Folks: Here you go! "Demagog" of Co D, 3rd Batt., USMC on Iwo Jima, Feb 1945.

This is a first-to-the-fourth for me! My first posted build, first Allied anything build, first Shermie, and first resin bits I've ever done!

This is my "first draft" of the USMC M4A2 early "Demagog" used on Iwo in 1942. I built this for the Lafayette,LA Iwo Jima Vets get-together held this past weekend. Fastest (2 weeks!) build I've ever done! Used the Dragon M4A2 "Tarawa" kit, with some styrene scratch (armor plates, re-rod railing, a few small detail bits), a wood board up front, and the TWS Deep-Wading stack resin kit. I used the kit (awful, IMHO) DS tracks (bent guide horns and all).

Painting: Primed with Floquil RR Engine Black enamel, followed by coats of Tamiya acryls and ModelMaster enamels to create an OD coat with different paint patches and fades. Some of the Tamiya acryl was mixed with Future to get a more "satin" finish. Detailed with oil pin-wash and raw umber "body wash", and dusted with a thin spray of Tamiya dark yellow followed by mixed powdered artist pastels. Markings used small dry-transfer numbers and letters, and home-made stencils.

This is a "first draft" - I'll be adding some details and some baggage.

Your comments and suggestions are most welcome!

Bob Woodman















Nah, I'm not becoming a shermaholic, but it was lots of FUN!

Very nice, especially for the limited time for the build! Should the exhaust can be sootier inside?
Norm S.

Norm:

Hey, Good Point! Didn't much pay attention to that detail, but, yes, one (the rear) can is the exhaust stack... and it's an easy fix to add a little sooty black into that!

Bob

Very, very nice!

G

Great Shermie Bob, and welcome to the light side! Looking forward to the final pics!

Cheers!
Stefan

Hey Bob,
Welcome to the wonderful world of the SHERMAN!!

For your first-to-the-fourth….Excellent J.O.B

Best Regards
Eric

Thats a nice looking sherman, Good Job!

Stefan, Agent G, Errains, Big J., Norm;

Thanks, gents, for lookin' in and for the kind words! A panzer guy stumbling around for his first go in Shermie-land needs TLC and support!

OK - Norm has pointed out 1 thing (exhaust stack soot) for me to fix, and I have a list of things I plan on doing to it...

Adding small chains and plugs into the light-stopper holders on the light guards up front, a wire antenna** on the turret fixture, maybe some "canvas" bits to that tar-line around the drum fittings (betcha didn't know that the shiny black around the drum bases was tar used to seal that stuff, did ya! Come on, be all honest! to ), seeing as apparently they used some canvas and tar for that job, maybe the tow-cable and the PE clamps that secure it, the tow-hitch (with a keeper chain, methinks) (yeah, haste, as oft said, makes waste... I hastened thru this thing and look what happened! ), and some load front (spare wheel(s), maybe some sort of oil can) and rear (Gas cans, a crate or..., stuff under a tarp), maybe some helmets and a bedroll hung on the turret? Oh, and I think that the road-gear frames or mounts are supposed to have some small drain-holes on the side opposite the roller? The headlight wire guards need some dry-brushing, and that horn? (thing over to the left front) needs help!

I am looking for suggestions - are there likely wiring or cables I can add to fixtures? That lamp up on the turret... I'm not even sure that it should be there! If NOT, I'll take it away! Does anyone know anything about some possible wire braces across the tops of those drums? I think I saw some pic somewheres showing this, but... What else do I do to make this thing half-good?

Oh, and did I say THANKS!, guys? I greatly appreciate it and I was feeling just a little lonely!

Who knows, there might be another Shermie in my future (but, honest-injun, I don't want to do those darned DS tracks again! I've heard that MK makes a link T54-E track set which would go on this version, yes?)!

Bob

Bob...

Sorry to hear about your DS tracks being all bent up. I've built a couple Dragon shermans, and haven't had any with that problem.

If you really want the pain of indy links, I would suggest the Bronco or Panda Plastics variants over the Modelkasten.

For other suggestions:

Wiring for the searchlight on the top of the roof was through the base. No external wire needed.

Model kit Sherman suspensions, because of their see-saw type action, tend to have the first and last road wheels come up with the tracks. This is visible in your photos. If you're not putting this on a base where the suspension needs to match uneven terrain, I would suggest gluing the bottom "upside down Y" pieces level to avoid that look.

The are 4 small holes on both sides of the suspension bogies. The bracket that held the return roller could be bolted onto either side, as the bogies were not handed.

The little guy on the hull side is a siren, not a horn.

The bullet splash guards around the gas/oil/coolant covers had drainage holes in the center. Might be hard to drill those at this point.

Looking good.

Brilliant job! Im liking the barrel stacks.

Jesse

Thanks!

Tracks... That's pretty nice, there being choices! My "Tarawa" kit was fairly old, so the DS tracks may well have had some opportunity to get their horns bent- I had to clip a few off and others are, alas, visible. It's not that I LIKE the idea of doing link tracks for this thing, but! Actually, most folks I've heard and read on the DS say "no problem", so I guess I got a bad apple.

I see what you mean about the suspension running up the tracks - it's all loose, and the track tension easily overcomes the weight of the kit. No base planned right now... I was thinking of putting some weight inside so it might sit better, but that could simply ruin those bogies... gluing them level sounds like the better idea . I have not glued the track-ends, yet, so I can pull them off, do all the fixes, and CA-glue them on, so that they sit down on rollers and all is level....

Those 4 holes - ah, "spare" holes for the other-side mounting of the roller frame... makes sense! So what I need to do is drill them in the pattern and spacing that matches the roller-frame bolts... better I know this BEFORE I rush for the micro-drills!

The top lamp: Yeah, I had figured that was mounted like the hand-search-lamp on police cars - with the wires inside the mount. Thanks for the confirm! I'll guess it should remain up there - maybe I need to silver its inside and cast a lens in...

That siren. OK! So did it have some sort of grill or grating on the front end? I noticed my kit part has, of all things, a tiny sink-hole up front - THAT does not look right for a siren. Does this siren get a wire?

Anyone know whether the siren was likely in-place on any of these Iwo USMC Shermies? If NOT, I can pop that bad boy right out!

Now... "Gotcha!" Drain Holes in the splash-guards. That one I did do! - If you are speaking of holes in those "lunettes" around the filler-caps left and right side. I had seen that in a couple of Shermie ref pics - (see pics 4 and 5 down - I drilled them out and did put some stain on. Maybe I need to run a little more staining down the side?) ! Now, of course, there may be other such drain holes...


As long as we're looking at those filler-caps... I've seen one or another build-pic showing tiny "chains" attached to what I thought was a small curved handle on each cap... ANYONE able to tell me what the case is? Easy for me to add those, if that's needed!

Lamp, bogie holes, bogie-"fix", siren... OK, My fixable fixes list is growing! Thanks! I'm on it.

I have alas discovered that I may have used the wrong sprocket teeth rings... I think that these Shermies had the "plain" pattern and not the "fancy pattern" I used - ANYONE able to tell me? I'm not sure I can actually fix this - maybe pluck the sprockets and do some surgery??? Or let it be.

Bob

If you didn't glue the tracks together, you might be in luck.

I typically cut one link out of the DS tracks to get the tension night and tight. To make sure they glue ok, I'll use a strip of .010 or .020 and 'brige the tracks on the inside, and hide that above one of the bogies so you can't see it.

There were a couple of siren versions. For an Iwo tank, I don't know. Here are some different options.

http://www.formationsmodels.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=60

Not suggesting you buy one (unless you want to), but you can at least see the different versions.

Here's an OCD version of how to drill the holes in the bogie.
http://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/Bogie%20Hole%20Jig/bogie-hole-jig.html

Jesse;

Thanks for the track tip, etc.!

I THINK my tracks will actually snug up a bit when I do that level-and-glue bit - may be able to get happy with simply doing the CA thing - and that added bridge across the track join you mentioned (not, BTW, that I've had any problems with the tracks coming undone, but...).

I looked at those sirens - what a "cra**y pic" they posted for that! Couldn't see much of the important face part. But it's a start! Maybe I'll fashion some sort of tiny slotted grating for the front of it - one of those on that site sorta looks that way and appears similar in shape to what I have on the kit. Of course, I'll fiddle around with it for 20 - 30 mins, get things looking OK - and then some guy will post me the truth and tell me "no siren for that one!"!

Man o man you were not kidding about the OCD on that hole-biz! But Thank You for it! Pretty darned impressive, actually, and the right way (heck, not far removed from how the real thing was done) to do all the bogies consistently. Being a sometimes-flirt with OCD-ism, I might just try it out! I may not be able to maneuver the tools around in the space-available... and I don't plan on pulling those bogies off. We shall see!

Cheers!

Bob