Tasca M4A1 Grizzly Guardian

[vytautas]

1 minute ago, Dads203 said:

This is rapidly turning into a visual scratch building treat for the eyes, beautifully executed and the attention to detail is right on the money  

The final product is going to be superb. 

Seconded, just incredible build!

 

Vytautas

[Cerberus]

@Hamden @Dads203 and @vytautas Thankyou for all the kind comments, it's much appreciated 

 

 "Visual" that was the start I think, a visual theme using white and grey, it's a crazy way to build, but a lot of fun, and that's all that matters really I think, if you're having fun it drives you forward.

 

 Matt 

[Cerberus]

Tool Time

 

 Now is a good time to tackle those little Aber etched brass skid plates which need bending and forming into the required shape, and the first step with these is to burn the hell out of them over a gas flame to remove the thin plasticky coating that they seemed to have, probably to keep them looking pretty in the packet, this seems to vary a lot with PE, these were horrible, they felt more like plastic than PE, but anyway, we also need to soften the metal as much as possible really to make them easier to work with.

 

 And I had a feeling that trying to do these free hand so to speak was going to end badly, probably with one or two of them looking slightly different to the others, or all of them being slightly different to each other (even worse) There is however a much faster and better way to do the job, and that's to make a forming tool of some sort or another, as this will give you a much better chance of getting six metal items that all look pretty much the same, without driving you crazy at the same time.

 

 

 Pictures above, this crazy looking tool is made from laminated plastic card, the block at the bottom of the handle gives the initial starting bend which allows the track skid to be locked in place, then the clamping bracket is tightened down and the track skid is then simply bent around the top of the forming tool to give the required shape, and a metal block (metal square) is used to press it down hard into the plastic, It worked fairly well to be honest, I remember being shocked at the time, but anyway, repeat six times, and it's job done.

 

 

 Pictures above, these Aber etched brass track skids were designed for the late type track skid (hence they are too long) And I'm making the early type which has a much simpler shape, so the skids have to be cut back to the correct length and the ends reshaped slightly, the bolt holes are then drilled through and some Masterclub bolts added to finish them off, then they are just test fitted onto the bogie units, but not glued on yet, I just need them ready and waiting.

 

 They were also given a nice 'antique' look as I tend to call it, this is done with various grades of wire wool after the burning, which is another reason why they got put over a gas flame. 

 

(These pictures originate from Shadock I think, so for discussion only)

 

 The pictures above show the early (left picture) and later type of track skid (right picture), I decided to do the early type of track skid simply because I wanted to be a little different, but it has to said that I'm not sure how correct this is for a Canadian M4A1 Grizzly, most seem to be fitted with the later type so it's probably best to just play it safe and fit the Tasca parts, which are not bad, a tiny bit chunky looking, but fine, I can always change these later.

 

 Matt

 

 

 

 

[Bullbasket]

The skids look great Matt, and I like the look of that tool. Very useful. One question though. Whats the purpose of the bit with the 9 counter sunk holes in it?

 

John.

[Cerberus]

6 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

What's the purpose of the bit with the 9 counter sunk holes in it?

 

 Hello John, that bit simply provides some grooves/trenches in the side of the tool (which can't be seen in the pictures) which can be used to create the initial first bend in the track skid, that first bend is needed to clamp the track skid into the tool, the counter sunk holes are just for grip, It's easier to grip things if they have holes in the surface.

 

 I think at some point in the future there might be a Tool Time (track skid) part 2 post, If I can get hold of some very thin sheet brass, then I'll make another tool to do the later type of track skid, which would be far more useful as they are more common, these early ones are not correct for a Grizzly I don't think.

 

 Matt

[Cerberus]

A Rack of Ribs (the hard bit)

 

 Now it's time to do the Grizzly big ribs, I wasn't looking forward to this bit to be honest, and I should say that back in 2012 when I started this build there were no options with regards to these big rib bogies, there were no resin parts available and no parts that could be stolen from another kit, I was flying blind and eye balling it from reference pictures, with no back up option, and that's not good.

 

 Thankfully these days there are some options, Resicast do some resin big rib bogies, with different return roller bracket configurations (so be careful which ones you buy) and Dragon a few years back updated their Sexton kit to include Canadian CDP tracks and sprocket, and at the same time they added the big rib bogies as well I think, so if you can find the kit (not easy) It's an option for stealing parts.

 

 I didn't take many pictures while doing this job because I wasn't in the mood for stopping every 30mins to take pictures, but you'll get the idea from this...

 

1. Cut the strengthening ribs off the Tasca bogies, clean it all up and sand it back smooth, then cut a clean, sharp 90 degree corner in the bottom down near the axles.

2. Make all the new strengthening ribs from 0.75 x 2.5mm plastic strip, but don't try and shape it just yet, just tack glue them on and make sure the two outer ones follow the angle change of the bogie unit, then add some more glue and leave them overnight, or weld them with ca/powder.

3. Now carve the new plastic strips to the required shape, which is much easier to do now because they are glued to something that we can hold, they need a gentle curve outwards, and a sharper curve back in to meet flush at the top, the first one was a nightmare but it got easier with a bit of practice.

4. Now simply sand them with a metal block (sandpaper glued to a metal block) That is wide enough to cover all four of the ribs at the same time, this gets them to the final shape, and they should all then end up looking the same, or at least pretty close, then clean up all the edges with a sharp knife, and it's job done.

 

 The TLDR - Cut ribs off, glue ribs on, cut to shape, sand, clean, make tea... 

 

 

 

Pictures above, if you haven't already gone crazy by this point  (I had lost the will to live) Well, it gets worse, now very thin plastic card has to be faced onto the bogies at either side (left picture) taking care to cut any required angles on the card so that they blend in well, and then we have to go on another cutting, carving and sanding spree to finish blending it all in (right picture) and then it's pretty much job done.

 

 

 Pictures above, the plastic card helps to create the two distinctive holes/trenches that can be seen on the top face of these big rib bogie units (I still don't know what those two holes are for, best guess at the time was bolt access) and this area still needs work to finish them off, the holes need to be reduced in size and the shape changed a little, thin plastic strip has also been added to the top of the bogies for the track skids to sit on, on the real thing there is a machined step in the castings which the track skids bolt down onto.

 

 

 Picture above, and this is what we end up with, three heavily modified Tasca bogie units sitting either side of a scratched hull, I was fairly happy with the result at the time, but I was starting to question my sanity, and there's more bogie work to go yet, there's the small matter of some missing wheels to sort out.

 

 Matt

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Cerberus
missing words

[Vaastav]

Great work and detail. Looking good

[vytautas]

Yep, I feel like in a hypnosis session.

Is it really legal? Do you really have a hypnotherapist's license? 

 

Vytautas

[edjbartos]

I have some how missed this one Matt, absolutely beautiful work here, great attention to detail, real quality modelling, very impressive, looking forward to seeing more...

 

Ed

[Cerberus]

17 hours ago, Vaastav said:

Great work and detail. Looking good

 Thank you Vaastav, much appreciated, 

 

 

12 hours ago, vytautas said:

Yep, I feel like in a hypnosis session.

Is it really legal? Do you really have a hypnotherapist's license? 

 Put some shades on 😎 It's just the white plastic dazzling you, like a rabbit in the headlights, It's dangerous stuff 

 

 

9 hours ago, edjbartos said:

I have some how missed this one Matt, absolutely beautiful work here, great attention to detail, real quality modelling, very impressive, looking forward to seeing more...

 Thank you Ed, very kind and welcome aboard, hopefully there will be some new stuff posted fairly soon.

 

 Matt

[Cerberus]

Grizzly Bogie Reference (big rib)

 

 This is just some reference picture stuff that should of been included in the above post, but I didn't because the post was getting far too long as it was, so if anyone want's to have a go at doing these big rib bogies then these two pictures could be considered useful, plus it does have to be said that not all Canadian Grizzlies are fitted with these big rib bogies, it seems to be about 50/50 to be honest, so you could just use kit parts and then just fit some Friulmodel (ATL-127) CDP (Canadian Dry Pin) tracks, complete with the sprockets that are supplied with them, more on this later.

 

 

 Picture above, the eye tends to focus on that huge dinner plate CDP sprocket with it's very distinctive alternate bolt and hole detail, but if you look to the side in the white square then you start to get a very good idea as to what these big rib bogies look like, It's a very good picture for getting an idea of the size and shape of the big ribs.

 

 

 Picture above, another good picture showing the big rib bogies, these are the two pictures that I was working from, and it does show that I should of left sharper edges on my bogie units, and not rounded the edges so much when I was doing the blending in work.

 

 But anyway, wheels next.

 

 Matt

[Cerberus]

Wheels on my Wagon

 

 And the next job on the endless list of things to do, is to get all six bogie units assembled and dare I say finished, but it does involve a lot of tiresome work on some fairly small parts such as the suspension arms and the rocker arms that sit above them, which basically means a lot of repetitive boring work that takes forever, again, but it is mostly my fault this time as I chose to assemble the bogie units in a different way to how they are supposed to be assembled, as will become clear in the pictures below.

 

 

 Pictures above, Tasca provide two different wheel types in their M4A1 kit, the spoked hub version (left) and the pressed steel version (right) Both sets are very good and they even have the little grease nipples that can be seen on the wheel hub, both types can be fitted to a Canadian Grizzly I think (you can maybe even mix the two types) but the spoked type seems to be far more common.

 

 Warning - this is what happens when you ignore kit instructions 

 

 

 Pictures above, now it gets complicated again (sorry) All of the rocker arms (highlighted in red) need a section of plastic removed from the top in such a way that it allows the rocker arm to be snap fitted to the corresponding lug that is located deep within the bogie unit (highlighted by the red arrow) this is what allows the bogie unit to be assembled in multiple stages, as I am am doing, the Tasca instructions want you to assemble everything all at once when the two halves of the main bogie unit body is glued together, I wasn't having any of that nonsense, more fool me...

 

 Then the axle tubes/sleeves have to be cut off each of the suspension arms and the axle holes drilled out ready to accept the new brass axles, new axle tubes have also been made from some plastic tubing (picture above right) And it has to be said that this was a lot of messing around and seemed to take forever, each new tube needed to be exactly the same length, have perfectly square facing edges and have a perfectly true and centred hole through it, again I was starting to question my sanity, but plodded on, as you do...

 

 

 Picture above, then everything is assembled together and now you can understand why I made lots of little brass axles, it's just a shame that there wasn't enough plastic in the Tasca parts to allow me to just drill them out and slide in a new axle, as I thought I would be able to do at the time, having to make the new axle tubes/sleeves was a job I didn't want to be honest.

 

(my phone is crazy, it now views the world with a pink tinge, on the plus side, it's in focus)

 

 Picture above, so now we have wheels, which is always handy when the plan is to add tracks at some point (working on this now) We don't however have any idler wheels or indeed anything to mount the idler wheels onto, this should get resolved at some point...

 

 Matt

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Cerberus

[Hamden]

 

More nice progress with the running gear, your attention to detail is second to none!

 

  Stay safe            Roger

[Cerberus]

On 04/03/2021 at 12:17, Hamden said:

More nice progress with the running gear, your attention to detail is second to none!

 

 Thank you Roger, much appreciated.

 

 Matt

[Cerberus]

The Grizzly Groove

 

 The Canadian M4A1 Grizzly has a strange feature on the upper face of the hull at the rear, behind the engine deck and just above the cranking hole, I tend to call it the Grizzly groove, but I think it's mostly referred to as a rain gutter, because one theory is that the intended purpose of this gutter/groove is to drain away rain water from the engine deck area, but I think it's fair to say that its purpose is still unknown, It's a very baffling feature, but it does need to be added as all Canadian M4A1 Grizzlies have this groove/gutter on the rear of the hull.

 

 

 The above picture gives a very good idea of what it looks like and what needs to be done to recreate it on the Tasca hull, It's location right behind the engine deck and the recess that the deck sits in is why many people think its purpose is to drain away surface water, which is very possible to be honest, but it could also just be a casting feature of these particular cast hulls.

 

 

 The easy way to get the location for this groove marked onto the upper hull is to look underneath (picture above) and simply take the width between the two exhaust mounting locators that Tasca have added to the hull part and transfer this width to the top side of the upper hull, this width seems to be spot on for a Grizzly groove, which is very handy.

 

 

 Picture above, this will give you a 5mm width for the groove itself and 20mm either side going to the edge of the engine access plate recess, 5mm will seem a little too wide at first glance but it's ok because the sides of the groove are rounded and not a 90 degree cut, so visually it looks smaller and ends up looking pretty much spot on to be honest.

 

 

 And you end up with something like this (picture above) just be very careful not to cut too deep into the plastic, the Grizzly groove is very shallow really, so don't go any deeper than about 2mm, and keep things nice and smooth with nice round edges to the cuts, the plastic on these Tasca hulls is plenty thick enough to cope with a Grizzly groove, so you don't really need to reinforce the plastic underneath, two plastic tubes have also been added to the hull (glued in with ca) just to strengthen things up a little, but anyway, it's another job done.

 

 Matt

 

 

[vytautas]

As always, a stunning attention to detail! 

Never gets bored of watching.

 

Vytautas

[edjbartos]

Nice work Matt, lovely detailing going on there. it's always nice to see, beautiful work...

 

Ed

[Cerberus]

@vytautas and @edjbartos Thank you both for kind words, much appreciated 

 

 Matt

[Cerberus]

A Grizzly Turret

 

 Time for some basic work on the turret, the Tasca part is very nice, as expected, but for a Grizzly it needs a couple of basic changes, first it needs to lose the pistol port, and secondly it needs to gain some cast in applique armour, in the form of a cheek, and as far as I know all Grizzly turrets were set up this way, regardless of whether the upper hull has cast in applique armour, welded on applique armour plates, or nothing at all, and it has to be said that my knowledge of Sherman's is far too limited to understand why this is the case, the turret set up seems to bear no relation to the hull set up.

 

 

 The picture above left is a good example of the cast in armour cheek and what it needs to look like I think, the Tasca kit comes with a very nice welded on applique armour plate which can be used as a starting point to recreate the cast in applique armour cheek, and the picture right simply shows the empty space we need to gain by removing a pistol port...

 

 

 Pictures above, left and right, with this particular Tasca turret, the plastic behind the pistol port is very thin, so it's probably best to fill in the area first with plastic card to strengthen things up a little, thin layers of card seem to work well here, and then simply fill in the pistol port hole with more plastic card, then remove the pistol port from the outside, job done.

 

 

 The cheek armour is little more complicated and can be done in several different ways to be honest, you can simply glue on the kit supplied welded cheek and then work from there with fillers and such to gain the required shape, you can start from scratch with thin layers of card and fillers (as done here, pictures above) or simply buy/use a turret that already has the cast in applique armour cheek, I was expecting this job to be fairly easy, but had a nightmare trying to get everything to blend in, and still wasn't all that happy with the result.

 

 And if you start from scratch (as done here) then it's important to note that the gap between the bottom of the cast in cheek armour and the bottom of the turret will not look right while you are just working on the turret alone, that's because the turret sits down behind a splash guard formed in the shape of the cast hull, in other words, once you fit the turret to the hull it will match fairly well with ref pictures.

 

 Still working on tracks... 

 

 Matt

 

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Cerberus

[Ted]

Nice tidy work, This could be turned into a book about modelling the Grizzly.

[vytautas]

8 hours ago, Ted said:

Nice tidy work, This could be turned into a book about modelling the Grizzly.

Seconded.

Although I will probably never build a Canadian Grizzly in my life (there are still many German tanks to be built), but I always read about Matt's work with great interest, I am pleased to see such attention to detail. I myself could not do so, I probably lack persistence. There really is a lot to learn, not only about a Grizzly!

 

Vytautas

[Bullbasket]

The turret looks perfect Matt. Nice work. BTW. What tracks are you using?

 

John.

[Cerberus]

20 hours ago, Ted said:

This could be turned into a book about modelling the Grizzly.

 I don't think it would sell many copies, the crazy ramblings of an old rivet counter, who's bitten off more than he can chew 

 

12 hours ago, vytautas said:

there are still many German tanks to be built

 That means we can look forward to more of your fantastic German armour builds Vytautas 

 

12 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

What tracks are you using?

Friulmodel ATL-127 Canadian Dry Pin, plus drive sprockets, there's not many options really when it comes to tracks, there's an old Dragon Sexton kit that has CDP tracks and sprocket, but it's more expensive than a set of Friuls and I'm not sure how easy it is to get hold of now to be honest, and I don't think there are any other options track wise.

 

 Thanks for the kind comments folks, much appreciated.

 

 Matt

[edjbartos]

Great work Matt, turret looks great...

 

Ed

[Bullbasket]

9 hours ago, Cerberus said:

there's not many options really

If I say this quietly, maybe Darryl won't notice, but Panda Plastics make a set. They sent me a set by mistake once, and then told me to keep them or pass them on to someone who needed them. Maybe one day I'll follow your example and build a Grizzly.

 

John.