Hey lads! Have actually go some progress shots of my project... Has taken me sooo long doing lil piece by piece, whenever I had daylight left after work... Makes me wonder how you all manage to 'churn' them out...hehe :-) (Think I'm approaching about a hundred posts in over two years, so as it's rare I'm near a computer I figured I'd get these out while I am





Oh, and these shots are in my gallery if this doesn't work...

Looks like you are off to a good start, Bradley.

Don't forget to add the lift handles on the rear engine deck.

Also, check the position of the siren on the front. It shopuld be more to the center of front hull -- not partly on the applique armored driver hood. Put it just a bit to the inside of the hood and the bottome of the bracket should sit flush.

I like your weld beads and other details.

Bradley
Thay Sherman looks great What did you use for a template on the bolt hole strips for the hull?

That's mighty fine work Bradley.

Are you making a DD? Why is the MG covered up?

Thanks for the feedback lads. As I stated this is just in progress, and basically haven't touched it for 4 days straight...
Bob- Was waiting for someone to mention the siren mounts' position... This is actually going to be based on a photo, and funnily enough that is where they have it in the photo! Where are the rear deck lift rings to go?
Chad- The sand shield mounting strip is evergreen(?) plastic strip which comes in that actual size, and the bolt holes are simply replicated by laying the sand shields (from the kit) out alongside the strip, and copying the position of each raised bolt mark onto the strip with a finemarker, then either drill, or use the point of a #11 blade in a slow spinning motion... HTH
Alan- As I mentioned to Bob earlier, this is based on a photo (4AD?) in France from memory, and they have the foul weather covers on the barrel and the .30cal. The pic shows a lot of mud, so methinks it had been pouring rain in the ETO at that point...
Jesper- thanks for the praise! Hope it will improve further though...

They are not "rings" but are more like handles for opening the rear deck to service the engine.

You can see one sitting flush with the dech on the lower left side on this photo.

A clearer pic is here: http://www.missing-lynx.com/gallery/usa/m4a1_zaloga4.jpg

It's a pic of an M4A1 early at D-Day by Steve Zaloga. The rear deck is the same on the M4A1 and M4 because they used the same engine. You can plainly see the wire handles he added to the rear deck (nevermind the other details for the wading stacks)..

Hope this helps!

i like the grille guards..the ones provided by the kit are all too thick. PE parts are nice. keep 'em coming. thanks for sharing.

Hey Bradley..Nice job so far ...looking at all the work you've done so far I was thinking that it would be a shame if you didn't correct the weld seams. It really does change the look of the kit, and it's not that hard to do. But of course it does look great even without them so carry on sir..

Rick

I think there is something else you cna add.A tube,or cylinder of styrene to the leg of the headlight brushguards which goes straight back to the hull.This is the mount for a little cap which was placed oer the electrical junction when the headlight was removed.
Verie nice build so far. (++) (++)

ok...

Nope ... that's the lifting lug. You can't see the rear deck handles in this pic.

Bob- I know thew lift handles you mean, and am surprised I overlooked them... This being the Tamiya kit, I believe they would have been a solid handle which i had omitted early in the peace, and subsequently forgotten
Carl- those cap mounts are coming! Have used the guntube cleaning rods from the Tamiya kit (The unassembled cleaning rods. I removed the part of the rod that is longer than the rest, as it looks like the suggested cap mount c/w cap on top...)
Rick- have no fear! Have already started the weld seams for the hull. Using milliput as first attempt and know not what would be better at this stage...
Liberator- The brush guards were actually scratchbuilt out of brass strip, and the periscope guards from fuse wire... Glad you like them, as I too think the kit ones are awful!