IDF M1 Sherman. Back from the dead.

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, edjbartos said:

That’s looking great John, as always your detailing is looking superb...

 

Ed

Thanks a lot Ed. Much appreciated.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

This may take a while as I've a lot to get through.

After adding the two ventilators on the RHS, attention was turned to the engine deck. The first job was to removed the two moulded on grab handles and replace them with .33mm nickel silver wire.

The small housing for the two engine emergency stop handles is moulded in place, but it is solid. Rather than leave it like that, I drilled it out and made a half hearted attempt to lean it up, before adding two tiny little strips of card to represent the handles. Hopefully, when it's painted and the handles are painted red, it will look better.

Engine deck glued into position, and straight away a non prototypical gap showed up at the rear. This was taken care of with a strip of 20x10thou strip and some filler. There were two little slots on the rear edge of the engine deck and I just assumed that these had been moulded by Hobbyboss as attachment points, so I filled them and rubbed them down. Wrong!! Reading through the Sherman Minutia page, as I do occasionally, I found a photo showing these very slots. Apparently they are peculiar to General Steel hulls, which is what I'm building. So a little bit of scraping with a pointed blade restored them..... sort of!

 

Probably the worst items in this kit are the two grouser vents. Hobbyboss have half heartedly attempted to mould the mesh onto the front edge. They should have just moulded the vents without any mesh detail and then included the mesh on the etched sheet that comes with the kit. Also, they have moulded a depression on each side of the hull for the vents to sit in, which means that the vents then sit too low down. So I filled each one with some 20thou card. The vents themselves are a strange shape when compared to the ones on Tamiya M4's. 10Thou card was glued to the bottom of each one and then sanded to shape. They were then glued in place and left to set. Once dry, I took a coarse sanding stick and tried to reshape them. They're better than when first installed, but could look better. I didn't have any etched parts for the mesh, so I had to cut two pieces from the Accurate Armour sheet of diamond mesh.  

               

 

 

 

Locking pins added to three of the armoured filler caps (.33mm nickel silver wire). Also, it's just possible to see the hollowed out emergency stop housing above the armoured air intake cover on the left.

 

Looking at many photos of these early M1's, it seems the they didn't carry the strip down each side of the hull for attaching the sand shields, so that was one less piece of etched brass (x2) that I wouldn't have to faff around with.

Rear lights detailed with a couple of items from the Eduard set, and then glued in place, complete with the brush guards from the Hobbyboss set.

 

I came up against a problem when I tried fixing the exhaust deflector in place, namely that the air cleaners got in the way. The way that I fixed this was to carve a little from the insides of the deflector until it sat in place.

 

Started to fix the pioneer tools in place. The shovel on the LHS was just glued in place without any detailing as 75% of it will be covered up by stowage. Same with the ones on the RHS and the rear of the hull. I'll leave off any details until I know just how much is covered by the stowage. These early M1's didn't have the fold down stowage shelf, so therefore it was all on top of the rear of the hull.

 

 

That's the hull just about finished. Just a couple of small jobs at the front to attend to, and then it's onto the turret. Thanks for looking and any comments are appreciated.

 

John.

 

                                                                            

[StuartH]

Coming along very nicely with the detailing.

Looking forward to seeing it with some paint 👍

[Bullbasket]

12 hours ago, StuartH said:

Looking forward to seeing it with some paint

Thanks very much Stuart.

It'll likely be a couple of weeks before I get to that stage. If it keeps pi raining, so that I can't do any outside work, then I'll be able to get more time in my room. Now, how does that rain dance go?

 

John.

 

 

[Bullbasket]

In the opening post for this build, I said that all of the photos that I'd seen of M1 Shermans, showed them with oval loaders hatch, but that was before Peter posted an actual photo of the tank in question. And that proved that I was wrong, as this one has the large round loaders hatch.

The two little jobs that needed doing at the front were tying the oil drum in place on the front left track guard with 5 amp fuse wire,........

 

..........and making the cross piece which sits at the front of the horn brush guard. This was just three pieces of 10x20 thou strip. Believe me.....very fiddly.

 

Next up is the turret.

Approximately the first 450 T23 turrets manufactured, were made without a rear ventilator. They were also made with an additional antenna point on the front LHS of the turret and a 2 inch bomb thrower. The tank which I'm building had such a turret, and as fete would have it, that is exactly the turret which Hobbyboss have included in this kit. But where they go astray is that in the instructions, it gives alternatives for the US version and the IDF one, but it would appear that they got it the wrong way round with regards to the rear ventilator.

Hobbyboss supply the breech parts for inside the turret, but as I will be closing the hatches, this wasn't needed, so after cleaning up the barrel, it was glued to the mantlet. The two halves of the turret were glued together, and the resulting gaps were filled with putty. Once that was all sorted, the gun assembly was glued in place.

 

This tank doesn't have a dust cover on the mantlet, but in the only photo that I have seen of the actual tank, it clearly shows that it was fitted with the brackets for a cover. To replicate this I used thin strip and 20thou rod. It's a little over scale, but the alternative, 10thou rod, was way to thin. So, I bent the rod to 90 degree angles, and cut small pieces and glued them in around the forward part of the turret and the mantlet. The strips were cut from 10x20thou strip and glued in place.

 

I originally tried to replicate the small bolt down pieces with plastic strip, but it didn't look right, so I went to plan B. This time a cut a strip of pewter foil, and cut it into 1.5mm pieces. By using pointed tweezers, finger nails and a lot of bad language, I was able to bend/mould them over the plastic strip. They were kept in place with a liberal dose of MEK (surprisingly, the plastic melts just enough to grip the pewter foil). Once each one was finished, a small drop of super glue was applied around each one, using the tip of a blade. Finally, bolt heads were punched out of 10thou card, and fixed in place with a drop of super glue. A lot of this is guess work as I don't have any photos showing the whole set up.

 

 

The brackets are not totally finished yet, as there are still half a dozen to add, along with the bolt heads. Can't say that I'll be sorry to see the end of this phase. Working with tiny pieces can take it's toll.

 

John.

 

 

[Steben]

going to be top notch

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, Steben said:

going to be top notch

I hope so. Many thanks Steben.

 

John.

[Geo1966]

Off topic, but did you finish your Airfix Cromwell John?

 

George

[Bullbasket]

6 hours ago, Geo1966 said:

Off topic, but did you finish your Airfix Cromwell John?

 

George

Hi George. The short answer to that question is no. While I was on my three month and one hour enforced holiday, I took the opportunity to do a lot of work outside, and as a consequence, modelling got shoved to the back of the queue. When I decided to cut plastic again, I thought that it would be a good chance to finish off some of the many shelf queens, and this one came out on top. But once this one is finished, it's likely that the Cromwell will get the next nod.

Thanks for asking.

 

John.

[Cerberus]

 That's some quality work on the gun mantlet John, considering the scale, looks very very good 

 

 Those notches/cutouts on the back end of the engine deck, that you accidentally filled in, did you ever find out what they are for? It's kinda bugging me now since you mentioned it, maybe pry points for a crowbar if the engine deck covers get damaged or rust up? I'm puzzled, lol 

 

 Matt

[edjbartos]

That's fabulous work John, lovely work on those brackets for the cover, stunning work....

 

Ed

[Bullbasket]

6 hours ago, Cerberus said:

 That's some quality work on the gun mantlet John, considering the scale, looks very very good 

 

 Those notches/cutouts on the back end of the engine deck, that you accidentally filled in, did you ever find out what they are for? It's kinda bugging me now since you mentioned it, maybe pry points for a crowbar if the engine deck covers get damaged or rust up? I'm puzzled, lol 

 

 Matt

Thanks Matt for your comments. They're really appreciated. With regards, to the notches in the engine deck, I'll check on the Sherman Minutia site later on. I'm off to have some physio on my hip now. Oh, deep joy!

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

11 minutes ago, edjbartos said:

That's fabulous work John, lovely work on those brackets for the cover, stunning work....

 

Ed

Morning Ed, and thanks for the very encouraging comments. I'm pleased with the way that the brackets turned out and I'm glad that I used the pewter foil, but I'm not sorry that that bit is done with. The sound "ping" was heard many times throughout the process.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

8 hours ago, Cerberus said:

Those notches/cutouts on the back end of the engine deck, that you accidentally filled in, did you ever find out what they are for?

OK, back from the torture chamber physio therapists. I had a look at the Sherman Minutia page, and the short answer is no. According to the writer, these indentations were common to RAM's, M3A1's and M4A1's built by General Steel, and he quotes another source as saying at least 100 Shermans have this distinguishing mark. But unfortunately, they don't offer up any reason for them. I think that you're suggestion of somewhere to place a crowbar in case of an emergency sounds as good as any.

 

John.  

[Cerberus]

4 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

OK, back from the torture chamber physio therapists. I had a look at the Sherman Minutia page, and the short answer is no. According to the writer, these indentations were common to RAM's, M3A1's and M4A1's built by General Steel, and he quotes another source as saying at least 100 Shermans have this distinguishing mark. But unfortunately, they don't offer up any reason for them. I think that you're suggestion of somewhere to place a crowbar in case of an emergency sounds as good as any.

 Thanks for that John, I just had a quick look at the Sherman Minutia page as well (I forgot how good that site is) seems to be pry points at the top end of the deck as well, and while I was there, I noticed why your exhaust deflector maybe didn't fit well, there's two very good pictures on there showing the exhaust deflector (early/late) and they show a very very delicate frame around the deflector on the late version, not easy in 48th, you did the right thing, just chop some plastic out the sides 

 

 Matt

[Bullbasket]

Hi Matt. Yes, it's a brilliant site for all things Sherman, and Grants as well. One of the reasons that I had trouble fitting the exhaust deflector was because the kit's air cleaners are the original round variety, but I think that's wrong for this tank, so I used the Tamiya square cleaners from an old M4 kit. Turns out that they are a bit bigger, hence the fit problem.

 

John.

[Cerberus]

3 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

but I think that's wrong for this tank, so I used the Tamiya square cleaners from an old M4 kit. Turns out that they are a bit bigger, hence the fit problem.

 That would explain that then yes, there's nothing like a good healthy dose of kit bashing to make things not fit 

 

 Your reworked grouser vents look a million times better as well btw, they look so much better with a little bit of etched mesh, and if you fancy some more fiddly work you could drop a bolt head on the top of each one in the middle (ish) position, most of them I think had a T bar bracket inside to hold them in place, which just shows up as a large bolt head on the top of the grouser vent.

 

 Matt  

[Bullbasket]

13 hours ago, Cerberus said:

Your reworked grouser vents look a million times better as well btw, they look so much better with a little bit of etched mesh, and if you fancy some more fiddly work you could drop a bolt head on the top of each one in the middle (ish) position, most of them I think had a T bar bracket inside to hold them in place, which just shows up as a large bolt head on the top of the grouser vent.

Yes, thanks for that Matt. I'd completely forgotten about the bolt head on top of the vents. Actually, the kit supplied vents come with the bolt head moulded on, but as I was doing a lot of work to these items, I sliced them off with the intention of replacing them (which I will now do, thanks again).

I've got one more update to post later, and then it will go off of the boil for a little while. I've ordered an etched sheet from Hauler as I didn't have the items that I wanted to finish the turret.

 

John.

[THEscaleSHOW]

On 12/06/2022 at 17:44, Bullbasket said:

In the opening post for this build, I said that all of the photos that I'd seen of M1 Shermans, showed them with oval loaders hatch, but that was before Peter posted an actual photo of the tank in question. And that proved that I was wrong, as this one has the large round loaders hatch.

The two little jobs that needed doing at the front were tying the oil drum in place on the front left track guard with 5 amp fuse wire,........

 

..........and making the cross piece which sits at the front of the horn brush guard. This was just three pieces of 10x20 thou strip. Believe me.....very fiddly.

 

Next up is the turret.

Approximately the first 450 T23 turrets manufactured, were made without a rear ventilator. They were also made with an additional antenna point on the front LHS of the turret and a 2 inch bomb thrower. The tank which I'm building had such a turret, and as fete would have it, that is exactly the turret which Hobbyboss have included in this kit. But where they go astray is that in the instructions, it gives alternatives for the US version and the IDF one, but it would appear that they got it the wrong way round with regards to the rear ventilator.

Hobbyboss supply the breech parts for inside the turret, but as I will be closing the hatches, this wasn't needed, so after cleaning up the barrel, it was glued to the mantlet. The two halves of the turret were glued together, and the resulting gaps were filled with putty. Once that was all sorted, the gun assembly was glued in place.

 

This tank doesn't have a dust cover on the mantlet, but in the only photo that I have seen of the actual tank, it clearly shows that it was fitted with the brackets for a cover. To replicate this I used thin strip and 20thou rod. It's a little over scale, but the alternative, 10thou rod, was way to thin. So, I bent the rod to 90 degree angles, and cut small pieces and glued them in around the forward part of the turret and the mantlet. The strips were cut from 10x20thou strip and glued in place.

 

I originally tried to replicate the small bolt down pieces with plastic strip, but it didn't look right, so I went to plan B. This time a cut a strip of pewter foil, and cut it into 1.5mm pieces. By using pointed tweezers, finger nails and a lot of bad language, I was able to bend/mould them over the plastic strip. They were kept in place with a liberal dose of MEK (surprisingly, the plastic melts just enough to grip the pewter foil). Once each one was finished, a small drop of super glue was applied around each one, using the tip of a blade. Finally, bolt heads were punched out of 10thou card, and fixed in place with a drop of super glue. A lot of this is guess work as I don't have any photos showing the whole set up.

 

 

The brackets are not totally finished yet, as there are still half a dozen to add, along with the bolt heads. Can't say that I'll be sorry to see the end of this phase. Working with tiny pieces can take it's toll.

 

John.

 

 

Great details as always!

[Bullbasket]

19 hours ago, THEscaleSHOW said:

Great details as always!

Thanks MD. And now it's time for an update.

Finished off the last few brackets for the dust cover.

 

I was going to replace the two L section angle irons, welded to the rear of the turret with a couple of brass pieces, but they weren't quite right, so I used the kit parts. These were filed down to a thinner edge and then glued in place. These are quite weak as Hobbyboss don't give any aids for fixing them. They are purely butt joined. To try and give them a bit more strength, I glued some stretched sprue around the joint to act as welds.

 

The two lifting eyes on each side of the rear of the turret were a poor fit. The two locating holes were too big and not in line, one above the other. So I plugged the locating holes with stretched sprue, and glued them in place. When they'd hardened, I trimmed then off and rubbed them down. I then removed the locating pin on each lug, and glued them in place. I'm happier with the result.

As these were very early 76mm turrets, I believe, looking at the one and only photo, that they had the additional aerial base (which can be seen in the photo), but also the “lifting” eye, left over from the T23 days. It's not obvious in the photo as there appears to be a sheet of some description over it (on the LHS, just in front of the loader's hatch), but I added it anyway.

 

The bases for the two hatches are, I believe, meant to sit inside the two side by side rings moulded on the top of the turret, but they don't. Well, not without some persuasion! Once they were in place, I noticed that there was a bit of a gap beneath the commander's hatch. Using filler would have been a little difficult, so instead, I cut a length of Slater's 10thou rod, wound it around, and glued that in place. Job done.

Moulded on grab handles on the two hatch covers sliced off and replaced with nickel silver wire, and then the covers glued in place.

The opening on the periscope in front of the commander's hatch was way too small, so using the tip of a blade and a small file, I opened it up.

Moulded on sight removed with a chisel blade and will be replaced with an etched brass item, when it arrives from Cz (Hauler).

 

 

The aerial stand was made from bending some scrap etched brass to shape, and gluing an aerial base to it.

 

That's it for now until the Hauler set arrives. Thanks for looking and any comments.

 

John.

 

 

 

[vytautas]

I really like all these little things, they really enliven the tank. 👍

 

Vytautas

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, vytautas said:

I really like all these little things, they really enliven the tank. 👍

 

Vytautas

Many thanks Vytautas. Much appreciated.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

I'm still waiting for the Hauler set to arrive, but in the meantime, I found some other jobs that needed doing. A couple of items which I had forgotten were the rear mud flaps. I cut two pieces of .5mm card so that they would wrap around the curved casting at the rear of the hull. These were glued in place and blended in along with the flaps which were cut from 10thou card. To finish them off, I added three small bolt heads.

 

A hole was drilled into the rear of the cast hull for the cranking handle, and the handle was fitted just below it. I used the Tamiya one as the Hobbyboss one was too big. The infantry phone box is a first aid box from the Tamiya M4. I used this as they are described in the Dr. Robert book as being make shift, and appear to be what was used initially.

 

Started to add the stowage. I made a shape from plastic card, and rolled this in PVC soaked paper, and glued it onto the two brackets on the rear of the turret.

 

Something peculiar to IDF tanks of the 1950s – 70s, were the “Cumberland sausage” shaped camnets. I made this from Milliput, rolled out into a long sausage and then curled up and tied with thin string, and then positioned on the LH rear hull.

 

Other odd shapes were made up using Milliput and placed onto the rear of the engine deck, along with a wooden box, which is included in the kit, and then covered with tarpaulins (PVC glue soaked paper).

 

In my last post, I said that the turret mounted spotlight is not included in the kit. It is!

Finally (apart from the Hauler etched brass), I added the VVSS units, drive sprockets and idlers. My original intention had been to paint them separately, but in the end I changed my mind and glued everything in place, ready for the paint shop.

 

So, paint shop next. Thanks for looking and for any comments.

 

John.

[vytautas]

Looks great, it's time to paint!

 

Vytautas

P.S. The hole for the cranking handle is not too small compared to the handle diameter?

[Hamden]

 

More and more attention to the small details raising the bar as you go John,

Looking forward to seeing it in paint now

 

       Stay safe          Roger