Jakko’s Sherman BARV

[Jim R]

Looks good Jakko. You're certainly making progress although Resicast aren't making things easy. Your altered catwalks look good and fit nicely.

[Guest]

Eh, it’s a resin conversion kit, they’re not supposed to be easy Everything from here on is just adding a bunch of detail parts, but tonight, I’ve self-diagnosed myself to have a minor type of ADD in that, once a task is finished (like fitting the anti-slip thingies), I don’t go on and work on another part of the model, but go do something else entirely. If I could stop doing that, this model could be finished by next weekend …

[adt70hk]

Despite your many trials and tribulations Jakko, that's really coming on very nicely. Really top notch work.

ATB.

Andrew

[Guest]

Bit much when manufacturers can't get it right, quick enough to take your money .
Great work on the cat walks.

[Guest]

Despite your many trials and tribulations Jakko, that's really coming on very nicely. Really top notch work.

Thanks, though I don’t think this kit is giving me that much trouble. The superstructure fit could have been better, but it’s not like I’m building a UM kit or something

Bit much when manufacturers can't get it right, quick enough to take your money .

That’s a bit harsh, IMHO. The kit is basically sound, it just has a number of minor errors. There are very few kits I’ve seen that don’t, so it’s par for the course, if you ask me. And they’re all easy enough to fix, unlike, say, the too-short turret of some of Dragon’s Panther kits.

Great work on the cat walks.

Thanks

[boatman]

WELL Jakko ive never seen this on a sherman an is this a sherman that floats ?
chrisb

[Guest]

Bit much when manufacturers can't get it right, quick enough to take your money .
Great work on the cat walks.

Talk to AA....

[Guest]

Jakko,
Just caught up on your BARV.
Ref the catwalks, I would expect that there should have been a supporting length on the inner side to prevent the catwalk itself from collapsing or being bent out of shape, after all not all members of the crews were blade of grass fed ballerinas, I imagine that some of them in boots duffel coats and what was worn underneath weighed quite a bit.
The Bumper looks like it does not fit any Sherman hull profile, how could they mess the fitting up? Would it not have been better for you to cut off the offending part and then add a piece of plasticard and then prifile it from one of your other Shemans and fit it that way.
Anyway watching with interest on this interesting subject.

[Guest]

ive never seen this on a sherman an is this a sherman that floats ?

No, the British version of those looked like this:

[ATTACH]515045[/ATTACH]

This is a Sherman DD, for Duplex Drive. Here with the screen up, from the front instead of the rear:

[ATTACH]515046[/ATTACH]

Or the American solution, the T6 flotation device:

[ATTACH]515047[/ATTACH]

The BARV is a Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle, intended to push and tow stuck vehicles out of the water, and to push beached landing craft back into it. The whole tank was waterproofed, with the tall superstructure allowing it to wade into quite deep water. They were developed specifically for use in Normandy, but remained in service for much longer than that, until eventually replaced by the Centurion BARV in the 1960s, if I recall correctly.

Ref the catwalks, I would expect that there should have been a supporting length on the inner side to prevent the catwalk itself from collapsing or being bent out of shape

There was indeed, lengths of T-profile along the whole length except where the fuel filler cap is. Resicast omitted that except at the front and rear, and they also left out the vertical parts of the T-profile, of course.

The Bumper looks like it does not fit any Sherman hull profile, how could they mess the fitting up?

It does fit the three-piece nose, really. Not as well as it could perhaps, but I attribute that to resin shrinkage, which would give it a slightly smaller radius than it should have to fit properly.

Would it not have been better for you to cut off the offending part and then add a piece of plasticard and then prifile it from one of your other Shemans and fit it that way.

I did wonder if I would have to build it that way, but really, all that was needed here was to cut off a triangular bit at the top, and then fill and redo the weld. It was easy enough to work out what to remove by holding the support to the side of the transmission housing.

[Guest]

Slowly creeping forward … I started on the ropes along the sides, which the conversion set gives you resin rings for, but I thought they were a bit small so I made some myself:

[ATTACH]515366[/ATTACH]

Copper wire wrapped around a drill bit, cut into rings, and then pressed flat with the back of the knife handle. I had to do the cutting on a hard surface (the glazed tile they’re on) with a pointed knife, and it still wasn’t very easy, but I’ve got plenty for both sides — this is slightly over half I made, so including some spare.

I then superglued them to the right side of the hull, but because I’m afraid they’ll break off easily, I continued with the rope once the glue had set:

[ATTACH]515365[/ATTACH]

This because I can then glue the rope to the hull, or at least the knots in it, which will protect the rings better from breaking off.

After the deception of the 3D-printed tracks, I remembered that I should have a half-built set of T54E1s by the recently gone-under Panda Plastics, somewhere, for a model that I never finished. And indeed:

[ATTACH]515367[/ATTACH]

One track and a half, that I can easily finish sometime soon. For the other model, I’ll buy that upcoming set from Gecko at some point.

[boatman]

LOOKS a nice job Jakko very instresting
chrisb

[scottie3158]

Coming on nicely.

[Jim R]

That's a good solution for the tracks. You're not waiting on Gecko.
Side rope looks good.

Or the American solution, the T6 flotation device:

Never seen that before. Strange thing.

[Guest]

That's a good solution for the tracks. You're not waiting on Gecko.

No, I figured that doing that might mean the model won’t get finished before the year is out.

Never seen that [T6] before. Strange thing.

It was the American solution to making tanks float, but without the drawback of the British DD tank which couldn’t use its gun until ashore. They made similar things for the M18 76-mm gun motor carriage and, IIRC, even for the T26 heavy tank.

[Waspie]

Oooops!! Missed this build. :surprised: Going back to page one fer a catch up. This looks interesting!!