri kit is the open spoke variety, and this build required the solid spokes.

 

John.

[Redcoat2966]

Ah....OK........makes sense.

 

I just downloaded Armour Photo gallery No3 - Sherman VC Firefly off the web. Has a ton of detail in it....so will be studying that before I start the build maybe next year.

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Redcoat2966

[Ripaman]

Hi John do hope your mo-jo (hope this is what black dog means eh) comes back do love visiting your builds always top notch will follow along on this one as well 

 

Regards

Richard

[Bullbasket]

6 minutes ago, Ripaman said:

Hi John do hope your mo-jo (hope this is what black dog means eh) comes back do love visiting your builds always top notch will follow along on this one as well 

 

Regards

Richard

Thanks Richard for the comments. Sadly, a bit more than lost mojo, but I'm working on it.

 

John.

[Redcoat2966]

4 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Thanks Richard for the comments. Sadly, a bit more than lost mojo, but I'm working on it.

 

John.

 

I do know these time's John....I empathise with ya mate......keep your chin up.....

[Hamden]

 

Hope you work things out soon, will follow this one along if you don't mind!

 

  Roger

[bigfoot]

Another excellent bullbasket AFV build to follow, always love the detail you put into them. Interesting subject choice too. Will follow with interest to see how this one develops (/did develop?)

[Bullbasket]

20 hours ago, Redcoat2966 said:

I do know these time's John....I empathise with ya mate......keep your chin up.....

 

14 hours ago, Hamden said:

Hope you work things out soon, will follow this one along if you don't mind!

Thanks both for the kind remarks. It helps and I really appreciate them. I'm going to see my Grandson next week, and that always gives me a boost.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

10 hours ago, bigfoot said:

Another excellent bullbasket AFV build to follow, always love the detail you put into them. Interesting subject choice too. Will follow with interest to see how this one develops (/did develop?)

Thanks Bigfoot. Yes, it is more along the lines of how it DID develop. But I will be tweaking it a little at the finish as I missed off a lot of the  added cammo.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Upper Hull.

The sides of the upper hull seemed to me to slope a little too much, so to rectify this, I glued some strips of 20 thou card along the top edge and then blended it in with Milliput. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of this, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. After rubbing down, I coated it with Mr. Surfacer 500, and when dry, rubbed it down again with 800 grade wet and dry.

 

I assembled the right hand sand shield and then cut off the rear part. I thinned the edges down by scraping them with a scalpel blade before fixing it in place.

I glued the spare

track holders in place but I had to find alternative links as the Italeri kit had T-51 rubber block and I needed T-48 rubber chevron. These came from a Dragon kit, but I’m not sure which one.

Sherman lla’s of the 2nd Armoured Brigade, of which the Queens Bays were a part, were known to fix the rear stowage shelf in the vertical position and store their gear in front of it on the engine deck. As can be seen from the photo of the actual tank, the rear of the shelf was used to paint markings on, as in lllB. I used the item from the Aber set as the one from the kit is a little on the thick side.

Once the shelf was in place, I loaded up the deck with bed rolls, jerry cans, cam nets and a tarpaulin made from tissue soaked in diluted PVA glue. This tank carried a couple of large pieces of timber on the right hand side, and I made these from 40 thou card, and scraped them with an Xacto saw to give them a grain effect, then hung them in place with straps made from masking tape and Aber buckles.

 

The two front hatches were detailed with items from both the Eduard and Aber sets, the right hand one both on the inside and outside, but only on the outside of the left hand one, as it would be in the closed position. The bow machine gun came from the neat little two piece one (barrel and cooling jacket) from Karaya. The tow rope is an Accurate Armour item with the end loops from a Dragon kit. I hollowed out the headlamps with a rotary tool, then once they were painted silver, lenses from Little Car were glued in place.

As always, thanks for looking.

 

John.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Bullbasket
Laptop has a mind of it's own.

[fatfingers]

Aye up John.

 

Really like how this one is coming together. Can't beat a Sherman, especially the 'curvy' ones! 

 

Regards

 

Steve

[Bullbasket]

21 minutes ago, fatfingers said:

Aye up John.

 

Really like how this one is coming together. Can't beat a Sherman, especially the 'curvy' ones! 

 

Regards

 

Steve

'Afternoon Steve,

Thanks for the comments, and yes, you're right. You can't beat a cast hull Sherman.

 

John.

[TomCZ]

Looks very nice so far and if this will be as your other builds, it would be another gem

New Asuka M4A1 76W can be a nice base for Sherman IIA right ?

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, TomCZ said:

Looks very nice so far and if this will be as your other builds, it would be another gem

New Asuka M4A1 76W can be a nice base for Sherman IIA right ?

Thanks Tom. I've not had a chance to look at the Asuka M4A1 76mm, but I'm fairly sure that it would do for a Sherman lla. I don't know which gun is included in the kit, but that may need to be changed.

 

John.