RFM Vc Firefly: Stuck on the Optional Parts

[Ade H]

I’m making RFM’s Vc Firefly and I’ve had to pause early because of so many unexplained optional parts. With the help of the usual websites and a couple of books, I’ve trimmed a very long list down to the following questions:

 

- Which track type does the kit represent? I can’t narrow it down precisely.
- Tow bar: Is it really correct to fit the mounting brackets for both types? Which bar is most common?
- Two styles of cover on the machine gun port — low with a wide top, or higher and narrower.
- Gun travel lock: Should it be mounted centrally or offset? On the engine cover or on the smaller panel behind it (as in official sketches)? The manual shows two positions, but I found at least three in photos.
- Four options for MG supports on the commander’s hatch — see photo below.
- Two types of searchlight — one possibly representing a shroud.
- A step, about 2mm deep, runs around the base of the turret from either side of the mantlet. Should this be fixed? I can't see it in photos or on other kits.
- If the sunshield rail brackets are omitted, should their mounting points (D24) be omitted, too?

 

If you know of any clear photos of vehicles which can be built with this kit, please share them if you can. I’m struggling for inspiration with this one. I’ve mostly found very low-res photos, often showing some feature which the kit doesn’t have, e.g. different tracks, track-link armour, etc.

 

Instructions can be viewed at https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/9/3/2/1253932-20-instructions.pdf

 

 

[Kingsman]

Track type is T62.  Used almost exclusively by Chrysler on M4A4s in the latter half of production.  They are very easy to identify because of the 3 rivets not found on any other curved-cleat type.  However, as they wore out they could be replaced with any other type that was available.  Track link armour was widely used, with both Sherman and Churchill track used.

 

On which subject, Fireflies are rarely seen with no applique armour at all.  RFM don't provide any but the hull plates are easily made from plastic card: the turret plate is more difficult.  Sherman Minutia has dimensioned small drawings of the plates.  RFM copied the Bovington tank which, as a school tank, never got the applique.  They didn't always have the full set.  Remanufactured tanks were fitted with it, as were very late production outside the time window for this kit.

 

We preferred the leaf-spring towing attachment of our own design although it impeded engine access.  If that was fitted the factory type below the engine doors (not in the kit) was removed, usually leaving a scar.  The factory and vertical types were also incompatible with wading trunking whereas the leaf spring was not.  Yes it had to be removed to fit the trunking along with the rear stowage box but the brackets remained and the spring was easily re-mounted.  The vertical type is comparatively rarely seen and its brackets also had to be cut off to fit wading trunking.

 

Both types of hull MG blanking plug were used but the D17 syle is most common.

 

Travel locks were originally to the rear but moved to the left rear corner later, either to faciltate the wading trunking or give the driver greater head-our clearance.  You see tanks with the old central brackets still in place after the lock was moved.

 

I believe the L37 style travel lock was only introduced after M4A4 production had ceased and on the later designs of cupola with locks and torsion springs.  Fireflies can be seen with all of the other 3 options.  The brass ring Y30 is spurious as the interior of the cupola ring was much busier than that.  I suggest getting hold of the Resicast replacement item (Historex Agents have them) or wait for the recently-announced Panzer Art version if you plan on an open hatch.  Only about 1 in 4 British Shermans in NWE carried the 0.50 Browning anyway.

 

The turret spotlight was seen with and without the shroud but wasn't always mounted anyway.  The shroud was supposed to be the norm.  British crews seemed to find them less useful than US.

 

Some turrets suppled to Chrysler can be seen with a step around the base.  This was a result of machining poorly-cast castings rather than rejecting them.

 

If you're omitting the Houseboat brackets D24 along the hull sides then yes the glacis ones by the lift ring (D27/28) and the extended ones on the front trackguards (D14/15) are omitted also.  Few M4A4s were fitted for Houseboat as the idea was really dropped after N Africa.

 

While the M4A4 is the most homogenous of the Sherman variants, being uniquely (apart from the ill-fated A6) produced only by a single supplier, you still need to be careful as about 1,600 early models used in the US for training were later remanufactured and fitted with updated features before being supplied on to the UK.  Hence why you see Fireflies still with Direct Vision, like the survivor in the Brussels museum.  The RFM kit represents an A4 built roughly from about March 43 until about June 43.  As the M4A4s used in NWE and Italy were a mixed bunch across production it is fine for pretty much any VC in those theatres.  As a rule of thumb only A4s built after about April 43 were suitable for Firefly conversion because of certain features but the remanufactured ones also generally were as they mostly if not all had the necessary features.

 

Make sure you use the right sprocket rings.  A4s in this time period were all built with the "fancy Chrysler" sprocket shown in Step 5 - although they could be replaced in service with any design.  The types shown in Steps 6 and 7 are not factory fit options in this period.  The Step 7 type was fitted earlier but the Step 6 type never was.

 

There are 2 muzzle brake designs included.  AFAIK the MkIV gun for the Firefly was only ever fitted with the round-hole design and not with the square-hole type.

 

Production M4A4s don't seem to have been fitted with the wire periscope guards but some remanufactured tanks were, notably the 2 on the turret.  So don't use these.

[JackG]

Was looking through photos from Peter Brown's publication (Model Centrum Progres), and concerning the Houseboat fittings, the front arms only appear in a few photos taken on the UK mainland.  Some early images from Normandy still have some remnants of this (part D24) on the hull sides. 

 

I'm more  familiar with the Canadian Fireflies from the early part of Normandy, and these don't have any remnants of the Houseboat fittings.  They do have a trio of short tubes strategically welded along both sides of the hull, which may have been for similar use?   It's purpose may have been just to disguise the vehicles from prying eyes during the buildup for D-Day?

 

regards,

Jack

[Ade H]

@Das Abteilung and @JackG Thanks, chaps, for taking the time to write. Very informative as always and it's very much appreciated. Peter, especially, your level of knowledge always blows my mind!

 

If anyone has any photos of Fireflys which may be interesting, and buildable with this kit, by all means share them. Markings aren't a problem, as I have loads of Archer sets and any unique IDs/names can easily be designed and cut in vinyl.

[harrygt40]

I am reading a called BROTHERS IN ARMS about the Sherwood Rangers and their Sherman tanks from D-Day to VE-Day by James Holland. Some pictures of Firefly tanks and storage sketches of Firefly, the book is worth reading and very moving regarding the amount of lives lost.

Recommended book,

I bought it as I'm starting a RFM of Sherman HVSS with interior but not realy mentioned in book, I bought it for a tenner in Tesco.

Edited February 2, 2022 by harrygt40
Spelling mistake

[Kingsman]

HVSS Shermans were barely used by UK forces and HVSS-fitted Shermans only appeared even in US units in 1945.  I believe the only HVSS Shermans we possibly deployed were a handful of Sherman 1BY (M4 105mm) in northern Italy.  Some sources say that out of 593 105mm Shermans shipped we were sent a few with HVSS, others say we only received VVSS Sherman 1Bs.

 

The only other HVSS Shermans we received were 5 M4A2E8 76s, which were never deployed.

 

Your M4A3E8 with interior could be a very - and I mean very - late war US vehicle: April-May 45.  The T80 track barely made it into action: T66 is much more typical for WW2, as Tamiya and Asuka provide in their E8s.  In fact the box art vehicle "A Paper Doll" for the original release of that kit actually had T66 tracks and not the T80s provided.  Oops......

 

The optional mantlet dust cover would not be appropriate for WW2.  So the kit perhaps best represents a Korean war US or Canadian tank, which would have the mantlet cover.  But then it doesn't have the torsion bar engine cover hinges or armoured first aid box which were common, if not universal, by Korea.  RFM have of course since released a "Korea" version, much as Tamiya did.  So it's a little bit of a Curate's Egg OOB, with a very narrow operational time window unless you want to backdate the tracks.

[SimonL]

On 2/3/2022 at 4:41 AM, harrygt40 said:

I am reading a called BROTHERS IN ARMS about the Sherwood Rangers and their Sherman tanks from D-Day to VE-Day by James Holland. Some pictures of Firefly tanks and storage sketches of Firefly, the book is worth reading and very moving regarding the amount of lives lost.

Recommended book,

I bought it as I'm starting a RFM of Sherman HVSS with interior but not realy mentioned in book, I bought it for a tenner in Tesco.

Great book - just finishing it at the moment.