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Frankensherman Commonwealth Sherman 1b (105mm howitzer)


AntPhillips

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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:

 

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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.

 

 

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'Morning Ant. Interesting project and I'll follow your progress as I have the Dragon kit in the stash. There are quite a few sheets available for the 105, mostly from Bison/Star decals. Some of the most colourful markings are ones from Poland and France.

BTW. A bit late now I know, but you could have just removed the engine deck and fitted one from the Tamiya kit.

 

John.

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56 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

'Morning Ant. Interesting project and I'll follow your progress as I have the Dragon kit in the stash. There are quite a few sheets available for the 105, mostly from Bison/Star decals. Some of the most colourful markings are ones from Poland and France.

BTW. A bit late now I know, but you could have just removed the engine deck and fitted one from the Tamiya kit.

 

John.

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.

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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.

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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.

20191218_231351 20191218_231400

 

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.

20191218_231856 20191218_231920

 

That's it for now  more to follow soon.

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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 😉

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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.

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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.

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M4(105)s had an additional filler cap for the oil tank inside a protective ring on the front left corner of the opening section of the engine deck.

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All British Shermans were supposed to have a sun compass bracket on the right top edge of the turret, and pictures of IBs in Italy show it fitted: as here.  Note that this tank has the all-round vision cupola.

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Are those upswept return roller arms on the kit bogies?  I can't quite tell from the photo angle.  M4(105)s either had the raised roller mounts on straight arms or the upswept roller arms.

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8 hours ago, Das Abteilung said:

M4(105)s had an additional filler cap for the oil tank inside a protective ring on the front left corner of the opening section of the engine deck.

Yep, already got that, just haven't fitted it yet, they're the parts that I'm borrowing from the Dragon 1c kit.

8 hours ago, Das Abteilung said:

All British Shermans were supposed to have a sun compass bracket on the right top edge of the turret, and pictures of IBs in Italy show it fitted: as here.  Note that this tank has the all-round vision cupola.

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.

 

8 hours ago, Das Abteilung said:

Are those upswept return roller arms on the kit bogies?  I can't quite tell from the photo angle.  M4(105)s either had the raised roller mounts on straight arms or the upswept roller arms.

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).

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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.

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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.

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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:

20191230_171944

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:

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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.

20191230_173527

 

Thats the bulk of conversion done now, just need to get all the little details done.

 

Cheers and Happy New Year to all.

Ant

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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:

20191230_195025 20191230_195036

 

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

 

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I managed to grab an hour or so with Frank (my new oh so obvious name for the Frankensherman) and managed to get the sponsor fillers made, a task made harder due to the mismatch in thickness of the resin and injection moulded part, but they're done now and will just require a dab of filler to blend them in once I join the upper and lower hulls, which isn't far off now, pics below:

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I've also been fiddling with these too, the plastic is from the Academy US Machine Gun set, with brass barrels and details for the .50 cals from RB models, not sure yet whether to go with a .30 cal, .50 cal or no gun at all in the AA mount, the Star decal instruction shows a .30 cal but not in the usual position and the only photos I've found seem to show that no gun is more common on the Sherman Ib.

2020-01-05_10-33-23

 

More to come soon.

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