I'm building the dragon 1/35 firefly kit 6182 and am in need of some info. The kit commander's ring has 2 mounts for the 50 cal is this correct? The kits turret has a hole on the top forward right of the commander's ring but there is no part call out to fill the hole. Does anyone know what is suppose to go there? Last question there are 2 boxes mounted on the back of the tank, what are they and what was their use?

Thanks for any help.

One variant of the commanders cupola had a MG mount on opposing sides as per the kit and the well photographed Gunnery School Example in Haywards Firefly book has usch a cupola. It probably allowed for a rear or forward mount without realigning the cupola.
I'm not sure which boxes you refer to but if they are the ones on the lower part of the rear lower hull then they are smoke generator boxes which contained electrical fired smoke charges.
Al

Mike: You're referring to the two boxes attached to the rear of the turret bustle, right? The first one housed the radio. It was needed because when the 17pdr was installed, its breech mechanism was longer than the 75mm cannon. The radio was normally mounted in the bustle. Crews had to cut a hole in the rear of the turret and re-mount the radio to that first armored box. The 2nd box was just an extra storage bin -- crews never had enough room for their gear.

Thank you for the great info.

Hi Roy,

Did you mean the factory crew for the radio mount? This was part of the original conversion, while the second box, usually a standard style fitted to regular turrets as well, was added in the field. I can't remember if the Dragon kit turret is actually cut out in the box, but the Tasca one is. I'm partial admitedly, but I also have a ton of Dragon Shermans. Does anyone make German WWII armor? :-)

Tom

(Firefly IC WIP)

Hopefully this photo above will help. While a .50 cal was mounted, it was far more common for the Commonwealth Shermans to use a .30 cal.

Here's the cut out in the turret rear of the Tasca turret as pointed out by Tom. And as Tom says, it was part of the factory conversion when building these versions.



You may also wish to note that not every Firefly had a stowage box added to the armoured radio box.

Gary

thank you for the pics they are a great help. the dragon kit does not have the turret cut out.