Hey Jesse,

Nice work on the boggies and rollers. You bought parts and saved parts from other kits to do this build? I like that kinda build. Keep it coming Jesse!

Gary

Yeah, obviously I bought a number of aftermarket bits for this build, but at the same time, I've built a fair number of Shermans, and those kits tend to have lots of spares, parts for other versions, etc.

Hi Jesse,

Looking really nice like how the bogies are coming along

Mike

hay jesse gret start i'm going to watch this one can't wait to see what your bring next week
dave

@ Mike, thanks for following along! I finished the other 3 bogies tonight. No pictures. Just imagine with the other three looked like, and double it!

@ Dave, I've got a LOT of work to do before Friday. Hopefully it goes well.

Bogies got done, so at least that's out of the way.

The Grant kit shares a lot of parts with the Lee kit, including the interior hull floor with escape hatch. The escape hatch was only added to late Lee's once the large side doors were removed, so technically, it's not valid on the Academy Lee either, which is an earlier model before the hull and turret ventilators were even added.

So.. it had to go.

The offending escape hatch.



Goodbye escape hatch.


I used the escape hatch, scraped off all the detail, flipped it around, and used it to fit back into that space. Liberal putty and sanding... fixed!



Next was getting some interior bits done, which included the first of many PE parts to recreate the anti-skid pattern.



Next came some dry fitting, and problem arose between the transmission and the driveshaft tunnel. It's a little hard to see, but with a slight warp in the bottom (which will level out when glued into the lower hull), it just didn't line up like it was supposed to. Here's the best photo I got.



So... out came the micro saw again!





By the way, this thing is awesome... (http://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/images/JLC002%20Combo%20saw%20JLC.jpg)

Anyway.... I cut away some of the bottom of the transmission, but it won't be seen as it's the bottom, and it's kinda under the driver's seat anyway.

New alignment = better!



So... that's the stopping point for a little bit. I need to get back to work on my Firefly for the D-day campaign, as it needs to be finished Thursday evening, and it still doesn't have paint on it!

Jesse,

I see you're gettng an early start on that show theme entry for next year!

I love what you did to the bogies already I'll be looking forward to seeing how the rest of this build progresses, too.

Take care and safe travels.

See ya next week at the show.

Thanks for stopping by Mike. I can't wait for the show. Taking a break from putting the base coat on my Firefly now.

Looking good Jesse. Good luck at the show with the Firefly man. Ill be looking for you to bring back some gongs.

Gary

Hey Jesse!

Just found this while on a conference call at work. I am now subscribed! Hope to get a package out to you this weekend.

Terry

Jesse,

Looking really good I will keep on watching with interest, pick up some new tricks!!

Cheers Mike

Hey Jesse,

Great work thus far! Amazing that I happened upon your build (which looks really good), as my interest in the Grant has been piqued just these last few days. I was watching some World War 2 movies and documentaries and noted that Field Marshal Montgomery apparently used a Grant (or maybe more than one) as his personal command tank.

Perhaps you may have mentioned something about that in your thread, but I didn't see any references to Monty. I wouldn't mind building a 'Monty' tank someday, if I had sufficient references, either photographic, or even verbal descriptions. Any thoughts on that score?

In any event, I'm going back over your build log more carefully this time, as it seems like you're doing a great job in building a stellar old tank, and I'm sure I'll pick up lots of good stuff!

Make sure you watch "Sahara" with Humphrey Bogart to get you fired up on the Lee then making the Grant will be that much more enjoyable. Great build.

Get back to work! I'll be looking for the mailman... thanks again.




Thanks for following along Mike. Hopefully we all learn something.




Hi Curt, I've only seen the 1 'famous' picture of the tank named Monty, which would have been a command tank. There's a Grant in a museum somewhere (I forget) done up with markings like Monty's, but I think that's just some museum worker's dream than anything to do with the real tank named 'Monty'. The command tanks typically had dummy guns so there could be additional room in the interior for radios, map tables, etc.

Alright... I'm back.

So I grabbed the Formations final drive in order to take a look if I had to modify the lower hull to accept it. And whoops... should have read that before. You're supposed to attach the Academy interior transmission piece to the inside of the Formations final drive. So I had to remove that. And you see that I had some surgery for the lower hull per the Formations directions.





Also, to utilize the Cyber Hobby bogie mounting plates, I had to remove the molded on Academy pieces as well as the molded locators on the back of the bogies. Since the lower hull has lots of rivet detail, I wanted something a bit more precise, so out came the dremel. Of course, while it might be precise, it's also aggressive, so once I dryfit the new bogies, I'll see where I have to clean up, and I may just have to remove the rivet detail and add it back on. We shall see.

I also had to fill in the holes that helped to locate the Academy bogies on the interior. I used some evergreen tube to fill in the majority, and then went back over with putty to smooth it out.





Here's a picture of what the interior looks like so far. The clamp is holding the final drive in place, so I could see how it would fit together.



Going through the references and the various parts I've amassed, the biggest issue is the left side ammo bin. It's not included in either the Academy kit or the Eduard photo-etch set.

However, the old Verlinden interior set for the Tamiya Grant does have the ammo bin. It also has the earlier style rear ammo bin for the right hand side.



So now I'm debating purchasing that, as I don't really feel like scratch building the ammo bins. Some of the other interior bits might be nicer than either of what I have too. So I'll have to think about it some more. If anyone happens to have the old Verlinden set laying around, let me know.

Great job Jesse! I hope you get that kit you want soon. But seeing your skills I kind of wonder what a scratchbuilt ammo bin would look like
Go scratch!

Phil.

Jesse, The verlinden set looks pretty darn sweet to me! Nice build so far too man.

Gary

Jesse,

Looking really cool so far, hope u find your Verlinden interior & that it has all the correct bits it's meant too

Mike

Thanks for the comments guys. Hopefully I'll get some more progress in over the weekend. Maybe I'll hold off on the interior a bit while still deciding what to do.

So I have actually been getting some progress.

While I was still debating the interior, I decided to work on the rear hull plate. This is the Formations M3 rear panel. It includes the more commonly seen air cleaners, as well as the fish tail exhausts. These replace the pepper pot exhausts that come with the Academy kit. Everything fit together well without any issue. You do have to cut off the top side pieces of the Academy version and then reattach to this, but that's not shown in the photos. I'm going to wait till the hull is starting to come together to make any tweaks on that before I glue stuff together, as that area is a known weak link on the Academy kit.




I decided to skip the Verlinden interior, and just make something 'good enough'. Fortunately, since Academy gives you some items that I won't be using, they worked as perfect starts for some real minor scratch building. Here's the right side sponson ammo box, which uses some parts from the Academy kit, and the 75mm ammo "bundle" from the ancient Tamiya M8 HMC kit. Once painted it up, it should look nice.





Here's the generator for the right rear sponson. This is just the Academy part with some filler, and a wire detail added. There is a film piece and PE piece that will show the amp(?) gauge on the face, but that will come after painting.




Here's the rear fighting compartment panel, about 80% finished. I initially followed the Eduard directions too closely before going back to the references and discovering that the ammo storage here was actually shorter than Eduard would have you believe. So I had to pull off the already superglued ammo rack, cut it, then reapply. That big 'stain' in the middle is from the superglue debonder stuff. Should go away under a coat of paint.



And here we are now...The lower interior is coming along nicely. The biggest pieces yet to add are the main 75mm ammo bin on the right side floor which will be all PE, the water container on the left side sponson (also PE), and then a few items that sit on top of the box sitting on the left side floor, which will be scratched out of card stock.


Of course, the ammo bin on the right here is upside down in this photo...oops.


Once that's finished up, I'll start working on the interior of the upper hull. Mostly adding rivets and wiring to accompany the dashboard.

Plain superb Jesse! What is tht debonder stuff you are talking about? would definitly like to get my hands on that!

Nce work!
Phil.

The stuff I used comes in a bottle like this:



This same stuff is rebadged by a lot of hobby stores. My local Hobbytown USA carries it. But I think almost any superglue company makes their own debonder.

Looking Great Jesse. Very clean build. Thanks for sharing.
Have a Great Day
Mukund

Jesse, The interior is looking fabulous man! Great scratch work. I LUV IT!!!

Gary

Mukund, thanks for stopping in. It's a slow process, but it's been fun so far.


Gary, I'm slowly building some confidence in scratching little details. VERY slowly.

Made a little bit of progress tonight. A few small details near the transmission on the interior, but mainly test fitting front fenders, the final drive cover, etc. Had to shave a bit here, shim a bit there, etc. But I think it's going to all fit nicely.