Early M50, based on late M4.

[Bullbasket]

Some more progress. 

I used the spare track bracket from the Dragon M4 (105mm) kit. I didn't see the need to use the etched brass as the plastic ones are commendably thin.

 

The two brackets that were used for hanging the rolls of barbed wire from had to be shaped from pieces of card, as I didn't have any left over from the Tamiya M51 kits.

The .303 MG was replaced with one from RB Models. I didn't drill the hole dead straight, so it does appear to stick up in the air a bit.

 

Last job on the upper hull, apart from the stowage, is the pioneer tools. The small (nay, tiny) brackets included on the etched frets, are just too fiddly for me, so I resort to the Steve Zaloga method. I've described this before on other projects, but basically it's two circles of .5mm card, punched out using my Waldron Punch and Die set. Once glued in place, a small length (approx.2mm), of 10thou rod is glued across the top of the circles. The same is done the other side of where one of the tools goes, and then I cut a thin strip of pewter foil, and thread this under the brackets and over the tool, finally gluing an etched buckle to the strip. Not perfect, but it looks OK.

 

I used the shovel from the Meng kit as it comes with a separate bracket (in plastic) for the blade end to be secured. I just needed to add the strap, half way down.

 

Sorry that one was a bit out of focus.

 

Whenever I say that there's just one more job to do, I discover another one, in this case, the strips along the side of the hull for attaching the sand shields. Plus, there's the work done on the two hatch covers. And Finally.......the pickaxe head and the axe, but that'll be for another day.

That's it for now.

 

John.

[Hamden]

 

Coming together well now John soon be in the paint shop!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Coming together well now John soon be in the paint shop!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

Many thanks Roger. It'll  be a while yet before the paint shop as I still have the turret to do, which needs some alterations. And then I'm hoping to do a bit more to my 1/48th IDF M1, which has been sitting there for several weeks.

 

John.

[Model Mate]

Lovely tidy work - I know exactly what you mean about extra jobs making themselves apparent - these fiddly little brackets and greebles seem to come out of nowhere!

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Lovely tidy work - I know exactly what you mean about extra jobs making themselves apparent - these fiddly little brackets and greebles seem to come out of nowhere!

Thanks MM. The tie down brackets on the sheet which comes with the M4 (105mm) are about 2.5mm long, and then you still have to bend them to shape. I've only just managed to suck the blue haze out of my room, caused by trying to thread a buckle onto a strap, so that's why I passed on the Dragon items.

 

John.

[fatfingers]

Aye up John,

 

Another lovely job in the making 👍

 

This may be of interest if you've not seen it already 😉

 

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Bullbasket]

16 hours ago, fatfingers said:

Aye up John,

 

Another lovely job in the making 👍

 

This may be of interest if you've not seen it already

Aye up Steve. Thanks for the comments, and thanks for the link as well. I hadn't seen that before. Very interesting.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Finally, axe and pickaxe head in place.

 

Strips for attaching the sand shields super glued in place. Once again, these are from the ET set. These are great. They've even got the small welds along the top edges.

 

Onto the two hatches. I tried to make the Meng hatch covers fit the Dragon hull, but it wasn't going to happen, so I detailed the Dragon covers by removing the moulded on grab handles and replacing them with the ones from the Meng kit. The tab for the hasp was replaced with etched brass pieces from the ET Set for the Firefly 1c. The brush guards once again came from the MJ Miniatures set. I have to say that they look very good on the fret, but trying to remove them is a nightmare, because they are so fragile. Cleaning them up is likewise for the same reason. So long as a 1:1 scale thumb doesn't squash them, they should be alright. Last item here is the ventilator cover. As the kit depicts a tank with the open ventilator, there wasn't one in the kit, so needs must. I used one from a Tamiya M4A3.

 

Unless something else springs to mind, that is the end of the work on the hull. I'll be working on the turret next, but first I might do some work on the 1/48th IDF M1.

As always, thanks for looking, and any comments are more than welcome.

 

John.

[IanC]

Why am I admiring 1/35 tool straps and brackets?! 😄

 

Looking forward to the turret!

[SimonL]

Just in awe of your detailing John. 

[Hamden]

 

More nice work John as always your attention to detail is second to none!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

 

[StuartH]

Sublime detailing again John particularly those hasps & staples 👌

Is the intention to have this ready for Telford?

[edjbartos]

Very nice John, the metalwork looks very good indeed, I particularly like the way you have done the straps holding the tools in place, I can never get them to look like that.

 

Ed

[stevehnz]

I've just had a wander through this thread John & enjoyed it. That is from someone who generally doesn't do armour WiPs, though I try to, I think the shapes are too foreign to me compared to aircraft shapes, but I've enjoyed this, it pretty much made sense, so take that as a compliment, & also lead me down a rabbit hole of looking stuff up, 1 1/2 hours I'll never see again.

Steve.

[Bullbasket]

18 hours ago, IanC said:

Why am I admiring 1/35 tool straps and brackets?! 😄

 

Looking forward to the turret!

 

18 hours ago, SimonL said:

Just in awe of your detailing John. 

Thanks a lot Ian and Simon. Your comments are much appreciated.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Just enjoying following along and "liking". Running out of adjectives to describe your attention to detail without constantly repeating myself!

 

Hasp and staples look great but the tool clamps, never been able to manipulate tiny pe so that's a real work of art.

 

Great modelling 

Darryl 

[Stef N.]

John "Tweezer-Fingers" Bullbasket.😀 I can't but echo everyone else on your detailing. Superb.👍

[Bullbasket]

20 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

More nice work John as always your attention to detail is second to none!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

 

Thanks Roger. As always, I appreciate your comments.

 

15 hours ago, StuartH said:

Sublime detailing again John particularly those hasps & staples 👌

Is the intention to have this ready for Telford?

Thanks Stuart. Yes, if I can get my a**e into gear, that is the intention. In fact, I'm trying to get it finished before the armoured car group build starts.

 

14 hours ago, edjbartos said:

Very nice John, the metalwork looks very good indeed, I particularly like the way you have done the straps holding the tools in place, I can never get them to look like that.

 

Ed

Many thanks Ed. Yes, that's the beauty of using pewter foil for the straps. Easier to bend than etched brass.

 

13 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I've just had a wander through this thread John & enjoyed it. That is from someone who generally doesn't do armour WiPs, though I try to, I think the shapes are too foreign to me compared to aircraft shapes, but I've enjoyed this, it pretty much made sense, so take that as a compliment, & also lead me down a rabbit hole of looking stuff up, 1 1/2 hours I'll never see again.

Steve.

Evening Steve, if you're still up. If you've already gone to bed and you read this tomorrow, Morning Steve. Thanks for taking the time to wade your way through my wafflings. I hope that it wasn't too boring (I can run on a bit at times), and I do take it as a compliment. Thank you.

3 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Just enjoying following along and "liking". Running out of adjectives to describe your attention to detail without constantly repeating myself!

 

Hasp and staples look great but the tool clamps, never been able to manipulate tiny pe so that's a real work of art.

 

Great modelling 

Darryl 

Thanks a lot Darryl. As I said to Ed, I use pewter foil, cut into strips. So much more easy to handle than etched brass.

1 hour ago, Stef N. said:

John "Tweezer-Fingers" Bullbasket.😀 I can't but echo everyone else on your detailing. Superb.👍

Many thanks Stef. It's as if you were in the room watching me. Tweezers are definitely my go to tool for doing this work. The very pointed nose variety. Wouldn't be without them.

Thanks again everyone for your comments and likes.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

I decided the call of the turret was stronger than doing anymore on the 1/48th M1.

Turret.

The first job that I did was to try the lower part of the turret from the Dragon M50 kit, into the turret ring on the M4. No surprise that it didn't fit...too big, but fortunately, not by much. So a few turns around the inner surface of the turret ring with a sharp blade, removed enough plastic to enable the turret bottom to fit in the ring. Trouble is, because I was gripping the hull so tightly in one hand, both strips on each side for the sand shields, came adrift. Two steps forward, three back!. I'll glue those back on later.

Before assembling the two halves of the turret, the ventilator on the bustle needed removing as after I alter the rear end, it would be out of place. So it was removed by drilling all around and the slicing it out with a 10A blade. I'll deal with that a bit later on. The hole was backed up with some card and then filled with a circle of 1mm card.

Once the upper and lower halves of the turret were glued together, there was work to do on the rear bustle/counter weight. Checking the kit's turret against the drawings in the Sabingamartin book, Lioness and Lion of the Line, it appears to be slightly too narrow, and the rear should be more pointed than rounded.

 

So I cut out two shapes, roughly similar to the sides of the bustle, from .5mm card and glued them in place. I also removed all of the moulded on detail on top of the bustle as well as the mouldings for the searchlight plug and the commanders sight base. Then I built up the rear edge with some thicker card, to give the rough shape.

 

 

Once I was satisfied with the shape, I then built it all up with Milliput. It was then put aside to harden.

24 hours later, it was time for the bit I hate....endless rubbing with wet and dry. After about 45 minutes work, I was reasonably happy with how it was shaping. But it was going to need some more Milliput. This was applied in the areas where the shape wasn't quite right.

 

 

So more rubbing with wet and dry tomorrow. I might have to do something about those weld beads down the side of the bustle as they appear (to me) to be a bit too wide. That's it for now. As always, thanks for looking and for your comments.

 

John.

 

 

[FrancisGL]

Hi John,

I'm sorry I missed this, little by little I try to catch up with the modeling and the forum... As the others comment, the work is commendable, meticulous and a great detail effort... it will look great when everything receives its coat of paint...

Cheers and TC

Francis.👍

[edjbartos]

It's looking good John, I do like the way that you are explaining how you are doing things, It's very interesting...

 

Ed

[Bullbasket]

21 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi John,

I'm sorry I missed this, little by little I try to catch up with the modeling and the forum... As the others comment, the work is commendable, meticulous and a great detail effort... it will look great when everything receives its coat of paint...

Cheers and TC

Francis.👍

Hi Francis. It's good to hear from you again, and thanks for your comments.

4 hours ago, edjbartos said:

It's looking good John, I do like the way that you are explaining how you are doing things, It's very interesting...

 

Ed

Many thanks Ed. I try to explain how I do things, but sometimes I get carried away and I worry that I'm boring everyone with my waffle. I just hope that the waffle is clear and understandable.

 

John.

[Hamden]

2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

the waffle is clear and understandable.

 

 

Definitely very clear and understandable as well as informative.

 

   Stay safe        Roger 

[Jasper dog]

Careful John, all this buisness with plastic card and miliput and you might get accused of "real modelling"....

 

As has already been said,  keep up the narrative, or waffle, as you called it, always keen to learn, or pinch ideas!

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 9/18/2022 at 4:08 PM, Bullbasket said:

emergency stop switches

 

I think they might be fire extinguisher switches. They are very similar to the M3 extinguisher system and in the same place.

 

Your attention to detail is an example to us all, well, certainly to me. Most excellent work!