IDF M1 Sherman. Back from the dead.

[Bullbasket]

12 hours ago, vytautas said:

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?

Hi Vytautas. Many thanks for your comments. You're probably right about the engine cranking handle, but it's likely that it's more to do with the handle being moulded too big.

 

2 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

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

Hi Roger, and thanks for your comments. Seeing as it's persisting down outside, I'll probably be able to fit some time in with the airbrush. Fingers crossed.

 

John.

[Steben]

As I said, top notch

[Bullbasket]

20 hours ago, Steben said:

As I said, top notch

Thanks Steben for your comment. It's much appreciated.

 

John.

[edjbartos]

Very good John, again lovely detail, really looking forward to your painting, this should look fabulous

 

Ed

[Bullbasket]

12 hours ago, edjbartos said:

Very good John, again lovely detail, really looking forward to your painting, this should look fabulous

 

Ed

As always Ed, your comments are very much appreciated.

Hauler set has arrived, BUT..........the sun is shining so it's up on the barn roof for the next few days, so no time in the hobby room. I'll try to at least get the primer coat on, and then it's onto the worrying subject of the tracks. I've got an idea, but I need to see how it will pan out. Back soon, I hope.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

?

[Bullbasket]

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.

There is one aspect of this build, which has been for me, the elephant in the room, ie; the tracks. This tank was fitted with steel chevron T54E1 tracks. Unfortunately, the track in the Hobbyboss kit are T48, rubber chevron, as are the ones in all of the Tamiya Sherman kits. I had a set of T54E1 resin tracks from Gasoline, but as I said earlier in the thread, they are fitted with duckbills, and the quality is dubious. I found another set online, but again fitted with duckbills. I tried removing them, but the end connectors snapped off with them. So it was over to plan B.......fabricate them. I started with the T48 link and length from the Tamiya kit and removed the chevrons by rubbing them on coarse wet and dry. The first idea was to make a jig and bend 10 amp fuse wire to shape and super glue the pieces in place. No good. The next (and final) method was to us 20thou rod for the chevrons. I won't go into the ins and outs of how I made the chevrons, but suffice it to say, Slaters rod is very bendable.

So far, I've made up just two sections. The idea is to make new sections for the parts of the tracks which are the most obvious ie; the front, around the sprocket, and the rear, around the idler. The rest, (which hopefully won't be too obvious) will be made up from unaltered Tamiya T48 track.

So this is the sequence. First up, Tamiya's T48 track..........and with the rubber chevrons removed. Last part is with the plastic rod “metal” chevrons added.

The question is (and I'd appreciate some feed back here), does this last one look like, or at least, could it pass for, T54E1 track?

Thanks for any comments.

 

John.

[Cerberus]

18 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

The question is (and I'd appreciate some feed back here), does this last one look like, or at least, could it pass for, T54E1 track?

Thanks for any comments.

 Yes is the simple answer to that John, but you need to flatten off the faces of the plastic rod very slightly, but not too much otherwise you'll end up back at looking like T48, and you'll need to do the top runs as well maybe otherwise it might look a bit odd mixed n matched?

 

 Considering the scale what you've done is very good I think 

 

 Matt

[Bullbasket]

 

1 hour ago, Cerberus said:

 Yes is the simple answer to that John, but you need to flatten off the faces of the plastic rod very slightly, but not too much otherwise you'll end up back at looking like T48, and you'll need to do the top runs as well maybe otherwise it might look a bit odd mixed n matched?

 

 Considering the scale what you've done is very good I think 

 

 Matt

Thanks for that Matt. I appreciate your feedback. Yes the rod definitely needs rubbing down. This was the second piece that I've done. I've already rubbed the first piece down and it looks much better. As for the top run, I was hoping to get away with leaving them as they are, and that they wouldn't be able to be seen, but I think that you're right. They are going to be noticeable. Seeing as those first two sections took me about 2 hours to complete. it looks as though I have a few hours work ahead of me.

Thanks again Matt,

 

John.

[Hamden]

4 hours ago, Cerberus said:

 Yes is the simple answer to that John, but you need to flatten off the faces of the plastic rod very slightly, but not too much otherwise you'll end up back at looking like T48, and you'll need to do the top runs as well maybe otherwise it might look a bit odd mixed n matched?

 

 Considering the scale what you've done is very good I think 

 

 Matt

 

In agreement with Matt John, 

 

  Stay safe       Roger

[Cerberus]

5 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Seeing as those first two sections took me about 2 hours to complete. it looks as though I have a few hours work ahead of me.

 Yes, it's gonna take a while, but think of it like this, how many people do you see changing the track type on a 48th scale Sherman by scratching new pad detail? It's not something you see every day, something different, will be worth the time I think, no pain no gain as they say 

 

 Matt

[Bullbasket]

59 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

how many people do you see changing the track type on a 48th scale Sherman by scratching new pad detail?

Only those who've not yet been measured up for their straight jackets🧥.

I'll probably keep picking away at the tracks, at the same time as spraying the model and getting everything else finished. It'll take some time, but I'll get there in the end. Again, thanks for the feedback Matt.

 

John.

[echen]

Even if it's not plainly visible, when I know somethings not quite right with a build, it bugs me until its fixed.

It'll be work-up correcting all those track-links but when it's complete you can sit back with satisfaction in a job thoroughly well done.

[StuartH]

11 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

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.

There is one aspect of this build, which has been for me, the elephant in the room, ie; the tracks. This tank was fitted with steel chevron T54E1 tracks. Unfortunately, the track in the Hobbyboss kit are T48, rubber chevron, as are the ones in all of the Tamiya Sherman kits. I had a set of T54E1 resin tracks from Gasoline, but as I said earlier in the thread, they are fitted with duckbills, and the quality is dubious. I found another set online, but again fitted with duckbills. I tried removing them, but the end connectors snapped off with them. So it was over to plan B.......fabricate them. I started with the T48 link and length from the Tamiya kit and removed the chevrons by rubbing them on coarse wet and dry. The first idea was to make a jig and bend 10 amp fuse wire to shape and super glue the pieces in place. No good. The next (and final) method was to us 20thou rod for the chevrons. I won't go into the ins and outs of how I made the chevrons, but suffice it to say, Slaters rod is very bendable.

So far, I've made up just two sections. The idea is to make new sections for the parts of the tracks which are the most obvious ie; the front, around the sprocket, and the rear, around the idler. The rest, (which hopefully won't be too obvious) will be made up from unaltered Tamiya T48 track.

So this is the sequence. First up, Tamiya's T48 track..........and with the rubber chevrons removed. Last part is with the plastic rod “metal” chevrons added.

The question is (and I'd appreciate some feed back here), does this last one look like, or at least, could it pass for, T54E1 track?

Thanks for any comments.

 

John.

From the little I know of Sherman tracks then I think they'll easily pass for steel chevrons especially if you rub with a little graphite or polished metal pigment at the end? Great effort and will definitely be worth it 👏

 

It's a shame Tamiya don't add some different track types to their 1/48 Sherman range as it would make for some interesting variation. Might be waiting a while though!

 

Great work.

 

[bigfoot]

This is up to your usual high standard of Sherman builds John. Coming along very nicely indeed. Agree with everyone above, flatten off the face of the chevron and they will definitely look the part. You’re a brave man doing all that track work, especially on 48th scale!

[Bullbasket]

Many thanks to all for the feedback. I really do appreciate it, so much so that I am going to change the tracks, and hope that I still retain my sanity at the end of it.

Now if I can just get that damned barn roof finished, it'll allow me to get on with more important jobs, such as those tracks. 

See when they're done.

 

John.

[Cerberus]

On 02/07/2022 at 11:03, Bullbasket said:

I am going to change the tracks, and hope that I still retain my sanity at the end of it.

 You just got to push through that boring repetitive job pain barrier thing... 

 

 My age addled brain keeps trying to think of a way to make a jig to speed the process up and get them all looking the same, but I can't think of anything (just yet) that doesn't involve metal, making the jig from plastic then creates problems with applying glues, and making a metal jig would probably take longer than just doing the job 

 

 Matt

[Model Mate]

ooh, that looks like painstaking work to do the top run - you might consider casting a resin copy of the section you've already done(?)

[Bullbasket]

13 hours ago, Cerberus said:

 You just got to push through that boring repetitive job pain barrier thing... 

 

 My age addled brain keeps trying to think of a way to make a jig to speed the process up and get them all looking the same, but I can't think of anything (just yet) that doesn't involve metal, making the jig from plastic then creates problems with applying glues, and making a metal jig would probably take longer than just doing the job 

 

 Matt

 

I made a jig for assembling Panda Plastics tracks, and that was out of plastic. Luckily, they stay together without glue, but I always give them a dab of MEK once they are in their final position.

 

7 hours ago, Model Mate said:

ooh, that looks like painstaking work to do the top run - you might consider casting a resin copy of the section you've already done(?)

It's a thought. I may give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

I'm not getting a lot of model building time at the moment. I'm too busy concentrating on not falling off the roof that I'm working on. But I did get a spare five minutes, so I used it wisely, and primed the model with Halfords Grey Acrylic Auto Primer.

 

OK, I'm going to continue with this, but it'll be a compromise. I won't be making my own T54E1 tracks for two reasons. 1; It'll take ages as I would probably need to do the top run as well as the short front and rear parts. 2; And this is the main reason. The Tamiya track parts which I had been converting, refuse point blank to have anything to do with the Hobbyboss drive sprockets. In other words, the end connectors won't go between the teeth. That would mean that as well as spending a lot of time making the tracks, I would have to spend more time adapting them to fit. So I'm going to use the rubber band T48 tracks that come with the Hobbyboss kit. Yes, I know, it's a cop out, but life's too short to spend so much time on one thing. Apart from you people reading this, and those in the know, most people won't know the difference.

The heat is causing a distinct lack of enthusiasm at the moment, so any updates will be as and when.

ATB,

 

John.

[Hamden]

 

Looks good in primer John, I don't blame you for going for the rubber band tracks they look just as good as link & length with out the hassle.

 

      Stay safe                  Roger

[Bullbasket]

12 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Looks good in primer John, I don't blame you for going for the rubber band tracks they look just as good as link & length with out the hassle.

 

      Stay safe                  Roger

Thanks Roger. I just thought that I couldn't spend the amount of time needed on just tracks alone. Plus, I've just heard that my brother-in-law has died, so I will be travelling back to the UK as soon as I know the funeral dates. And then it''l be a short holiday, so not a lot of modelling going on for a while.

ATB,

 

John.

[Bertie McBoatface]

12 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

Thanks Roger. I just thought that I couldn't spend the amount of time needed on just tracks alone. Plus, I've just heard that my brother-in-law has died, so I will be travelling back to the UK as soon as I know the funeral dates. And then it''l be a short holiday, so not a lot of modelling going on for a while.

ATB,

 

John.

Im sorry to hear about your brother in law, John. 

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Im sorry to hear about your brother in law, John. 

Thanks Bertie. He was a Korean Vet, and at 92, had had a good innings. I'd known him since I was 8 years old.

 

John.

[Hamden]

 

Sorry to hear about your brother in law John

 

   Stay safe         Roger