(Another) IDF M1.

[PlaStix]

Hi John.  I hope you are keeping well. Looks like another fascinating project in prospect! Lovely work so far.

Kind regards, 

Stix 

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi John.  I hope you are keeping well. Looks like another fascinating project in prospect! Lovely work so far.

Kind regards, 

Stix 

Hi Stix. Yes, thank you, very well. I hope you and yours are similar.

This is a very slow project. It's one of those ones that gets some attention when other jobs are done; cutting logs for the winter, cutting grass, spraying the weeds, rebuilding the barn etc, etc. I did manage to progress a little bit over the weekend, and when I find some time, I'll post some photos.

Stay safe.

 

John.

[Mick4350]

25 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

Hi Stix. Yes, thank you, very well. I hope you and yours are similar.

This is a very slow project. It's one of those ones that gets some attention when other jobs are done; cutting logs for the winter, cutting grass, spraying the weeds, rebuilding the barn etc, etc. I did manage to progress a little bit over the weekend, and when I find some time, I'll post some photos.

Stay safe.

How is the Kangaroo troop carrier going ?

[Bullbasket]

On 17/08/2021 at 10:42, Mick4350 said:

How is the Kangaroo troop carrier going ?

Apologies Mick for taking so long to reply. No progress on the Kangaroo at the moment, but it hasn't been shelved indefinitely. It just got sidelined in the move to the new modelling room. I hope to get some more work done on it in the not too distant future.

In the meantime. I decided to make it a bit harder for myself by using the kits headlamp brush guards. They are too thick, so using various files, sanding sticks and scraping with a sharp blade, they were reduced down to something a bit more acceptable., I removed the rear, angled support and replaced them with some 10x30 thou strip. Once in place, I was reasonably happy with them. I just need to add some Milliput around the bases for the weld beads.

 

 

 

Although the tank in this kit has T48 rubber chevron tracks, it still includes on two of the sprues, six T54E1 steel chevron track links along with the brackets to mount them on the front of the glacis. So I made up two sets of three. Before adding the brackets, I removed the end pins because they were so undersized, and so that I could clean up the mould lines on each end. I then added new pins. Sounds convoluted, but it was easier this way. These were then glued in place, and the casting mark added to the centre of the glacis from the Archer set.

 

Following some good advice from Das Abteilung, I attempted to alter the forward track guards. It would appear that the ones included in the kit were more commonly seen on welded hull M4s and not cast hulls. So the moulded crease was cut down to size and a join line scribed across at the half way point. Three rivets were added just forwaard of the join lines. The rivets where the guards join onto the hull were removed and a weld seam applied, using thin stretched sprue. Finally, the two triangular fillets were glued in place.

 

I've also made a start on the turret, but I'll leave that until it's tidied up a bit. Thanks for looking and any comments.

 

John.

 

 

 

[badger]

Looking great and shows your trademark attention to detail.

 

All the best

Ben

[Bullbasket]

12 hours ago, badger said:

Looking great and shows your trademark attention to detail.

 

All the best

Ben

Appreciate your comments Ben. Thanks. Another (small) update later today.

 

John.

[Terry1954]

The detail in those shots looks fantastic John (as usual!).

 

Terry

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

The detail in those shots looks fantastic John (as usual!).

 

Terry

Thanks Terry. It's the details that are causing the slow progress. I've got some photos done. Just got to resize them, and then I'll post an update.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Some IDF Shermans were fitted with a guard over the horn, the same as what was later fitted over the IR lamp on M51's. All of my etched sets for the M51 had had the cover used on other projects, so I had to try and make one. I used the kit's brush guard and thinned the plastic down to about 50% of the original thickness, after removing the front cross piece. This would be replaced once it was all completed. Then I bent a piece of 5thou card, cut to shape, and glued this to the brush guard. I added two bolt heads on each side. Once I was (reasonably) satisfied with it, it was glued in place on the front of the glacis.

 

 

......and with the front cross piece added. This was made from 10thou strip and glued in place.

 

 

I added some Milliput around the bases of the brush guards to represent the weld beads.

And the last job for this post was the bow machine gun, which I replaced with one from RB Models.

 

It doesn't seem like much progress, but these were fiddly bits to do and took quite a while. Plus, I've started something else at the same time which I'll post once the

photos are ready. Thanks for looking.

 

John.

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Wow! You are really taking care of the little details. Weld on!

[StuartH]

Fantastic attention to detail and I love the little unique features!

👏

[Bullbasket]

16 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Wow! You are really taking care of the little details. Weld on!

 

14 hours ago, StuartH said:

Fantastic attention to detail and I love the little unique features!

👏

Thanks to you both for the comments. It's the details which take the time.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Looking nice John, good to see someone around here doing something and not just taken the summer off! 

 

Atb

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

22 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Looking nice John, good to see someone around here doing something and not just taken the summer off! 

 

Atb

Darryl 

Thanks Darryl. Yes, I was thinking something similar. The AFV section seemed to have become a bit of a ghost town compared to how it used to be. I've not seen any posts from Andy for ages. Anyone know if he's OK?

 

John.

[vytautas]

2 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Looking nice John, good to see someone around here doing something and not just taken the summer off! 

 

Atb

Darryl 

Exactly! Without your works, the forum would look much sadder...

 

Vytautas

P.S. And don’t think about any vacation! 

 

 

[edjbartos]

Coming along great John, fabulous amount of detail you are putting into this, looks brilliant..

 

 

Ed

[Jasper dog]

2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Thanks Darryl. Yes, I was thinking something similar. The AFV section seemed to have become a bit of a ghost town compared to how it used to be. I've not seen any posts from Andy for ages. Anyone know if he's OK?

 

John.

Quite! Can't really complain though, if I post what I've just done for a GB I'm likely to get lynched! (Its got wings)   

 

Last I heard of Andy he was doing a Mustang (Ford not P-51) for a GB and then decided to rebuild his workspace..... ring any bells? 

 

I've a holiday coming up end Sept so might have to take a kit or two with me.....Asuka M4 is looking a good possibility for an OTB build along with something as yet to be decided upon..

 

Cant beat a summer holiday end of Sept beginning of Oct in Scotland....

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Last I heard of Andy he was doing a Mustang (Ford not P-51) for a GB and then decided to rebuild his workspace..... ring any bells? 

Oh yes.Several! Glad to hear that Andy's OK though. There are so many names that seem to have disappeared from BM. 

Enjoy your holiday, and I'm envious. I want to go up there with my Grandson in the caravan, and show him where his Great Granddad came from, but I'm not prepared to jump through all the hoops that would be needed, ie The umpteen flipping tests that I'd have to take, and that I'd need a bank loan to pay for.

 

John. 

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, vytautas said:

Exactly! Without your works, the forum would look much sadder...

 

Vytautas

P.S. And don’t think about any vacation! 

 

 

Vacation!! What's a vacation. Since retirement, I've never worked so hard. Thanks for the comments Vytautas. Appreciate it.

2 hours ago, edjbartos said:

Coming along great John, fabulous amount of detail you are putting into this, looks brilliant..

 

 

Ed

Hi Ed. Many thanks for your kind words.

 

John.

[dov]

You have such a lot of details to add?

So, it is a quite rudimentary kit.

You are realy to admire, with the patience you have.

Happy modelling

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, dov said:

You have such a lot of details to add?

So, it is a quite rudimentary kit.

You are realy to admire, with the patience you have.

Happy modelling

Thanks for your comments. It's not so much that it's a rudimentary kit. I bought it from somebody on Ebay, and it seems to be made up from several Sherman kits, as there are some new mouldings and some old ones. And a lot of the parts don't match up with the instructions. So that's a lesson learnt.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

On 01/09/2021 at 08:01, Bullbasket said:

Thanks for your comments. It's not so much that it's a rudimentary kit. I bought it from somebody on Ebay, and it seems to be made up from several Sherman kits, as there are some new mouldings and some old ones. And a lot of the parts don't match up with the instructions. So that's a lesson learnt.

 

John.

Isn't that just the way of all Dragons Shermans/kits?

 

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Isn't that just the way of all Dragons Shermans/kits?

 

Darryl 

Yes, but the thing that makes me suspicious is the fact that I downloaded the instructions for this kit from Scalemates, and it doesn't tie in with the one in the kit. This kit has got some nice pieces such as the newly moulded exhaust deflector, but a whole sprue, clearly marked "M51". Now, how old is that kit?

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Just a small update.

Last job at the front was to add the two hatches. I know that the photo depicts the tank with them open, but that would mean adding some rudimentary interior. So no, they're going to be closed. It also means that I don't have to find any crew figures to fill the voids. There is a tab on each hatch which somebody said that they shouldn't be there as they were only added once they became museum pieces, and these tabs were so that the hatches could be padlocked shut. Well, that's not strictly true, as I have at least one photo of an in service M1 with one of these tabs attached. Granted, it doesn't appear to be the norm, but as they say, never say never.

 

So that said, I removed the moulded on tabs and will replace them with thin card strips, as the tank that I'm modelling clearly shows them (or one of them) in the photo. I replaced the grab handles with ones made from .33 nickel silver wire.

The periscope bases are way too thick, because if used as they are, they stick up above the surface of the hatch by about 1mm. They should be flush (or near enough). So some rubbing on a coarse sanding stick, reduced the thickness sufficiently before gluing them in place. On the left, as supplied by Dragon. On the right, after reducing the thickness.

 

I've run out of Shapeways periscope/brush guards, so I resorted to slightly thinning the kit's offerings, before gluing them in place also.

 

Moving to the back of the hull;

The two grousers vents included in the kit are to me, the wrong shape. When I sat them in position, they stuck up like bat's ears. Fortunately, I had a spare pair from a Tamiya M4 kit, and these worked much better. These vents should appear horizontal when in place. Dragon's ones certainly didn't. Before I fitted them in place, I drilled out the bolt head on the top, glued a length of stretched sprue in place, and then added a punched out bolt head on the top. Finally, before gluing them in place, I added etched mesh to the fronts, courtesy of an Eduard M4 set.

 

That's it for now. Time to do some work on the Israeli A/C.

Stay safe.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Hi John, going back to your previous comment; 

On 02/09/2021 at 10:47, Bullbasket said:

Yes, but the thing that makes me suspicious is the fact that I downloaded the instructions for this kit from Scalemates, and it doesn't tie in with the one in the kit. This kit has got some nice pieces such as the newly moulded exhaust deflector, but a whole sprue, clearly marked "M51". Now, how old is that kit?

 

John.

I've the same kit knocking around somewhere so if you want or need any comparisons,  sprue pics, etc just let me know.

 

Atb

Darryl