Early M50, based on late M4.

[Jasper dog]

Another productive instalment John, at the risk of repeating myself and others your subject knowledge is remarkable. 

 

Super modelling. 

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

your subject knowledge is remarkable. 

 

Many thanks Darryl. A good selection of books is always very useful.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Quite a bit of progress here, although it may not look much, but it represents about eight hours work!!

I used the Dragon grouser vents, mainly because they have the bolt head moulded on the top, and the bolt going down inside (saved some work). There's a nice etched brass sheet included in the 105mm kit,so that's where the mesh for these came from.

Rear lights fixed in place after drilling the backs and inserting a bent piece of 20thou rod to act as the cable. Dragon supply these in clear plastic, not that it's any help as I'm not going to try and mask off the glass parts!! The brush guards are the etched ones supplied in the Meng kit.

 

I made up the spare track bracket from the one in the 105mm kit. The kit uses T48 tracks, but fortunately, on the sprue that has the spare T48 links, there are three T54E1 links as well. Result!! After cleaning up the brackets, I added a couple of bolt heads and a couple of wing nuts, and then glued it in place on the LHS.

The infantry phone box on the RHS is different from the ones that I had in the spares box, so it had to be scratch built. It's just basically made from card, with 20thou rod for the hinges, and a latch that was modified from one in an Eduard M51 etched set. This was then glued onto the RHS of the upper rear hull plate. I added securing brackets each side from 10x20thou strip, with punched bolt heads.

 

The last item to be added at this point was the folding stowage tray. I dismissed the one from Dragon as it's a little on the thick side, but the one in the Meng kit is quite acceptable, with some detail on it, missing from the Dragon item (tie down loops). Either Meng pinched their measurements from Dragon, or both manufacturers got it spot on, because the three hinges along the top of the Meng tray lined up exactly with the three recesses for the hinges on the Dragon rear hull plate. So this was assembled and glued in place after adding the engine cranking handle, and the gun cleaning rods. The folding hinges on each side were made from 10x30thou strip with punched rivet heads, as the ones in both kits were way too thick. Dragon allegedly include them on their etched sheet, but I'm beggared if I could find them.

 

The track tensioner tool, which is normally carried on the rear of the engine deck, was moved to the bottom of the rear hull plate.

 

Right, now it's time for a cuppa soup. As always, thanks for looking.

 

John.

 

[Hamden]

Nice detail work John that back end is really coming to life now!

Looking forward to seeing it in paint now

 

   Stay safe            Roger

[edjbartos]

More good work John, I really like the extra detail that you are putting into this, it's looking great..

 

Ed

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, Hamden said:

Nice detail work John that back end is really coming to life now!

Looking forward to seeing it in paint now

 

   Stay safe            Roger

 

1 hour ago, edjbartos said:

More good work John, I really like the extra detail that you are putting into this, it's looking great..

 

Ed

Really grateful for your comments, both of you. I'm pleased with the detail work, but it really is taking a long time. I've been working on the gun crutch for about three hours, and it's still not finished. 

Thanks to the rain that we've had, the dandelions are doing excellent impressions of trifids (I'm sure they're moving), so I have got to go and do battle with them tomorrow, so no modelling for a while.

I'll be back when I can.

 

John.

[IanC]

Fantastic attention to detail and accuracy, as ever (1/35 wing nuts!!). Makes me feel a bit inadequate as I just stick kits together and paint them. If I drill out the gun barrels and replace the aerials with stretched sprue I feel like a master modeller. 😄 

 

Exquisite craftsmanship John.

[Bullbasket]

11 hours ago, IanC said:

Fantastic attention to detail and accuracy, as ever (1/35 wing nuts!!). Makes me feel a bit inadequate as I just stick kits together and paint them. If I drill out the gun barrels and replace the aerials with stretched sprue I feel like a master modeller. 😄 

 

Exquisite craftsmanship John.

Each to his own Ian. Each to his own. I need to find another source for wing nuts a I'm running out.

Many thanks for your comments. Very much appreciated.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Great work John, its quality not quantity that counts!

 

Dandelions struggle coming through concrete John, give you more bench time,........just saying! 

 

[Bullbasket]

Thanks Darryl, I appreciate your comments. As for the dandelions and concrete; well the garden stretches to just under an acre, so I don't think that I will be laying any of the grey stuff anytime soon. I have one of those sit upon mowers, known affectionately as "Black Betty". I've just spent two hours out there, and because it's so dry, I had to stop because I was raising dust clouds, reminiscent of  Saharan dust storm. Good job next door didn't have the washing out.

 

John.

[THEscaleSHOW]

On 11/09/2022 at 12:26, Bullbasket said:

Quite a bit of progress here, although it may not look much, but it represents about eight hours work!!

I used the Dragon grouser vents, mainly because they have the bolt head moulded on the top, and the bolt going down inside (saved some work). There's a nice etched brass sheet included in the 105mm kit,so that's where the mesh for these came from.

Rear lights fixed in place after drilling the backs and inserting a bent piece of 20thou rod to act as the cable. Dragon supply these in clear plastic, not that it's any help as I'm not going to try and mask off the glass parts!! The brush guards are the etched ones supplied in the Meng kit.

 

I made up the spare track bracket from the one in the 105mm kit. The kit uses T48 tracks, but fortunately, on the sprue that has the spare T48 links, there are three T54E1 links as well. Result!! After cleaning up the brackets, I added a couple of bolt heads and a couple of wing nuts, and then glued it in place on the LHS.

The infantry phone box on the RHS is different from the ones that I had in the spares box, so it had to be scratch built. It's just basically made from card, with 20thou rod for the hinges, and a latch that was modified from one in an Eduard M51 etched set. This was then glued onto the RHS of the upper rear hull plate. I added securing brackets each side from 10x20thou strip, with punched bolt heads.

 

The last item to be added at this point was the folding stowage tray. I dismissed the one from Dragon as it's a little on the thick side, but the one in the Meng kit is quite acceptable, with some detail on it, missing from the Dragon item (tie down loops). Either Meng pinched their measurements from Dragon, or both manufacturers got it spot on, because the three hinges along the top of the Meng tray lined up exactly with the three recesses for the hinges on the Dragon rear hull plate. So this was assembled and glued in place after adding the engine cranking handle, and the gun cleaning rods. The folding hinges on each side were made from 10x30thou strip with punched rivet heads, as the ones in both kits were way too thick. Dragon allegedly include them on their etched sheet, but I'm beggared if I could find them.

 

The track tensioner tool, which is normally carried on the rear of the engine deck, was moved to the bottom of the rear hull plate.

 

Right, now it's time for a cuppa soup. As always, thanks for looking.

 

John.

 

Top work as always!

MD

[Bullbasket]

Thanks MD. Much appreciated.

 

John.

[Model Mate]

That's some really lovely detail work John. Should look splendid under a coat of paint!

[Bullbasket]

4 hours ago, Model Mate said:

That's some really lovely detail work John. Should look splendid under a coat of paint!

Thanks MM for your comments. I hope so, but painting the beast is still a long way off. I've got a turret bustle to reconfigure first.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

I got the gun travel lock from the Dragon M50 kit, but it needed altering. So I removed some of the plastic with a sharp blade, and replaced it with thin card and a cross piece made up of four laminations of 40x10thou strip. The hinges also came from the M50 kit and it's age really shows. I spent almost an hour, cleaning up all the flash on them....and they're very small!!

Finished and in place, complete with locking bracket made from card strip.

 

I noticed in photos and on the drawings, that there are two brackets either side of the engine door hinges. I can only assume that these are stops, added by the Israelis for when the door is opened. I made them from two pieces of .5mm card.

 

Photos of the tank which I'm building are not very helpful, as they are either out of focus, or taken from a distance (and all from the front). So it's not easy to ascertain which features individual tanks carried. I'm not 100% sure that mine carried the infantry phone box, as some had two lots of spare track. Another thing that I'm not sure about are the two grab handles carried on the left upper hull, near the edge, but I'm going to incorporate them into the build anyway.

The first one I bent to shape using 20 Slater's rod, and then inserted them into pre drilled .5mm holes. Then two small pieces of 20x10thou strip were glued each side to give the appearance that they were welded on.

The second one I used .5mm brass wire, just to see which looked best. The reason being that these tanks carried four large grab handles on each side of the hull, so these two would help me decide. I think that I'll go with the Slater's rod.

 

Hopefully, once the paint goes on, they'll both look the same. 

OK, it's time for dinner now. Red Thai Wild Shrimp. Lovely grub.

 

John.

[Bertie McBoatface]

59 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

The first one I bent to shape using 20 Slater's rod, and then inserted them into pre drilled .5mm holes. Then two small pieces of 20x10thou strip were glued each side to give the appearance that they were welded on.

 

And that is why my models will never be as detailed as yours. You think about every single component of every sub sub assembly of every sub assembly, whereas I just bang 'em together. Brilliant work throughout this build and very entertaining reading. Thanks.

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

And that is why my models will never be as detailed as yours. You think about every single component of every sub sub assembly of every sub assembly, whereas I just bang 'em together. Brilliant work throughout this build and very entertaining reading. Thanks.

Many thanks for your kind words Bertie. They are really appreciated.

 

John.

[edjbartos]

More nice detailing John, looking good..

 

Ed

[Bullbasket]

4 hours ago, edjbartos said:

More nice detailing John, looking good..

 

Ed

Your words are very much appreciated Ed. Many thanks.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

So the positions for the handles were marked out on each side, and drilled with a .5mm bit. The rod was then bent to shape and glued into the holes. Again, small pieces of 20x10thou strip were added each side. I had to be careful to keep the MEK away from the bend in the rod as otherwise, the rod split!

I've been using Slater's rod for about 50+ years. I started using it when I was into building model railways, and one of the things that they said that you could do with it, was to able to bend it to different angles. Well, you could with the original red material, but this white stuff doesn't take kindly to being bent and having MEK applied to it. Two of the handles on the RHS have split, so I'm doing the LHS with .5mm brass wire.

 

 

Working my way around to the front now. First job was to have a go at the horn, it's brush guard and the IDF applied shroud. The Dragon brush guard isn't too bad, so I thinned it a little bit more and glued it in place. The horn came from the Meng kit, but it can hardly be seen anyway. The shroud over the top was made from pewter foil as I didn't have any left from the Eduard M51 sheets. It was a fairly easy task, as the foil is easy to manipulate.

Next were the headlights. I used the ones from the Meng kit for two reasons; 1, they're very good and hollow and Meng supply lenses, and 2, I'd run out of the Dragon ones anyway. For the brush guards I tried the 3D printed ones from MJ Miniatures. They're nice and thin and fairly easy to use. The only thing that I have against them is removing them from the framework. They can break very easily. That's why I didn't use the one for the horn.....I broke it!

Tow rope fixed in position. For this, I used the one in the 105mm kit, and wished that I hadn't. What a PITA!! I annealed it expecting that to make it soft and pliable. Not so! It remained springy and stubbornly refused to go where I wanted to go. Each time a super glued it in place, the spring would pull it out again after about 5 minutes. There is now a blue haze in my room.

Front track guards from the Meng kit added. These are nice and thin and only require a little bit of cleaning up and some bolt detail adding.

 

Because of the changes to the rear of the engine deck, some pioneer tools were reallocated, the sledge hammer being one of them. Incidentally, the etched brass that I've used in this build come from a variety of sources, namely Dragon's M4 (105mm), ET's Firefly 1c and Firefly Vc, various Eduard sets and the Meng kit .

Also visible in the last photo are the drain holes in the armoured surrounds, and the Meng replacement emergency stop switches.

 

Hopefully I'll get some more done tonight as "er indoors" will be watching a weeks worth of Corries. I'll be back when I've got something to show.

 

John

 

 

 

 

[Carius]

Great job so far John, very inspiring and high level work as always,

 

Cheers

[StuartH]

Incredible detailing work on this John. Fantastic effort though I think that clasp for the sledgehammer handle is bordering on insanity!

 

Great work 👏

[Bullbasket]

18 hours ago, Carius said:

Great job so far John, very inspiring and high level work as always,

 

Cheers

Thanks a lot Cesar. Your comments are very much appreciated.

 

15 hours ago, StuartH said:

Incredible detailing work on this John. Fantastic effort though I think that clasp for the sledgehammer handle is bordering on insanity!

 

Great work 👏

Oh, you have no idea!! I have rarely had to use all of my vocabulary, learned many years ago in the army, as I did on that clasp. Good job nobody could hear me.

Thanks very much for your comments Stuart.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Not half bad at this lark ehh John...

Some lovely details added, really making it your own. 

 

Great modelling 

[Bullbasket]

17 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Not half bad at this lark ehh John...

By the time I arrive at daisy pushing up time, I should have nailed it.

I still have that mountain to overcome yet.🏔️ The one where I get most of the build work done, and then it sits on a shelf for months, waiting for some paint.

 

John.