I couldn't resist the sale price on DML's web site so I ordered this kit. This is my first British Sherman. I'm shooting for a replica of the box art as I really like the OD and Black camo.

Everything not gray plastic has been added/scratchbuilt by me.









G

I have the exact kit and am a Sherman newbie. I will be watching this with great interest.

Good work on the welds Wayne. Looking forward to seeing more of this.

I looked all through the box and never located a part even vaguely resembling the vane sight. So I made one. Not completely accurate, but it looks the part. I also took aluminum tube and replicated the smoke mortar muzzle. The kit was lacking in detail. The small square of sheet is the suncompass platform. I have yet to see a Brit Sherman without the mount.







G

*EDIT* I meant to say peep sight not vane sight. I made a vane sight also after these pics were taken.

G

Lookin' good so far. I've got one in progress and had a heck of a time with the trans housing-to-hull fit. You too?

It was a bit, shall we say, trying?

I recently built the Orange Box M50 and even though it has a one piece tranny housing, the trial and error getting that in place helped considerably here. Judicious sanding of mating surfaces as well as careful fitting while the cement was pliable kept it all looking good. I still needed to fill some marginally wide seams with Mr Surfacer but all in all it went well and looks the part. If looked at from the side I suspect one would notice a slight upward tilt of the nose toward the front. It is slight and not noticible unless the viewer is a Sherman fre...antic.

G

Exactly. I ended up with the same tilt, even with the 3-piece trans housing. I ended up doing quite a bit of sanding and such, since I didn't want the drive sprockets to end up out of place (too high).
Watching yours, maybe I'll get around to digging mine out of the pile.

I'm calling the turret 99.9% finished. I just need the periscope cover on the commander's hatch. Does anyone know what, if anything, should cover the gunner's sight? It has those two large holes flanking it.







Try as I might I could not assemble that darn antenna guard. I even tried a spare which I found. Nada, nothing, zip, freaking thing is a pox on the land. I therefore promptly scratched one.



G

I finished the turret and added primer.





The hull was next. I added etails based on photos. I used some spare Tasca parts as well as scratch built items.











Primer.





G

Paint!

The base is a 5 to 4 mix of Tamiya Olive Green and Olive Drab with a drop of yellow. Black is straight Tamiya Flat Black.











G

I'm calling this one finished.













G

Hi Wayne.
Think you have done a lovely job with your vc firefly!!!.I have one in my stash but am going the 75mm armed way to do a British sherman V.If you go fine scale modeller you will find some great tweaks and tips for Dragon shermans by Paul Budzik who does some great tips.
Great job of your kit!!!!.
All the best from Richard

No looking paint job, just one question, what is with the 40 ton bridge weight circle? I thought Fireflies were 33 tons? Does the welded on armor add 7 tons?

I'm not up on my Fireflys, or any Brit armor and markings, but to hazard a guess I'd say this being a Sherman Vc, (M4A4) the extended hull and multibank motor might have something to do with it. Either something like that or DML just screwed up the decals!

Ideas anyone?

G

DML screw up decals? Surely not...

(I've got their "Carole" firefly with the strange hieroglyphics instead of the correct LST chalk markings...)

The bridge class should be 33, unless they were "rounding upwards" to the nearest ten. (Weirder things have been known to happen!) There's even one "restored" Firefly on the Web with a bridge class of 50 on it - I assume it was rebuilt from solid Kryptonite!

Seriously, that's one first-class job on that ornary old Dragon kit! I really like the peep-sight - I had to plunder one from another kit when I built mine. By the way, those holes either side of the gunner's periscope were for the late-style protective hood, which wasn't all that common on British Shermans from what I've seen. Filling them in was a good call.



Tom