Started this one along side the a3 I am finishing up.....

I left out a bunch of steps to get to this point but I thought I would start the post here.

Brass Fenders...ugh, my first venture into these units was interesting, I have much respect for others that do this all the time on projects. I bent the top of the fender around a Xacto handle, then used the Etch Mate to bend the side supports, came out nice, and they are very fragile.

Plenty of dry fitting is the order of the day, and I tack glued a little at a time to get to to look right. I had a older tube of Super glue, and it did not want to flow correctly...it was gloppy and uneven. The glued joints are also very fragile and care must be taken when cleaning them up after gluing.




The side brass was longer than the top of the fender so it had to be carefully sanded back to meet the top.

Ryan

The sponson fit was rather sloppy as shown in this pic. Good thing this is underneath, I installed some plastic strip to bridge the gap and to give the brass another gluing surface.



Some of you have noticed what I did not untill it was too late....the transmission cover and its relationship to the side cover...what kind of Sherman guy am I!!!

The transmission shroud SHOULD have been modified to have the leading edges of the drive sprocket covers visible. In my haste to start this one I missed this easily corrected flaw. Oh well...guess I'll have to build another Sherman!



Ryan

The Brass Fenders needed some putty to blend in the seam up top and below...this was needed because of my old CA. I roughed up the Brass with some coarse wet and dry, then applied Tamiya putty....BTW I am getting low on this stuff and hope Tamiya can get EPA (or what ever) compliant so it can be sold in the states again.





The underneath is prob. overkill but it is visible on the completed kit.

More to come..

Ryan

Whew, it doesn't get any better than this...for me anyway!

I sanded down the putty and thought it looked ok, so it was just killin' me to see it with some paint on it, so i primed it even though I have further work to be done.

It came out great, I then surveyed the rest of my Sherman stash to see how many other kits I had that come with Brass Fenders...I think I'll do a kit with plastic fenders next time. Not that it was too difficult, I just don't want to do this on my next build.






Thanks for looking, now I need to get back to the a3...
Ryan

Looks good Ryan. That putty looks like it was rough going.

Thanks James,

Yes the more you put on the more you have to take off.

Ryan

Hi Ryan. The primed fender looks great .... a lot of work though to get it nice. I had the same greif when I built mines, so I made the jump to soldernig on these same fenders, for the first time. It ended up being so easy, Id never use glue again. Try it!!!
I have an article with some build notes, if you are interested ....
Direct link

Frank,

Thanks for the link...nice article and Sherman. I want to get into soldering, I just need to test a few pieces before I commit to a "real" project.

Ryan

Ryan,

Great work on those fenders! I feel your pain, those fenders are tricky indeed! Its looking great! Thanks for those soldering tips Frank!

I did the same .... I cut of some of the unsused frame-pieces from older sets and had a practise go on these. After a few tries, I was confident to use the kit parts. The great thing is ... if you use too much solder, it can be filed easily, and give a perfect finish.
Its really strong, and much easier to work with afterwards.
Ryan & Mark: If the link is broken in my article, send me a mail, and I will forward the text I saved on soldering, that I mentioned.

I found if you cut a very small piece of solder .... left it sitting on the area that is to be soldered ... run some flux fluid in the "weld area" (works just like a wash) and then touch the solder with the point of the solderer, you could control small welds easier .... the solder ran just like a wash into the joint. Bigger pieces I took less care with as I could file. Of course if there is details that can be buried by excess solder or damaged when filing, care should be taken.