Just some additional comments.

The red stuff which are welds for the various parts is automotive spot glaze putty. I like it better than the green squadron putty which I used on the lower hull. It doesn't attack the plastic as bad as the green stuff. It's cheap too.

Sherman's had welds everywhere. I attempted to create welds for the hull using evergreen styrene. Simply cut to length glue then soften with liquid glue and use the dull end of a hobby knife and small flat head screwdriver to create the beads. It's kind of time consuming but I think the effect looks good since Sherman's had raised weld beadsand with the Tamiya M4 hull I used they were recessed.

The Tiedowns for the tools are artist's paper with PE buckles.

Fitting the tools on the back were a real pain since I had to add the British style fire extinguishers (from accurate armour) which compressed the length of area I had to work with.

Hatches are from accurate armour. hull and turret. The hull hatches were really not much better than the Tamiya ones but the Turret hatches were much more accurate

May I make a few suggestions?

1) you might consider adding the three bolts at the bottom of each VVS suspension unit. They were pretty noticeable (and notably absent from the Tamiya bogies).
2) the lip around the turret pistol port should be faired into the turret wall. Have a look here from toadman's site:

regarding the bogies you mean the 3 between the two road wheels?
Good point. I might do this.





Glad you noticed the pistol port. I saw this as well and will build up this area.

How nitpicky do U wanna be with the M4?
http://www.usarmymodels.com/MANUFACTURERS/Tamiya/tamiya35190.html

Maybe alter the upswept retn roller arms?

not overly nitpicky. This is not going into any kind of model show. I have seen that web page for the link you are referring to. I don't think I need to alter the upswept roller arms. My thinking is that this IC represents a reman'd M4 with both early and late parts which was common for the factory to do since they threw on what ever was available. i.e. using a new batch of late bogies with a batch of early road wheels that were already sitting on the factory floor.

For example looking a the picture above of the bogie and road wheels. It looks like it has the earlier straight return roller with later stamped wheels?

Anyway, just trying to have fun with the hobby and make a reasonably accurate Firefly IC.

Hi Dave,

Excellent progress, looking very good indeed.

Al

Thanks a bunch Al. If you noticed I made mention of you in one of the posts above with thanks for all the help with regards to the Fort Garry Horse Regiment.

I also have a set of T48 tracks coming from AFV club that have the duckbills. I am thinking of replacing the T48's you see in the pictures with them.

D ave, the AFV Club tracks aren't bad. They have one weak poiont, IMO. The pins on the track pads are very small in diameter, and break off easily. This makes the track rather fragile when finished. The Panda Plastics tracks are much better in this respect, if more expensive. If I may make a suggestion: build them up and glue them on before painting the suspension. It looks like you're going for a pretty muddy look anyway; just slather an earth tone on the whole area as a base color. That's what I did on my FGH Firefly Ic that I built several years ago.

Hi Greg, excellent suggestion. Thanks for your input.
This is really helpful. As I said previously I am getting back into the hobby after many years and I am not familar with things like seperate tracks as in which ones are really good, which ones are nice but fragile and/or a pain to work with etc.

You are very correct I plan to go for a somewhat muddy appearance.

Thanks again for your help.

Dave.

Hi All, i am going to post a pic of my Sherman IC recently primed but I am changing the roadwheels to the later stamped version. Once I get them on I will post it.

Needless to say it was hell trying to get them off and I broke a few of the VVSS suspensions in the process. I ordered a set from AFV club (VVSS #35029)THe AFV club set looks nice although in a review at perth military they said the wheels were too thick. I previously purchased a set of late stamped roadwheels from Formations which I will use instead of the AFV club ones.

Cheers,
Dave.

Hi All,

My apologies that it has been a while since I posted anything about my Firefly IC build. The kids, family commitments etc. often tend to take precedence over my re-discovered hobby.

Anyway, here are some shots of my Firefly IC badged out in the markings of the 10th Armoured Regt The Fort Garry Horse with painting, future gloss coat and and oil wash.
I still have to add the serial numbers for this guy, do some touch up work and then proceed to the weathering. Not anywhere near completion but I wanted to get some pictures posted to at least show where I am at these days.

Also, note the position of the travel lock. I modified the original one that came with the kit which is set to lie flat by cutting off the brackets and repositioning them 90 degress so that they would lie flat and the lock would stand straight up. I got this idea from a few pictures I sourced from Canada's National archives which show the rear of two Firefly IC's in the Netherlands which were either Hybrid's or the welded variety with the Travel lock positioned at the rear of the tank and standing up, perhaps to keep it out of the way of all the stowage that these Sherman tankers often piled on the rear deck of these tanks?

Finally, I fixed the pistol port (which was originally just glued on per the Tamiya kit) by flaring it into the hull with some spot glaze putty.


Regards,
Dave.

I replaced the open road wheels with the stamped type (from Formations) and replaced the raised return roller arms with the flat type. This configuration was the standard configuration for these types of Shermans as I understand it.

The left side showing the camo netting resin accessory I sourced from Accurate Armour.

Yip, coming along really well. Nice work dave.

Al

Thanks Al. I hope the weathering steps go well.

I will post some more pics when I have done.

Regards,
Dave.

Added camo to 17 pdr gun and some pre-dusting. Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Have added a washe to my sherman IC and added some minor mud weathering with Mig pigments dry and dark mud. Paint chips added and tow cable as well.

I would like to add more pictures but I am running out of room on the network. Any body know where I can store some of these pictures then cut an paste the URL? I have seen photobucket but it looks like I can only link to thumbnails of my pictures which is no good.


Still need to add some fuel stains and road dust and of course stowage.

As for figures I ordered an Ultracast Sherman Crew for this guy. I am planning to have this sherman depict a tank in the Netherlands in Late 1944. The crew will have the cold weather suits that were issued to commonwealth tankers.

Looks great Dave !!
Definitely want to see some more photos of this one !!!
Cheers

jjumbo

Really nice work, a little insperation for my Firefly build LOL.

As far as photobucket goes it's what I use and it does link to full size pics no problem and I have over 500 pics so far loaded up.



cheers

That is a great looking Sherman. Very nicely weathered. Do you plan on adding a figure in the turret?

John