IDF M1 Super Sherman.

[Bullbasket]

While I was waiting for the decals for the Tiran 4 to arrive, and for the T-34 GB to start, I thought that I'd make a start on this one. The decals for this were ordered at the same time as the ones for the Tiran, so hopefully, they will arrive together.

 Ever since Tamiya released their first AFV in 1/48th, I’ve had a liking for this scale, and this will be the third tank in this scale that I’ve built this year. As is the norm for me, I don’t want to build it OOTB, and the tank that I’ve chosen to depict will mean that nothing is straight forward. A couple of years ago, I built an Israeli M1 Super Sherman in 1/35th scale, and that is what I intend with this one. The IDF M1 Super Sherman used M4A1 cast upper hulls, mounted on HVSS lower hulls. To do this I am using a couple of kits for the conversion, namely the M4A1 76mm, which is a VVSS hull.........

 

........... and the M4A3E8, both from Hobbyboss.

 

The turret will come from the Easy Eight kit as the one in the M4A1 kit is the wrong one. It’s a T23, but has the large circular loaders hatch, and it would appear that most (if not all) IDF tanks had the smaller oval hatch. The 76mm barrel is one of the excellent examples from RB Models.

I need to order some more .50cal barrels from them as this build will require one. The decals are on order right now, and I’m waiting to hear from Ernst Peddinghaus as to when they will be ready (he’s doing the Tiran 4 decals at the same time).

The illustration on the box for the Easy Eight depicts a tank fitted with T66 tracks, but fortunately, for this build, the box contains T80 tracks instead.

Incidentally, I will be trying to get hold of another of the M4A1 (76mm) kits whenever I can, as I discovered that the decal sheet includes markings for an IDF M1 Sherman. Result!

Right, time to get stuck into the build. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with an update.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

John you're like a machine at the moment turning these out.

Another build to follow..... it all eats into my bench time !

 

Atb

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

Trouble is Darryl, I'm a serial kit starter.......but sadly not a kit finisher!. I reckon that I have around a dozen started projects, stuffed away in boxes. My lockdown resolution is to get at least some of them done, starting with the 1/48th M51 that I started more than ten years ago.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Lower Hull.

Sometimes, I wonder what planet I am living on! Because I’d used the lower hull in the Easy 8 kit in another build, and I didn’t want to convert the one in the M4A1 kit, I decided to build one from card. It was only after I’d built it that I discovered that the lower hull in both kits is the same one. You just have to remove the stubs for the HVSS return rollers when building a VVSS hull. Muppet!!

So anyway this is what I have done so far. Using the lower hull from the M4A1 kit as a pattern, I cut out the floor from 1.5mm card for strength. The sides and the pieces for the ends of the final drive are cut from 1mm card and then I cut a couple of bullheads from the 1.5mm card.

 

The final drive housing had some mouldings that would get in the way. I removed these with some side cutters and cleaned it up with a knife.

 

I assembled all of the parts, including the rear hull plate. New side pieces for the housings were glued in place before being added to the front of the hull. A small bit of Milliput was all that was needed around the edges, and once hardened, it was rubbed flat.

 

Now comes the tedious part........the base plates and about 60 odd bolt heads!

If I can keep my sanity, I'll be back when that's done.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

I cut a strip of .5mm card, 8.5mm wide, and then divided it into six equal pieces for the HVSS back plates. Again, using the Hobbyboss lower hull as a pattern, I marked out the positions and glued them in place. Final drive sprocket base and idler stub added also.

 

Holes were drilled to accept the pegs on the rear of each bracket which the HVSS units attach to. Before gluing them in place, I punched out and added the ten bolt heads to each back plate, using a Historex hexagonal punch and die set.

Next up were the eight bolt heads along the front edge of the lower hull where it joins onto the final drive housing.

 

The last job in this section was the return rollers. The three smaller ones just went over the tops of the base units, but for the two larger ones, I used a Waldron punch and die set to punch out circles in card, glue them in place and then fix the return roller bases over them.

 

76 bolt heads in total, but it wasn't too bad a job in the end. Front and back next and that will be this section finished.

 

John.

 

 

[fatfingers]

Aye up John.

 

Nice job on the lower hull mate. Really going to enjoy seeing this come together..

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, fatfingers said:

Aye up John.

 

Nice job on the lower hull mate. Really going to enjoy seeing this come together..

 

Regards,

 

Steve

'Afternoon Steve and thanks. This is one build that (so far) is going really well, and I'm really enjoying it.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Hi John, really nice work going on. And just think you'll have a spare hull now you've made one, oooh the excitement. 

 

Must get a punch and die set, another thing to spend money on....well if the pubs are shut!

 

Cheers

Darryl 

[fatfingers]

41 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Hi John, really nice work going on. And just think you'll have a spare hull now you've made one, oooh the excitement. 

Would be interested to know if Mr Bullbasket has plans to scratch build the rest of the tank to go with it! 

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Jasper dog]

24 minutes ago, fatfingers said:

Would be interested to know if Mr Bullbasket has plans to scratch build the rest of the tank to go with it! 

 

Regards,

 

Steve

Between you and me Steve, I wouldn't put it past him.... He has the technology and all that, today a Sherman, tomorrow......

Just dont let him know we're on to him!

 

Cheers

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Hi John, really nice work going on. And just think you'll have a spare hull now you've made one, oooh the excitement. 

 

Must get a punch and die set, another thing to spend money on....well if the pubs are shut!

 

Cheers

Darryl 

 

14 hours ago, fatfingers said:

Would be interested to know if Mr Bullbasket has plans to scratch build the rest of the tank to go with it! 

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

14 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Between you and me Steve, I wouldn't put it past him.... He has the technology and all that, today a Sherman, tomorrow......

Just dont let him know we're on to him!

 

Cheers

Darryl 

Thanks both of you for the comments and the overblown assessment of my abilities, gave me a chuckle when I first took a look this morning. Strangely enough, I did scratch build an upper hull several years ago in 1/72nd scale, for an M50, but that is long gone to the AFV scrap yard in the sky. I did scratch build another lower hull in 1/48th, again for an M50, and grafted the glacis plate of a Tamiya M4 onto the rear upper hull of a Hobbyboss M4A3 kit. This one;

 

 

I am thinking about an M4A4 scratch build, but that will be after I've done some more to my 1/48th M51 conversion. It's been hanging around for more than 10 year now.

BTW Darryl. If you are serious about punch and die sets, Historex have got some good ones of various types. I got my hexagonal one from them and the other one is the Waldron Punch and Die set which came from Rolls  Models in the US. This last one isn't cheap though, but it has been immensely useful.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

25 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

 Strangely enough, I did scratch build an upper hull several years ago in 1/72nd scale, for an M50, but that is long gone to the AFV scrap yard in the sky. I did scratch build another lower hull in 1/48th, again for an M50, and grafted the glacis plate of a Tamiya M4 onto the rear upper hull of a Hobbyboss M4A3 kit. This one;

 I am thinking about an M4A4 scratch build, but that will be after I've done some more to my 1/48th M51 conversion. It's been hanging around for more than 10 year now.

 

Look out Steve, what did we say, today a Sherman, tomorrow he'll be doing HS2 or a replacement for the new Chally Megatron single handed. 

 

 

25 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

BTW Darryl. If you are serious about punch and die sets, Historex have got some good ones of various types. I got my hexagonal one from them and the other one is the Waldron Punch and Die set which came from Rolls  Models in the US. This last one isn't cheap though, but it has been immensely useful.

 

John.

Thanks John, if I'm doing any more of this scratch/improve "stuff" might be easier than trying to slice slivers off plastic rod..

I'll have a shufty, no rush at the mo but nice to have in mind.

 

Nice work to btw!

 

You should do line up of them, something pleasing about a set with a running theme, or is that another weird foible of mine....

 

Cheers 

Darryl 

[Dads203]

You do like your Sherman’s John  Again some quality work going on mate.

 

 

[Bullbasket]

5 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

You should do line up of them, something pleasing about a set with a running theme, or is that another weird foible of mine....

 

Already done that here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235016115-my-148th-sherman-collection/

[Bullbasket]

5 hours ago, Dads203 said:

You do like your Sherman’s John  Again some quality work going on mate.

 

 

I certainly do. When you look at the variations between the first M4/M4A1s and the ones that the Israelis and finally the Chileans modified, I can keep occupied for some time to come.

Thanks for the comment Dan.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

On the rear hull plate, I made up a new base bracket for the tow hook from card, as the kit item was thicker than the armour carried by the Sherman. I added a couple of fastening clamps from thin nickel silver wire to the air cleaners, just the one that would show as the others would be hidden by the exhaust deflector.

I added the bracket for the shackle, as all of the photos show this one, and removed the moulded on one as it didn’t appear to be carried.

I didn’t bother with the grab handles as they too will be behind the deflector.

 

I cut a piece of .5mm card to size with cut outs each end, to sit on top of the lower hull. This would be something for the upper hull to sit on and also for the track guard extensions.

 

After a lot of filing to chamfer the front edge so that it would fit snug against the bolted strip, the upper hull was glued in place. It still needs a smidgen of filler.

 

I had to photograph this one against a grey background, as the white card didn't stand out against the white.

Now to get onto the detailing part. Thanks for looking and any comments are welcome.

 

John.

 

[fatfingers]

Aye up John,

 

Excellent progress on this.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Jasper dog]

Nice progress John, glad you see you aren't sitting around twiddling your thumbs!

Not only a great build but well photographed too, better than those with a bench covered in guff and detritus in the background....

 

Cheers

Darryl 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Jasper dog

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, fatfingers said:

Aye up John,

 

Excellent progress on this.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

9 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Nice progress John, glad you see you aren't sitting around twiddling your thumbs!

Not only a great build but well photographed too, better than those with a bench covered in guff and detritus in the background....

 

Cheers

Darryl 

Thanks Steve, Darryl for the comments.

Couldn't agree more Darryl, but each to his own. The basic reason that I photograph the model the way that I do, is because it may end up in a magazine, and editors do not like cluttered photos. Once this lockdown is over, I am going to attempt to build a light box, using info on Youtube.

 

John.

[Kris B]

Another interesting build happening here. 

[Bullbasket]

On 20/06/2020 at 23:16, Kris B said:

Another interesting build happening here. 

Thanks Chris. I'll post an update soon, so long as Orange don't pull the plug on me......again!!

 

John.

[Terry1954]

I don't usually tend to follow 1/48 AFV's but this caught my eye, for two reasons. First it's one of your builds John, and secondly its an IDF Sherman, so my scale preferences go out the window! Very nice start and interesting to see an AFV build in this scale.

 

Terry

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I don't usually tend to follow 1/48 AFV's but this caught my eye, for two reasons. First it's one of your builds John, and secondly its an IDF Sherman, so my scale preferences go out the window! Very nice start and interesting to see an AFV build in this scale.

 

Terry

Thanks Terry. That's very nice of you to say. I don't think that 1/48th AFV's appeal to many on here, which is a shame, as for me, they make a nice change from my usual 1/35th scale, while at the same time, trying to get the same level of detail into the build.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Managed to get a little bit done, despite faffing around, getting rid of Mircosoft's damned updates, having Orange kindly shut down our connection three times, and cutting the grass now that it's stopped raining. Anyway, some progress.

New front track guards made from thin plastic, as the etched ones from Hauler were about 1.5mm too wide. The raised ridge was made from stretched sprue, scraped flat on one side. Not ideal, but all I had.

The ventilator depicted in the kit is the early type, but I wanted the one with the metal cap over it. I had one on an Easy 8 kit, but it as a bit thick, so was just as easy to make one, which I did using 10thou card.

Hatches in place after replacing the moulded on grab handles with some .33mm nickel silver wire. The hatches are a poor fit, and I had to do some “persuading” to get them to sit right. Still not entirely happy.

Side ventilator, lifting eyes and gun crutch added.

I’m leaving the headlamps and brush guards till nearer the end to avoid the inevitable, and the bow MG is in the post, somewhere between Poland and France.

 

OK, deep breath, and breath out. Time to tackle the track guard supports down the sides. When I did the 1/35th version, I was able to use small squares of 10x20 thou card with small punched out bolt heads and 20thou rod. For this one, everything had to be reduced in size, so there would need to be compromises. So I used small squares of card along the top on the side of the hull, and very small punched bolt heads. Then 3.5mm lengths of stretched sprue for the supports, with punched out bolt heads along the track guards. In the end I was quite pleased with the result, but it was a tedious job.

One other tedious job was the strip along the track guards for the sand shields to attach to. I made these from 10x20thou strip and drilled the holes with a .4mm bit and then glued them in place.

 

While I was punching out bolt heads, I did the eight for the joint between the front and side track guards.

 

I've got a little more done, but I haven't taken photos yet so it'll be back in a day or so. Thanks for looking and any comments.

 

John.

[Kris B]

Hi John,super work with those mud guards. Have you seen the new stuff from MJ Miniatures?