Greetings fellow Braille scale associates. I have been a little quiet lately for as some of you know, I had the Braille Battlefield Campaign to lead and also was participating in a couple of other campaigns. One of those campaigns was the Sherman 2010 campaign. I couldn't resist joining it as it was a Sherman campaign that was my first campaign after joining Armorama.

My choice for the afore mentioned campaign was the Dragon M4A3(105) Sherman. My original intention was to build the basic vehicle but I decided to experiment and try my hand at the wading trunks. Basically this is the kit that I reviewed in April of 2010 and if you haven't read the review, you can find it HERE.

I began the build by assembling the VVSS bogies. As I mentioned in the review, these are not without their issues.





I found that the locating holes for each suspension unit were a tad large. Due to this there was enough play in them that all the wheels might not have sat level. Because of this I attached the front and rear most units to the hull with tube cement so that I could be sure that they were level.



Once dry, I attached the centre bogies.





The next part of the suspension was to attach was the idlers. Care will need to be taken with these as the mounting pin on the hull is very short and it's receiving hole is equally shallow. After this I attached a few detail pieces to the hull and assembled the gun mantlet. In the instructions part a13 is supposed to attach to the opening in the turret front. despite numerous tries I could not get this to fit properly so I ended up leaving it off. Later I read on several sites that this part has been a problem with all Dragon Shermans that use a similar mantlet and that it is often omitted.

At this point I decided to attach the upper hull to the hull tub. Here another problem arose in that the "fenders" above the sides were about 1.5mm (.060") too long at the back. I had to cut them back so the hull parts would fit correctly. Here are the pictures of the build to this point.





With a few more parts added to the tank I thought it was a good time to spray a preliminary coat of olive. Prior to painting I washed the model in a light mixture of water and dish washing detergent. With these VVSS Shermans I have found that it is best to leave the sprockets off until the tracks are to be attached. Otherwise it can be extremely difficult to get the track around the sprocket.





Up until now it was my intention to build the tank without the trunks. As such I added some more pieces to the model, sprayed another coat of olive drab started a bit of detail painting.





I will leave things at this point and save the next segment for later. Comments or questions always accepted.

Cheers,
Jan

Hi Jan,

You have made a good start.
I am surprised with that gap at the lower half of the glacis plate. What did you use to patch it up?

P.A.

Probably the bolt strip that goes there.

Thanks for the comments guys. Alexander, Tony is correct and the gap is where the transmission bolt strip was meant to go. From the way I saw it, there was no good way to attach the strip to either the upper hull or the transmission cover without in turn leaving a little gap that might need filling. After gluing the upper hull to the lower hull I used tube cement (longer working time) to attach the transmission cover. before it dried I was able to dry fit the bolt strip so there would be no gaps. This was my solution to a problem that I had experienced with a previous Sherman build. I ran out of the olive drab that I was using and the LHS also was out of stock so I used the Tamiya OD on the bolt strip and that's why the darker colour.

Now on with the show!

While I originally had no plans to use the PE, it intimidated the heck out of me, I lost my mind and figured I'd experiment with trying it. If I messed it up I could just leave it off and the tank would still look fine.

This past Christmas my SWMBO had gotten me one of those "helping hands" tools and it turned out to be invaluable with trying to make the stacks/trunks. The first part I tackled was the lower section of the exhaust trunk. Despite the number of bends that it required, it seemed like the easiest.

The parts were all cut off the fret using a regular #11 Xacto blade and a steel straight edge. When necessary I filed any attachment points that stood out with a flat jewellers file held in smooth jawed pliers. For bending the straighter pieces I used the straight edge and when necessary, a dull Chopper blade to lift he narrower sections to be bent. It was a slow process as this experience was totally new to me.

Here's the start of it in the new jig.



I used gap filling CA glue throughout the PE fabrication. I roughed up the mating surfaces with a file to help with adhesion and in many cases the joints were reinforced with strips of styrene. This PE was a real nightmare for me to work with as there are no locating tabs or anything like that to help with alignment.

Next I started on the intake trunk and that in itself turned out to be a marathon endeavour. The worst part was getting the rounded part at the top so that it met the rounded side piece properly. I bent and re-bent these sections about a dozen or more times until I got them as close to the right shape as possible. For this process I used various diameter Plastruct tubing. Here's the final result.



I completed the lower exhaust trunk and and used the CA glue to fill a few gaps that showed. The dark grey paint you see is to help determine what needs more work. The base for the intake stack took almost an entire afternoon to get all the bends and angles correct. There were a few compound angles and joints to deal with and the back of the base is only one millimetre high (the other sides were 1.5 mm high at the most). What you see in the next pictures are all dry fitting of the parts.







During this time I found myself having to re-glue and in some cases reinforce joints that would fail during the filing of edges. It wasn't until this point that I actually though that I just might be able to actually get everything to work out.

The upper exhaust piece turned out to be a monster to shape and form. To get it to line up with the lower sections meant re-bending so many times that the side pieces broke due to metal fatigue. I can't recall how many times I had to re-glue and reinforce parts. I used projecting strips of styrene sheet to act as a guide for placing the top exhaust part on the lower section. The pictures show dry fitted sections.





Again, the paint on the parts was meant to assist with catching flaws to be corrected. Just to clarify, while I am posting this Blog over a few days the actual process took many sittings over an extended period (weeks?). More than a few times I was ready to give up.

Last but not least, the intake base is attached and the upper exhaust piece is glued to the lower part. A detail strip was added to the front and back along where the two pieces mate. Again there was the need to file, fill, file, fill...



As you can see in the image above, the intake trunk has quite a bit of space around the base after inserting it. This will be partly covered by a trim piece. It was that trim piece that was folded to go around the entire base that had me scratching my head for almost a week. Under the base is the Sherman intake grill and by its nature wouldn't allow the stack to sit properly. All my first attempts to position it properly ended up with the base breaking free more than once. Again, there were no tabs or other features to assist you with positioning or to provide a decent gluing surface. In all cases all you have to work with is surface areas the width of the PE. This type of experience is not for a beginner and it might be helpful to be a masochist!

Cheers,
Jan

Looking good! I love the A3 105 Sherman and in this scale you've done a great job.


- Jeff

Hi Jan

whoa, that etch looks to have been very challenging !

I use rounded objects of about the needed diameter to get curves too, it works well.

I like how you said you decided to just go ahead & do it. Its the only thing to do when something out of the ordinary is needed. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the old timers say.

And as your pictures show, you got a fine result out of it, once finished and painted it will look ace !

cheers
Neil

Jan,

It's certainly looking great.I can imagine the difficulty to make these round exhausts.

Working with PE can be very frustrating at times. It helps a lot when the right tools are around (cutters, benders and round shapers). I believe it's best to invest in some of these tools if someone decides to work with PE often.
These days I use gel CA glue when working with PE as I find it better to control. It's really possible to pick just the smallest amount.
Good luck with th rest.

P.A.

Thanks for the comments gang. It's rewarding to see that this build might be of interest or helpful.

@PantherF - I have a rather fondness for this particular version myself, Jeff. Shermans are Shermans but they each have a few unique detail differences that make them individual. It's kind of like the differences in the old VW Beatles.

@Korpse - Neil, as if I haven't mentioned that this PE can be daunting throughout this thread! Did I mention that I would rather not try anything like this again! At least now I have some idea of what tools will work for what purpose.

@PanzerAlexander - I might invest in some specialist tools if they were easily available at a decent cost in my area. I spent far too much time trying to figure out how I could more easily do each step and what I had available to help. I must thank a local fellow that does scratch built model railroad engines in brass for some guidance. Virtually all the tools and jigs that he uses he has built himself.

-----------------------------------------------------

Things looked like they were finally coming together so I decided to spray some olive drab over the 95% complete wadding trucks and other portions of the tank. I I mentioned earlier, I didn't have the correct paint so I tried using some Pacific theatre OD. After masking off the already painted tools I gave several areas a coat of the new colour. It was also about this time that I tried attaching the tracks to the beast.





As might be expected, one can see flaws with the stacks that need to be taken care of. The left track was about two links too short so after some research and thought I decided to try to stretch it a bit. I ran across a note somewhere that DS track can be stretched by submerging it in nearly boiling water and then gently stretching the softened material. Note that I emphasized the gently and then ran it under cold tap water. I was pleased to see that it worked and didn't distort the tracks much at all.

I did the same with the right track but I guess that I didn't stretch it quite enough. While trying to put it around the suspension, the idler broke off.



During assembly I noticed that the lug for the idler was very short and the hole that it fit into was equally shallow. My answer for how to remount it was to drill a hole in the chassis and also in the idler. I created an appropriate diameter pin from stretched sprue and glued it all together with gap filling gel CA. after it dried overnight I coated the area with more glue to reinforce it.



The last PE part was finally attached (the intake truck base trim) and all the trunks glued on. After finally mixing up some paint that seemed to match the original colour better I sprayed the entire tank. I decided that I wanted to do the version with a bit of camouflage on it. The camo was small blotches of flat black on the sides of the hull and turret.

After that was dry I put future in the areas where decals would go and applied them with no problems. This was followed by more Future over the decals and then a flat coat.





The more I looked at the Sherman the more I though that the black just on the sides didn't really make a logical sense. Why leave the turret and hull front without any? Therefore, I added a few blotches to the forward surfaces and touched up some details.



There were still a few odd little flaws to take care of with the stacks and then some light weathering could start. More on all that in the next instalment.

Cheers,
Jan

Doesn't the track you used have rubber boots?

Jan,

Super job and that basic tank looks like a nice kit. I don't know how some of the Braille builders can handle any PE let alone all the forming that is called for in this small a size. Not for me but inspirational none the less. As it isn't quite finished I won't comment any further. Can't wait to see the end result.

Regards,
AJ

Question for you Jan...Do you not heat the PE to aid bending it first? Some great pointers though without a doubt! I am really looking forward to seeing this finished for sure...

Jaymes

Hey Jan,

Glad to see that you made progress. The model looks very nice, I'd like to see it weathered a bit.

As Matt mentioned dont forget to paint the rubber boots on your tracks.
Opposed to what James mentioned, I've heard that you are supposed to heat PE after you've formed it because it becomes more rigid and wont deform with handling.
Personally haven't done it. It would be nice if someone could clarify this.

P.A.

Hey gang! Thanks for your continued interest in this subject. As to a subject that was brought up in the last couple of posts, I believe that you are referring to the process called annealing. From the dictionary:

anneal |əˈnēl|
verb [ trans. ]

heat (metal or glass) and allow it to cool slowly, in order to remove internal stresses and toughen it.



I had heard of this and read numerous posts on the Internet both for and against it. Note in the definition that there is almost a contradiction in that it removes stress yet toughens the material! Several sources recommend annealing so as to make the part easier to bend and infer that it softens it for that purpose. The same ones also state that the process will cause pieces to break off along the fold lines. Other sources suggest only heating parts or areas that are to be shaped into rounded shapes.

Another point that arose in my investigation was the varied points to which the part(s) should be heated. The majority suggest a minute or two over a candle flame for a part while one or two said to heat the entire fret until it glows red and then let it cool on a material such as ceramic tile.

All the PE that I have used in the past has been straight off the fret. After my problems with trying to form the first curved piece at the top of the stack, I decided to try the candle method. I held each individual section to be curved (including the first one) over a candle flame for approximately two minutes. That was long enough for the candle flame to have blackened the surface to which it was exposed. I used self-locking tweezers to hold the part for this process as obviously the thin metal would get more than hot enough to do serious damage to unprotected skin. After that I let the part air cool for about 15 minutes.

With the first part I noticed (before annealing) that while trying to bend the curve that it would start to "wrinkle" in odd ways (due to the internal stress?). It also was not bending uniformly. This necessitated me having to several times stop the bending at the first sign of the distortion and then flatten it out before starting over. After annealing it wasn't any easier to bend but the forming process resulted in a smoother surface and more uniform shape.

@Alexander - One last point that I read about suggests that heating PE and then rapidly cooling it (immersing in water?) is supposed to toughen or make the material more rigid. I haven't tried this so I cannot comment from experience.

Disclaimer - I am absolutely a novice at anything like this and this was my first experience with what I might term major PE parts and their forming. The information above is part from my experience and from reading about the observations of others. I hope that some may find it useful.

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

The end is growing nearer! With all the decals in place and a couple of dull coats I started the preliminary weathering. It would be good for me to point out here that according to several sources, the lower part of the wading stacks required a rear area engineer/maintenance unit to attach them. They were not field applicable as such. It might also be interesting to know that these trunks were designed to prevent spray and the maximum depth for their use was with the top hull deck slightly awash. They were not meant to be submerged above the line where the upper stack piece meets the lower.

With all that being stated, I decided to portray the vehicle after a modest "road" march from the maintenance area to the point of deployment. Therefore, the most notable dirtying would be primarily from road dust. Here's what I have done so far.





Various colours of acrylics have been used to achieve the results so far. The track shoe rubber part is being subjected to some darker washes (they still need a bit more attention). I am studying applicable images to try to refine the final stages. The few colour pictures of European Shermans that I have seen display a fair coating of light dust on the suspension components but not excessively up the hull sides. Until next time.

Cheers,
Jan

Hey Jan,

Thanks for all that useful info. I guess it all comes to trial and error eventually.

You did well with this kit. I would suggest to watch these very nicely done videos.I beleive that you can benefit from what this guy is showing.
They helped me overcome my hesitation for the use of pigments for weathering maybe it can be helpful for you or someone else. After all the purpose of these forums are to help each other evolve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGA32YSK9Uw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAGJjz4UhRs
All credits for the above videos to ScaleModelMadman from Youtube.

Again great job.

P.A.

Great job Jan although I do not like the PE parts. They always are complicated to make.

Regards. Pedro.

@tread_geek – Jan,

I’ve been silently following your build in the morning during the week before I start work. You’ve done an outstanding job both with the build and log. I like your remedy for repairing the idler wheel mishap and your determination on tackling the photo-etch.

There’s been more than one occasion where I’ve gone screaming mad into the night from the frustration that comes from working with this medium. But, don’t despair or become discouraged. Working with photo-etch has its tricks, methods and tools all this will come with time and experience. It’s just a part of modeling and we should embrace the challenge.

From what I see your Sherman looks excellent. I’ve read your review and will be adding this one to the stash.

Keep it coming,
-Eddy

@PanzerAlexander - Thanks for your comments, Alexander. I asked our club "expert" on working with metal yesterday about the annealing process. He said that it is supposed to make the metal more flexible and softer but doesn't always work that way as it depends on the alloy being used. We talked for a good ten minutes and it all comes down to as you mention, trial and error.

As for the videos, I found them very interesting and informative but as I mentioned in other posts and forums, they are rather costly and hard to find in my area. Even in our club only one person has ever used any and he is also put off by the high price here. I and others have been investigating making our own from more readily available materials but we have had only moderate success. I have even heard that some people are using cheap earth tone make-up powders with fair success. Meanwhile my wife, a very talented decorative artist, is trying to develop and teach me techniques to create even better weathering using her brand of inexpensive acrylic paints. She also has used other mediums that may have applications for modelling (like Sno-Tex) and are made by Deco-Art. These can create very diverse textures and effects and are available at our local craft store. She took a seminar on the use of some of these and created a rather surprising looking texture that turned a drink coaster into a fair base for a small scale model (similar to what Sabredog does). I'll take some pictures of it and see about getting more information about the material and how it is used and post it here.

@PedroA - I appreciate you dropping by again Pedro and I couldn't agree with you more. If only these PE designers would exercise as much skill and ingenuity with the PE as some manufacturers do with their plastic parts.

@Braille - I'm glad that you have found this Blog interesting and all I can ask for is if some of it can be useful to others. Sadly, the idler repair has become too "old hat" for me since returning to the hobby. I have even had pins for things in new kits not be present or break during construction for various reasons (not always by my doing). In some cases you just know that the attachment mechanism is too weak and will never maintain even under lighter pressure. In many cases it's easier and more effective to create new ones rather than attempt to reinforce or repair.

Eddy, I pretty much made it through this "experiment" so at least I know what may be involved in any future attempt at something similar. It very much was a learning experience but I just wish it had gone considerably smoother. In the review of the Sherman with Wading Kit I expressed great doubts about the PE and was not proven wrong by my experiences. My recommendation to anyone wanting to build one of these is to build the tank first. The plastic has it's faults but a moderate skilled builder should not find it too challenging. As for the PE, find a friend that has soldering skill from working with brass and get them to build the trunks.

****************************************************

I've made a bit of progress on the Sherman but not enough to justify taking photos. For the time being I may set it aside and review my options and/or direction. I find that at times I get carried away and don't know when to stop. I know others have expressed this feeling so I'm not alone. Sometimes taking a break from a current build can cleanse the mind.

Cheers,
Jan