Coming along well, I built this same kit a while ago (my first Dragon model) and a real baptism by fire, I feel your pain! It turned out well in the end though. Admire your attention to detail.

Cheers mate. It is a bit of a pain in the ass but the worst of its now over. As I've said before, most of the problems come from Dragon chucking in sprues from various Sherman kits and hoping that a Hybrid Firefly results. I don't believe anyone from Dragon tried to assemble one before putting it on the market. It is not a shake and bake kit. Fortunately for everyone else, they've since released a a new and corrected version since I started this one.

A little more work today.
I added a few details to the inside of the turret walls to avoid seeing a bare interior down past the commander. This was just a couple of boxes from scrap and a bit of wiring. The inside was then painted off-white, dirtied up and finally paint chips added with a pencil. I find this gives a nice dark steel colour and I have a lot more control over where the chips go.
The top and bottom of the turret where then stuck together. Quite a lot of filler was needed to blend in both parts, particularly towards the rear. I also glued on the loaders hatch.

Lastly, I made up the cast cheek armour by attaching a piece of plasticard and blending it in with filler. Not sure if its thick enough to be honest.


Comments as always are welcome.

I added another thin strip of plastic followed by more blending with filler to give a bit more depth to the cheek bulge. I think it better resembles a Sherman's bulge now.
Just a little more work to do then its on to painting! The end is finally in sight.

Looks really good. I somehow missed this one, but I am glad to have stubbled across it; as I have a semi-finished-thrown in a corner from from frustration version on my bench.

Keep up the great work!

-Mike

Mike, glad you like it so far and I hope that the improvements I made will help you with yours. Despite the annoying problems I have found it a fun project so far and I've learned a lot from it.

I began work on the commander last night. He came from Miniart's British Armoured Car Crew set. Quite a nice set of figures that covers the Desert and late European fronts.
First thing I did after assembling the legs and torso was the drill out a hole down through the neck and chest to accept a replacement head from Hornets HBH04 British Tank Crew with Beret's set. The kit's was a little blank looking and I wanted something with a lot more animation and I think the one I selected really fits the bill.




He still need's his arms fitting and a leg amputation to get him to fit in the turret. Work continues on the fiddly bits to stick to the tank before it goes to be painted.

Stephen

After giving the model a good wash to get rid of any sanding dust, fingerprints and any other muck that may have accumulated over the course of the build, I've now made a start on attaching the fiddly bits. And most of these are etch, a material I really dislike working with.
First job were the light guards from the kits small Etched fret. I managed to get the curve looking quite good on the rear set and they attached with no problems. I cannot however say the same for the front. They refused to bend to the shape I wanted without springing back and took a lot of of bending, twisting and swearing at to get them close to what I wanted. In hindsight I should have annealed them, but after the rear set worked so well I wrongly believed I could skip that. Chalk that up to experience. They also refused to to sit correctly on the hull front. The result being that they're a little wonky as can be seen here....

Both have a noticeable 'lean' to the left and right of the vehicle. This could be due to the curvature of the hull. I suppose I could pass it off as damage and general wear and tear. I attached the etch parts with Uhu white glue as I was having trouble getting them to stay put with superglue. It seems to have a firm grip on everything so far. To save myself some time, I used the kits plastic horn guard rather than the etched example in the Verlinden detail set. As this will end up buried under stowage I saw little point and can always use that on another Sherman project.
I'm also toying with the idea of using the kits big stowage box on the front.

Photo's of 7th Armd's Hybrid Firefly's show this as a common fit by the crews. A variety of mountings can be seen, but this was the most typical. I just need to work out how is fits on over the spare track rack? Some sort of bracket behind perhaps? It'll give a good basis for adding stowage behind it.


Comments welcome.
Stephen

Finally reaching the last stretch. Construction is complete and she's now ready for some paint.





Comments welcome.
Stephen.

Got round to spraying the firefly after getting in form work today. I sprayed it with Humbrol acrylic HU116 US Dark Green with a basic Badger airbrush. Their new acrylics spray surprisingly well from it after thinning. I'll have to see about trying them with my Aztec to see how perform with finer work. The barrel camouflage was done using a Blu-tac mask after having painted the barrel previously with HU23 Duck Egg Blue enamel.

Its very drab looking at the moment and will benefit from a dry brush with some lighter tones to add some life, as well as a spot of touching up of areas the spray missed.
I also worked on the commander. I ended up having to perform a major amputation, removing more of his legs than I had previously thought and making some adjustments to his left arm to get him to fit. I'm going to try some Vallejo acrylics on him. I've heard a lot of good things from figure modelers about them so I'll give them a bash.

The end is finally in sight!
Comments and suggestions welcome.
Stephen

Touch ups and dry brushing done. I used Mig's Oilive Green oil mixed with a little Raw Sienna to get more of a faded OD colour. The tonal difference between the base coat and oils is a lot more subtle than the photo is! Its come out looking VERY green here!

I think I'll give it a quick brush with a more lightened shade and then its decalling time.
Comments welcome.

Stephen,

Nice build thus far. I would never of thought to use Mig's products to paint OD.

Looking forward to seeing more.

Dave.

Thanks Dave.
Migs oil paints are quite good for drybrushes, washes and the like. I find they dry a little quicker and the pigments are finer than traditional artists oils.

Suffered a near disaster earlier tonight. I picked up the tank to add a few more decals, and totally forgot that the turret was only resting on top of it! It bounced several times across the desk before hitting the floor.
Result was a few broken etch parts. The turret mounted sight pinged off, only found after a massive hunt. But worst off all was the antenna guard I had spent so long getting right. Completely bent out of shape and a snapped in a few places. Not sure how I'm going to salvage it as it resisting straightening out.



Somehow, the periscope guards survived with barely a scratch.
I know it was my own stupid fault but incidents like this are what put me off working with etch. It just does not survive the often brutal punishment my builds endure

Stephen,

Man that sucks!!

The antenna definitely looks messed up. I hope you can reform it. If not perhaps you can scrape a styrene one up from another kit or order a cheap sprue from Tasca that has this antenna on it or purchase a lionmarc PE antenna which given your recent experience might not be worth the bother.

Dave.

Stephan: It seems that the long tool box on the final drive assembly should be mounted higher? Onto the glacis plate itself? In the picture you posted earlier, it's clear that the box is above the fenders. Just an observation

Hi Stephen,

Coming along well. Bad luck with the bounce, done that a few time!!

Look forward to developments.

Al

Dave: How does one go about ordering spares from Tasca? I've heard a lot of people do it. Do you need proof of purchase of a Tasca kit to get parts?

Roy: Where to put that bin plagued me for weeks, and yes I agree it's not in the best of places when comparing with that photo. I gave a lot of thought about its location and a lot of searching through books. My conclusion was that no two seem to have had the big box in the same place. Some were high, others low. By rights Hybrid's should not have had them, and they were a rare sight, but when fitted they seem to have been located wherever the crew could stick them. 7th Armoured's crews were old hands at the tanking game and preferred to use as many bins as they could rather than have their vehicles buried under mountains of stowage. I don't have any pics on my laptop to post but if I can get some I'll post. Mounted on a metal strip between the fenders seemed the easiest place to me and some photo's do show it here. As I'd robbed out the track pad racks from this kit for use on another project, I couldn't use them to form a base, as is the case of the Firefly in the photo. I eventually decided to just bite the bullet and stick it down. It's location is still not something I'm entirely happy with and I could have done something better, but its stuck down and painted so I'll have to live with it.

Al: Thanks. It could have been a lot worse than it was. Just lucky that I had not permanently attached the cupola!

Well I have some good news and bad news for tonight's update. The good news is that I have a replacement aerial guard in the Resiscast stowage set. Although it is etch (Oh joy!), it looks to be simpler and easier to shape than the kits original. I will fit it last of all to avoid another accident
Decalling has also gone quite well and there's only the right sides serial number to apply
And the bad news, I managed to snap off the barrel of the turret .50cal when cutting it from the sprue. Damn thing pinged off across the room and will probably never be seen again. Although not a major disaster as I have others, I was looking forward to using one of Dragons Gen2 Brownings on a project. I suppose I could always use whats left to show a stripped down weapon sometime.
I'll be a happy man once this is finally finished.

All the decals are now applied and had a coat of matt to blend them in with the rest of the tank. I used Fingerprints Designs sheet for the 7th Armoured Division, choosing to build as a 22nd Armoured Brigade Firefly. The hull serial number is based on one of 22nd's Hybrid Firefly's. I just counted on a few digits reasoning that it might have been in the same production batch. I thoroughly recommend Fingerprint Designs to anyone with an interest in British Armour. The sheets cover all major British Infantry and Armoured Divisions, service branches and stenciling of the 44-45 period. Although not cheap to get all the sets, once you do it should (in theory ) allow any vehicle to be accurately marked.




The ID star came from the spares and was probably from a Tamiya sheet. The white barrel ring was also from the spares, most likely originally a stripe for a missile. I did apply some old turret squadron markings, but they silvered badly despite the gloss underneath and a good soaking with Microsol and Set. This might have been due to the probable age of the decals and turret texturing. I had to remove them after they refused to co-operate.
And all done without dropping it, bashing it, or any other accident.
Right now I'm waiting for the oil paint on the tools to dry off before attaching them and the tracks. Then the weathering fun can begin!
Comments as always are welcomed.
Stephen

Stephen,

Really come along nicely. Looks like your going for a 7th armmoured Division tank.

Sorry for not getting back to your earlier but its actually quite easy to order sprues from Tasca. What I have done is select the sprues I want then send an email to the order desk at Tasca with the sprue part numbers I wish to order. They then respond with the total cost including shipping along with their paypal account. I then send them payment via paypal and they confirm my order and ship the sprues. Unless they have changed their ordering process this is how I order sprues from them.

Thanks Daave. What can I say, you have to have at least one tank in Desert Rat markings in the collection!
Cheers for the info on Tasca. I'll have a look and see if there's anything I need or could do with for other projects.