Abrams Creighton tank,Germany 1945...

Hi Dani!

Overall you did a nice job with this rather difficult kit. I particularly like the weathering to dirty it up. I can comment on the construction because I built this kit for the Sherman Campaign. The figures in the hatches are a nice touch that I felt I wasn't ready to attempt (was away from the hobby for nine years). From the pictures I can't really tell if you painted the headlight lenses. They appear to be the same colour as the overall tank as far as I can tell. Perhaps if they were painted an "off shade of silver" with a bit of weathering (which I failed to do) they would enhance the already nice build. I can also see that you had the same trouble with the tracks as I did. The teeth on the sprockets just did not want to sit in the holes in the tracks. I fought over this problem for ages. This is a difficult model as far as I am concerned and you did a very respectable job on it.

Cheers and keep up the good work,
Jan

Nice job Dani! After reading Jan's post, I can see the problem with the tracks. Are there any after market tracks? Orherwise, a beautifully done "Thunderbolt VII"!

Kerry, I believe that I saw a thread here inquiring about aftermarket treads and I believe that there might be some but not for this particular model of Sherman (it had the metal tracks as opposed to the ones with rubber pads). With mine I ended up filing down the gear teeth and opening up their respective holes in the treads with a sharp pointed hobby blade. I found that Super glue was needed on each wheel set to get the treads to sit right. For 1/72 scale it proved to be quite a time intensive build.

Cheers,
Jan

Wow Jan, I can see where that would be a problem. Though I think that the only way to fix it is to do what you did. Hopefully, someone comes out with an aftermarket set of tracks...or is it possible to substitute with something else? They kind of look like the same pattern as Russian tracks?

Those are T-66 tracks, right? OKB Grigorov used to make a PE set of those, but it's out of production already. Maybe on eBay?

http://www.okbgrigorov.com/products72/01072077.htm

BTW, is anybody here using photo-etched tracks? I'm just curious how it's put together and how it actually looks when done...

Kerry, they are overall somewhat similar to certain T34 tracks but with a unique ridge pattern. At the site that Ales linked to in his posting they have some Shermam Cast Steel Tracks. In comparing them to the Dragon tracks they appear to have an almost identical tread pattern. See below.



Here's an "in progress" shot of my attempt to get the Dragon tracks to sit right after filing the teeth and opening up the holes.




I believe that I spent more time trying to get the treads on than it took to put the entire suspension together. One other trick to those that try to built this kit is leave the drive sprocket unglued. The Dragon tracks don't stretch much and it might be impossible (or extremely difficult) to get them on a completed suspension.

Regard,
Jan

Well, very nice. Ales seems to have found a perfect match. That's what I really like about this site. Thanks Ales! If I ever get around to it, I know where to get PE tracks for my Sherman. BTW Ales, I have not attempted to use PE tracks so I couldn't give you any input. Hopefully someone who has can elaborate.

i prefer trumpeter's tracks they sit far better than dragon's and their tracks are that bad they ruin the model