Sherman II mid October 1942

[Isitme]

Thought it was about time I built another Sherman, last was back in the late '80's, and all i can remember was drilling out the cenres of the wheels to change them from 6 spoke to 5 spoke wheels, probably from somewhere like Italeri or Revell.
Anyway I dug out the Asuka version and found that I must have lost the turret top, but not to worry as there was the base to it and also a Dragon turret. So first job was to start the assembly of the hull.

No problems here, just a case of taking your time.
Next on the agenda was the cast nose.

And this went together as it was designed to. This has now recieved a coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 to enhance the cast surface and the two bolted sections have been cemented together and then once dry have recieved a cut down the centre to represent the split frames.
Onto the turret. I first cut the turret ring from the lower remaining section of the Asuka turret, then cut the turret ring from the Dragon offering. The Asika ring was then mated to the Dragon turret base and that cured any sloppy movement of the turret.


And as you can see it fits....
And apart from cleaning up the wheels this is where I am today.

Cheers, Mike.

[Jim R]

Hi Mike
Missed you. I thought maybe after your Accurate Armour debacle you had given up on modelling and taken up cross stitch or painting by numbers :tongue-out3:
Nice start. I enjoy watching your skilled modelling.
Jim

[Tim Marlow]

Nice start Mike. It will be good to see what you make out of this one.

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Mike!

[Guest]

You can’t really go wrong with Asuka Shermans, if you ask me. They fit really well (though you have to be careful with some of the assembly) and the detail is really good too. Too bad you lost the turret, but hopefully the remaining parts with fit the Dragon one without too much work

[Isitme]

Hi Mike
Missed you. I thought maybe after your Accurate Armour debacle you had given up on modelling and taken up cross stitch or painting by numbers :tongue-out3:
Nice start. I enjoy watching your skilled modelling.
Jim

Tried cross stitch - sewed my hand to my pants, sewed my pants to the curtains, sewed the curtains to the dog and all the time trying to paint that masterpiece they always showyou can do on the tv.....

[Isitme]

Nice start Mike. It will be good to see what you make out of this one.

Thanks Tim, I will try.

[Isitme]

Coming on nicely Mike!

Cheers Andrew.

[Isitme]

You can’t really go wrong with Asuka Shermans, if you ask me. They fit really well (though you have to be careful with some of the assembly) and the detail is really good too. Too bad you lost the turret, but hopefully the remaining parts with fit the Dragon one without too much work :smiling3:

Found the turret, it was in another Sherman Firefly kit, but still going with the Dragon offering, the fit of parts is pretty similar although the Dragon parts seem to be a little thicker plastic.

[Isitme]

Update,
More work done, spent a pleasant Sunday building all the suspension units and distressing the tread on the wheels.

These are now in primer as are the drive sprockets and idler wheel. Notice the bit of track - that will come in the next update...
The cast front is now attached and set up to see how it looks.

Also added the correct covers for the grousers at the rear top of the hull (grey bits). These should be square and not the rounded items usually seen.
Also forgot to show the reference material I am using, not shown but as useful is Mike Starmers booklet Alamein and after.

The old MM article by Vasco Barbic is my main go to reference for this model.
More later
Mike.

[adt70hk]

Lovely jubbly!

Coming on nicely Mike.

ATB.

Andrew

[Isitme]

Lovely jubbly!

Coming on nicely Mike.

ATB.

Andrew

Thank you.

[Guest]

Afternoon oh Wise one, I shall join and refrain from throwing any shoes !

[Neil Merryweather]

I am watching in awe and wonder as always

[Isitme]

Update.
As promised earlier - tracks. These can be the bane of your life where you avoid them like a plague or you just sit down and get on with it. We have a variety of manufacturers to choose from and now even get them in kits... I have used three manufacturers products to date and obviously Fruil are the favourite to go to, but one that has had me in the corner for long time has been the Modelkasten and especially their Sherman tracks and that little bolt head you have to insert at the end.....
But, after some study I came to the conclusion why at the end? why not at the start......
So what you get in the box apart from the instructions.

And there it is in all its glory - scary or what.
So first job to tackle is time - do not spend hours assembling these tracks it will be a rubber room job for you, in an hour you can get ready and assemble about a dozen links or more. And for this demo, I produced a dozen, stopping and starting to photo the process.

Tools, I did not use a track jig but two straight edges. The other tools were a fine saw, tweezers and a Stanley knife - a Stanley knife I hear you scream, thats insane.... The reason for the big knife is that with a new sharp blade, the weight of the knife is just enough to cut the plastic. The fine saw is to cut the track pads away from the sprue and not leave a burr, and of course the tweezers speak for themselves - plus one other item liquid cement.
So off we go....

The first item is to insert these bolt heads into the end connectors, this is usually done at the end of the track building process. So first break off the sprue from the runner and you will notice there is a circle on one side this I keep in the up position when the bolthead is in position.

And here you can see the holes.... A little dab of liquid cement and then the bolt head is put into position...

There is also a track pin on this sprue that is for when you assemble the loose track pads for adding to the vehicle...


Look mommy trees.....
The next job is to cut away and if required clean up the track pads...

And the track pins which are cut from the sprue with the Stanley knife, just position it at the junction of the pin and sprue and a gentle push forward will cut the pin loose without any pressure being applied.

Using the tweezers hold the pin/tweezers in your good hand (I am a lefty, so this would be my left hand) and then rest the tweezers on your other forefinger to steady the tweezers and drop the pin in place. The same happens with the other half of the track pad, Then it is a case of holding the assembled pad in the tweezers while you brush a light amount of liquid cement along the join - you do not have to flood the joint just wet it.


And here is your assembled pad.
Next cut away the plastic sprue from the prior assembled bolt heads, again just let the Stanley knife blade rest on the plastic and that should be enough to cut through the softened plastic.

It is then just a case of assembling the track - and these two are the most awkward, once you get these two together the rest follow. I usually glue either the left ot right connector to hold and allow the track to move. For me it is the left side of the connector but for right handed it would be the top/bottom right connector.

And there you are, the one on the left is the section completed during this tutorial with the right section being the one in the background of my pics
Phew! I hope this helps....
Mike.