I couldn't help it, I had to get this started while I had all the ducks in a row. I'd long wanted to build a "short hull" M50, and recently aquired the necessary kits and bits. The main ingredients:

I would have rather used Tamiya's new M51 for the lower hull and suspension, since the Dragon kit is so time-consuming, but it's what I came up with....
I'll also have the turret and other parts to finish this, started a number of years ago:

So, after bracing Dragon's lower hull to correct what I hear is a very common warp, I started on the rear plate and engine access doors, using the Acad extended access hatch and doors. Easy enough so far....

Then I got to thinking, usually a bad thing. I have a number of Tamiya M4 Early kits in the stash, and I was curious if the upper hull would fit. It does, nicely.

So now I'm in a quandry about which hull to use......
In the meantime, I've got Dragon's Easy Eight suspension to keep busy with. Oh boy.
Thanks for looking, as always. This will be another of my very slow builds, but I'll try and keep this as current as I can.

I'm a Sherman guy trapped in a panzer guy's body. Always enjoy watching the Shermans build up. Want to see how this pans out. I'll be following.

That's funny right there......
Thanks for the interest, it's appreciated.

Hi Russell,

Looking at the idler wheels mounts, have you then put metal rod in the idler wheel mounts?

Are you building two kits at the same time, MP Models + Dragon and the Tamiya + Academy kits?

Regards Thomas

Thomas, yes I have installed metal axles for the idlers, and poly caps in the Academy idlers. Personal preference, but I find it makes it easier to be able to remove and install the idlers during construction, and it's sturdy.
I'm building one tank from the MP and Dragon kits, and using a few parts from a previously built and then scrapped Academy kit. I have a Tamiya M51 in progress, almost done, on the "constructive criticism" board. If this sounds confusing, you should see my workbench....

Edit: I also have in progress, from a couple of years ago, an M4A3E8 using Academy suspension, an Italeri hull, and now, a Dragon turret to make an M4A3E8(105). I guess the pic of that last one made it all a bit blurry, sorry. I could have used this previously started model to make the M50, but it has the -E8 rear bulkhead, engine cover and exhaust diffuser already in.

Rather than get bogged down by the bogies, I decided to get in to the turret. I'm using the MP part, so some puttying was involved, which meant adding welds and texture back after I'd lost a lot of what's there (which is actually quite good) and adding the cast cheek armor common to a high-bustle turret. I also began the mantlet cover enhancements. The turret so far:



I will add the pistol port next. I have to confess, this is the kind of modeling I really enjoy....

Teenie update, not even pic-worthy. I worked the cheek armor last night, before the putty fully hardened, so it's now ready for blending and texturing. I also got the pistol port on and blending started. The part came from the Acad M4A2 kit, a nice source of bits and pieces. After I was done, I was thumbing through Tom Gannon's IDF Sherman book, just to sharpen up doncha know, I ran across a pic of the engine doors in the back of a short hull M50. The caprion was something about the Israelis cutting the tow point off thse particular conversions, in order to clear the engine doors. Makes sense, I even had a problem in 1/35th scale....so off it came, with the cut area textured to look like a torch cut. Once again, thank you Mr. Gannon.
I still haven't decided which upper hull to use.....

Okay, some progress, some re-do. I got the whole turret textures, including the cheek armor I added, and I also beefed up the area under the commander's cupola. The shell ejection port is on and blended in as well. I got the mantlet cover retainers done, and while working on this noticed my Aves putty had not hardened after 48 hrs. Odd, since the cheek armor was made from the exact same batch and hardened fine. So, off with the mantlet cover and a new one was made from Milliput.
I tried the grab rail on the bustle twice, onec with .023" welding wire, didn't like it, so tried again with .040" plastic rod. Still not happy, so it came off this morning and I started again with .030" plastic rod. I'll get back to this later.
I also was unhappy with the MP main sight housing, so I cut it out and put in one from an extra Tamiya turret. Pics so far:


Thanks for looking, as always.

Lots of progress over the last couple of days, primarily the suspension. I went ahead and jumped in, only managed to cut myself once, and got it all together. The trans housing is fixed using the "Kharkov Solution", quick and effective. I've committed to the 47 degree hull, but will have to do another M50 on the 60 degree hull soon.
The turret bustle rail is done, texturing done and the pistol port in. I've also drilled out hte viewports in the commander's cupola.
Engine deck is partly MP, partly scratch, with a few bits added from Dragon and Italeri. The rod at the base of the outboard splash shields will be a weld bead. 'Nuff said, the pics:
Below, trans housing and final drive covers. Splidle is shortened same amount as drive housings spaced out.

Next, the whole enchilade, less the engine deck:

And up her skirt:

The engine deck. Intake covers will be from one Ital M4A1 part cut in half, just like the real thing.
Thanks for peeking.

Looking good, Russel. Keep it up.

Thanks, Matt.
More from this morning:
Engine air intakes:

More rear deck stuff:

A start on the front of the hull:

Other side of the rear. I need to add the M4A3 engine hatch rests here too.

Still pluggin along, the stowage all over the hull sides is probably next.
Thanks for looking, sing out if anything strikes you.

It didn't take me long to realize that I'd have to do the fenders before I could do the stuff on the hull sides, so as much as I hate to work with brass, I dove in.
Fenders:


As mus has I tried, I couldn't find two pictures of two tanks with the supports in the same place, so I swag'd the locations based on what junk goes on above and in between them. Should work.....
Now I can get after all the goodies all over the sides and fenders....

Are the fenders one, continuous piece? I feel your pain.

Matt, the fenders are three parts per side, just like the real thing. Next time, I'll buy an Etch-mate first. This time, I used this stuff:

Other Matt, 'preciate it.

Progress:




Little by little it's starting to look like an M50.
I've been using parts from MP, AFV Club, Academy and even managed to finally use an old Collectors' Brass shovel. I have no effin idea how long that thing had been in the stash.
I'll probably show the other spare track rack empty, and still need to figure out how I'm going to do the caps for the spent smoke tubes.
Thanks for peekin'!

And, that's a beautiful shovel. I noticed that the pins on the spare tracks don't line up. That would be the pins, in the middle. They look to be about a milimeter to high.

It's a very pretty shovel.....
And, yep, the pins on the Academy spare track bracket don't line up with the AFV Club track blocks. It wasn't so obvious the other night when I was piecing it together, but the pic really shows it up. I'll probably move the very top and bottom pins since they're most obvious.

It's the little things, the itty-bitty things.....
that drive me nuts.

Oh-Kay!
Some clean-up on the spare track pins, made it a little less obvious that I'm using to-scale track blocks in a holder that had "approximations" of track blocks molded in. The rest of the can bracket bases are in, and the aux. gen. muffler is on, less cover. The spre track rack on the right is done, so I can get on with finishing the can racks and other doohickies. The Dragon M51 kit also has a lot of bits that will help move this one along, like the (tow?) hooks on the rear upper hull. Anyway, pics:


Comments always welcomed!

Looking very good.

Thank you, Matt. I have this coming Monday off and hope to get the rest of the basic construction done then, and hopefully stowage and paint soon after.

It's coming along nicely. It looks like your scratched engine deck fits in there really well.

Thanks Rob.
I just took the intake cover section from the MP kit, cut the back half with the louvers off at the actual "cut" line and added the rest from card stock. I used Tamiya's M51 deck and pics from Tom Gannon's book as a guide to do a "first generation" setup. Possibly soon I want to do another M51 with the Tamiya kit as a very late unit. The Dragon kit I just picked up has the correct (I think) late style deck with top exhaust and louvers which should work nicely. It also has the rear portion of the upper hull as a separate piece which should make it a bit easier to do the extension.

I'm backdating several DML kits to the '67 setup, so I may have a spare rear louvered section you can use.
I just mentioned in a thread last night that Legend's 1973 M51 upgrade is actually for a later version, and not correct for '73 without a little work. The rest of the parts and PE make it worth a look in my opinion. I'll be back home this weekend so maybe we'll meet halfway and I'll see if I have anything you need.
That DML kit already has the extension, so you won't need to add it. I recently cut mine out.

Cool. I picked up the original Dragon M51, and it came with two rear decks, both with louvers and top exhaust. The difference is the length, one for the M4A4 M50 (I presume) and the other for the M51, but I suppose that they don't have to end up that way....
This kit also has the rear-most section of the upper hull molded as a separate piece. I just assumed this was Dragon's way of changing their standard M4A1 hull to reflect the Israeli mod to install larger radiators.
I'm always up for some horse trading.