While reading an old posting on the IDF M50's, I got the Sherman bug again. A few hours online lead me to some great pictures of tanks on display, and the well know picture attached. Since I had given my old collection to my nephews (charity) I went over and did some trading and got the E8 Thunderbolt, the Normandy M4 and a Tarawa M4A2. The A2 will be a future project if I can manage to get through this one. It has been a lot of years since I finished a model. As we were putting things away my nephew asked me it I wanted the tracks. The AFV Cub ones with the M50 on the box.
I found a old Dragon M50 kit for sale, and it is on the way.

I plan on making the tank a 1967 version.

While waiting for a new book on the M50's I will be working on the suspension, and getting the Normandy M4 hull mated up with the E8. I don't have the funds to get a Tamiya kit for the engine deck, so I am going to make my own. I made a later version M50 deck for Tank Workshop years ago and I have a few parts from that laying around, but I think it's time to make a new deck using the pictures of the M4A2 M50 on display in Israel, back dated to the early layout.

Looks like a cool project, will be waiting for your next update!

Progress is slow. Besides the heat I have a sinus head ache. The DML hull was a bit warped, but is nice because the nose sides are molded on the base as are the return roller bases. I added .020 plates to widen the sides to the width of the nose, and added a .030 strip to raise the bolt strip.

The rear plate has been modified and I started the engine deck. The resin part is the old deck I made what feels like a life time ago for the Tank Workshop.

If you're using the Normandy M4 upper hull, the front plate could be sightly updated. The weld joint from the outer edge of the driver's hood down to the bottom of the glacis was eliminated very early in production, and an L-shaped section of rolled plate was used there, instead.
Also, Dragon overdid the cast texture on the hoods early in the tooling process, then fixed it by enlarging the hoods, so you should slightly round off the top front corners to correct the shape, as it is slightly too square (there was an alternate hood design with a nearly semicircular top edge, too, but I don't know what other details you'd have to later to produce that variant--out of the box, Dragon depicts a mid-production Alco hull).

Fun project with an interesting story about the rear deck. Will be following this one fellow scratch/custom builder!

Saw this one not too long ago at an event near me.

Gerald, thanks for the info. The M4 hull got messed up a little when I cut out the radial deck. I shouldn't do that with a sinus problem.

I used the lay awake plan (VISA) and got another Dragon M4, the DV M4A2 at the local shop today, and a parts box with a bunch of Tasca parts from my Nephews. There should have been a Tasca M4A2 kit, but it seems to have gone into the UFO conspiracy. I think the Dragon DV M4A2 will make a more interesting version.

Willem, that is a nice looking M50. I decided to start over on the M50 deck. Among the Tasca parts is a M4A1 hull more or less complete. I am making a M50 deck that will fit both Dragon and Tasca models.

This is a M50 deck on the welded drivers hood on display in Israel. There is a walk around photo album I found searching form M50's.

The new hull with the base deck test fitted. I made it a snug fit on the Dragon hull, and it is a hair to large for the Tasca hull. Once I cast it up it will shrink a little and fit better. I learned to make things a little bigger due to the casting shrinkage.

If only there were Tasca M4A2's on the market!

My 'A2 M50 deck ready for detailing compared to the Tamiya M50 deck. I had to cut out the inner edge of the rear hull plate as it is much too thick. I made the rear most plate separate so I could use the deck on any hull.

The Tamiya deck is the about the same width as the Dragon hull opening, but is shorter. I plan on using it as the base for that style of deck later on. Yes I got the Tamiya kit, on the lay awake plan again.

The Dragon M50 I ordered came in. I cut the add on bustle off the Dragon turret and reworked it. After a lot of massaging it fits my reference picture. Since these pictures I changed the upper edge of the bustle to resemble the turret in the picture. Note how the gap between the bustle and the turret are bridged with a large weld.

I got a copy of the Lion and Lioness book on the M50's but it is the radial powered versions. Still, a lot of good reference information.

The gun and mantlet are in process. I went back to building the HVSS boogies to rest my eyes.

The engine deck ready for casting. Missing details will be added on a casting. The HVSS is almost done.

Progress has been slow but steady. I did not find any information on if the under side of the hull would be changed with the Cummins diesel so I decided to go with the original hull of an M4A2. The early hulls only had one tow lug, so I added a second based on some pictures. I also filled in the notches in the lower hull and remade the welds using .010 x .020 strips textured with a saw blade.

On the upper hull I removed some welds, and put back one I removed by mistake. I chose an alternate ALCO DV hull front, and I think I need to soften the edge of the bow mg casting. The Tasca applique seems thin, but fit the Dragon hull ok. While waiting for glue to dry I scribed the outline of the loaders hatch in the turret top using a sharp pin Tamiya used to put in the old M60A1 kits to poke holes.

The only snafu was one of the inserts for the DV vanished. I don't have any carpet, but I never found the piece. I used plastic strips to replace both inserts. The applique covers everything anyhow. I used filler and a tooth pick to create the welds on the DV and the applique.

Oops! I discovered the notches in the lower hull are supposed to be there. On tanks converted from vvss the hull was notched by cutting with a torch. So I hacked and textured my fill in plastic to make the torched notches.

I decided to keep the loaders hatch closed so put a .010 thick oval over the scribed area and added a ring around the hatch using solder. Of interest is the hatch on my sample tank was made using the plate cut out during the conversion work.

Top shelf modeling!

Thank you!

I got an RB barrel for this build, and it might be a bit long. I am still trying to find a copy of Lioness and Lion vol 1.

Once the bills were paid in August I managed to afford an Asuka Sherman 1c Firefly, and went more into debt to get the M4A1 DV. It seems the DV kit is the Alamien version but you don't use the British parts in the kit.