Hi there
Here is my attempt at recreating an exhaust deflector to fit my Tamiya kit. Those in the know will agree the kit version is a dog, and needs major work to get up to scratch. This (marvellous segue;) leads me to show you my scratch version. The bottom is from the Dragon Op. Cobra M4A1(76)W kit, (I would have used the whole thing but the other parts are missing...) and I scratched the rest out of thin card and some patience. I dinged her up some as they were easily bashed about in reality. It will have some mud slung about too as this will be part of a muddy diorama base.




I'm not too concerned that the centre two vertical plates are not a continuous 'wall' running back inside the deflector, as this would become too finicky...

Here is what I'm up to on the rest of the tank



Thanks for looking
Brad

Deflector looks good Brad and the rest of the tank is shaping up to be a winner too.

From my limited Sherman knowledge, that looks great brad, certainly a whole lot better than my limited attempts to thin out and improve the kit part when I built this. The dinged up areas look great too.

Your work on the rest of her also looks great, lots of your usual excellent attention to detail!

Keep up the good work,

James

Looks good to me. What I did for some of mine was buy the Formations set that corrects the side pieces, and then used those pieces as a guide to make my own from sheet styrene. You've done an excellent job on the deflector itself, and the rest of the tank, to this point, looks great as well.

Rob

Very, very impressive, Bradley! Did you experience too many fit issues using the Dragon exhaust assembly with the Tamiya kit? I'm preparing to do just such a conversion and from what I can see, the two went together pretty well. Did you scratch build the side plates? Please keep us posted. Best regards, Dave

Thanks Pat. Hopefully a completion date can be reached soon...


Ha! Thanks James. I tried the thinning out method before this, but was pushing **it uphill...

Hey Rob. Thanks, and would you know how the deflector handle locked in position? What I'm trying to say is would it be feasible to have the handle half out as though it doesn't 'lock' any more?




Hi Dave and thanks.
Forgot to mention that I scratchbuilt (or boxed-out) above the deflector, which finished flush with the rear overhang . This part is the same size as what the DML deflector attaches to (a long rectangle with sides) in the 'Thunderbolt' kit. The sides were scratchbuilt also, from a reference photo. The DML deflector is the same width as the rear overhang on the Tamiya kit , so you shouldn't experience any fit issues.
Cheers
Brad