Hey Darren, again refer to MAFVA website where there is a very useful guide to British ww2 paint schemes and how to mix them in enamel (sorry Henk ). I think that Humbrol 159 (my old standby) looks good for weathered/ weary vehicles, but it really needs to be toned down by washes etc.
Hope that helps
MC

PS I forgot to add the mantra:
"There is no such thing as khaki drab, only SCC15"

Hi,

well, as I was planning either a Canadian or Polish Firefly, ( Liberation of the Netherlands) I might still be o.k. for the MG. But having checked all the links that you all so kindly have supplied, I have noticed that all the Fireflies appear to have the added armour plate welded to the hull side and turret cheek.... No mention of this in the instruction, although the armour comes with the kit.. . So back to the glue and plastic again.

Darren,
when will we see pic's of your Firefly? Don't keep us in suspense.. As you can see it's a popular subject and those in the know are only to willing to help you built the most accurate Firefly possible.

Bradley,

The Top Brass set is a delight to work with. I've had only one part break during bending, the brass is very strong yet plaiable. Although not specificaly for the Firefly, there are enough common pieces for me to play with here. I'm still learning to use PE properly, untill I'm ready to completly trick out a Pzr IV. I'm just slowly gathering all the components for that, it'll be inside and outside fully loaded. I hope...


Cheers
Henk

Me again! :-) As for adding the extra armored plates to the hull and turret...The hull plates were not added in the field because the ammo storage was no longer in the same place as in the M4A4 ,but it would have it if it was added directly at the factory..

Rick

Why oh why did I cross to the Dark Side?? I remember thinking " I'll just built it quickly out of the box", "It's only gathering dust", " it's perfect for that camppaign"......" how difficult can it be?"....

Are there any two Shermans the same? Is there any coherence in Shermans at all? :-) :-) :-) .

I'll be adding the extra armour, as most pictures do show it in place, and it will add a bit more texture. Looks increasingly like the MG will have to go though.

Cheers
Henk

L.O.L. Henk, just build the dam thing, your progress shots are great and I can see that it is a tank and a Sherman at that .
Listening to Shermaholics is like watching Monty Pythons, ladys aux. doing the re-enactment of the battle of Pearl Harbor.
Cheyenne

Hi Henk,

I've been following your build with interest as this kit is on my "wish list".....

Given all the hassles you appear to be having with the kit would you recommend it to anyone? Should I remove it from my letter Santa?

Also, where did you get the PE set?

Rudi

Tarok, how are you?

Well, recommend, to be honest no. Not because it's a bad kit (which to be fair it's not), but because the later issues are so much better. A quick list of 'gripes'

Wheels only detailed on one side..
Headlights are c$$p..
Bad fit of front part to the hull, resulting in a large gap..
Warped barrel..
Tools are mediocre ( I'm being polite and kind)
Inconsistantcy in things like the foundry/casting marks. some are there, other prominent ones are not..

So I'm not saying don't buy it, as with some work it builds up alright, but if you can, buy a later one.

And the PE set I found on eBay.


Cheers
Henk

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

I'm no Shermaholic Cheyenne, but from what I occasionally follow in the threads here, that's very true...

Hi Henk.
So this Firefly is not the newish one?
Even so, the last one released (#6182) is a bit of a chore.
Worth the effort though Tarok, and it can be picked up quite reasonably from far-Eastern on-line shops (about £15 with postage to the UK). Add to that some pe, some replacement wheels and idlers, decals... hope santa's sack can carry it all!

By the way Henk, how'd you find a Sherman in a farm? I only get poo-ey feet

Hi Rudi..If built out of the box it does look like a firefly ....BUT...I have been collecting pieces to make THE Firefly and I don't think I'll be using many pieces from the kit ...I have the Formations update kit for the firefly as well as the M4A4 hull from Formations ..both the Aber and Eduard P/E sheets ,some RRHPS tracks,and new wheels from Formations... So you can see there are a few problems with the kit.... If this had been a Tiger kit it would have been blasted as being terrible but..... hey it's only a Sherman.... :-) ..
You can fix most of the stuff yourself but you do need a new barrel as it is too long in the kit ..don't forget to raise the weld seems around the hull.

Rick...
ps I'm a shermaholic and I resemble that remark!

Thanks for the heads up, lads. I guess this isn't a great kit to cut one's Sherman or even armour teeth on...

I guess I'll hold off on this one until I at least see what DML has in their bag for next year... maybe a retooled 3-in-1 Sherman?

Rudi

In a word, NO. :-)

Let's repeat the Commonwealth colour mantra for 1944-45, all together now...

There is not such colour as Khaki Drab, only SCC15 Olive Drab.

There is not such colour as Khaki Drab, only SCC15 Olive Drab.

There is not such colour as Khaki Drab, only SCC15 Olive Drab.

There is not such colour as Khaki Drab, only SCC15 Olive Drab.

There is not such colour as Khaki Drab, only SCC15 Olive Drab.

There is not such colour as Khaki Drab, only SCC15 Olive Drab.

Bronze green was introduced _post_ WW2. None of the Humbrol paints accurately reflect WW 2 colours, but mixes are on the MAFVA site. And seriously, there _never_ was a colour called Khaki Drab, it is a mid 60's invention of some authors who had not done the basic research.

HTH

Paul

Well, I was doing to build this kit (I have one in the pile o' kits) but maybe now I will just let it sit.
Not really, but I do have reservations about putting the tracks together.

Enjoying this thread for all of the helpful pointers.

Shaun

They're coming to take me away, ha ha
They're coming to take me away...... #:-)

I put on the first coats of paint last night, using a mix of Olive Drab and Olive Green. Then lightened that mix with Buff, and shaded in all the panels ( sort of ). Then looking at it all today in the light, I decided that the additonal armour had to be added, so I have just glued those in place.. . I'll try to finish the paint today, and hope to be able to take some decent pic's tommorow.

I wonder why that white van has been parked outside my house all day..

Cheers
Henk

Paint progress so far. I'll weather it today (tonight) and see how the shade comes out. There are a couple of spots which will be covered with a camonet.... I tried to eliminate the seam in the turret with putty ans sanding, but the bit on the right rear refuses to disapear. . I'll add the remaining tools afterwards.





Cheers
Henk

Hi Henk... Looking good ..might be a bit green to me but weathering can do alot to change that....
hmmmmm... remember those armor plates you added to the hull....? well I think from your picture that the rear one on the right hand side looks to be too far forward or the front one too far back ,I can't tell from the picture but they are too close together...

Rick

I'm getting really, reaaally pissed of with my computer now. It now has decided to start having a real life of it's own, where it decides to move the cursor indiscriminately around the previously typed tekst, meaning that it starts to add whatever you are typing in the middle of random sentences... . That not being bad enough, it also has decided that it wants to assign 'special functions' to certain keys, even without the shif or control keys being used... . So I find myself regularly looking at the previous screen, having lost the whole answer I just typed. Going page forward doesn't work, the previous page is blank.... . When I buy a new computer, I will be smashing this one up very, very thouroghly..... . And very slowly aswel.. :-)
End rant.

Hi Rick,

The green is to light green, I'm not al that happy with it. I'll try to weather it down, but if that fails, tonight I'll take some drastic measures.. enter the 'Laboratory'....wohahahaha..

The armour plate is staying as it is i'm affraid, unless I repaint the beast and I can remove them cleanly...

My next project will be something nice and simple.. and it will be Panzergrau... :-)

Cheers
Henk

Oh, shame on you!
What about a nice Cromwell? Mmmmm... Cromwell~(_8^(|)

Ahhh ( hangs head in shame)
Funny that, I was looking at a Comet the other day.....you never know....

I'm all confused now.

Henk,

The seam to the right rear is pretty much OK as the real turrets molds had a seam in approximately the same place. You might want to take a look under the forward lower corner of the pistol port as it appers that there is a seam just there on the left hand side.

As for the colour (and acknowledging that colours on monitors may bear no resemblance to the model) I tend to agree that it's too green. The tonal value (light/dark) is relatively OK as a bright sunny day can make everything wash out. But too green it is. If you will not be mixing an SCC15 per the MAFVA site or prefer acrylics, I'd use Tamiy OD plus a little bit of medium green as a base colour and then lighten it up with yellow ochre/panzer yellow plus just a bit more light green to indicate how the SCC15 used to fade greener than US OD.


HTH

Paul

Thanks Paul, I will be using your tip tommorow. Tonight was not a good night for modeling, I had to get out and actualy drive rather than sit in the office...
And yes, I use Acrylics. Never liked Enamels, they dry to slow and the smell...

Cheers
Henk

I don't know if I will never build another Sherman again, or if I'm going to buy a few more next week in Telford.... The Firefly has now been altered once again, and is now nearly finished... .

Yesterday the dry transfers and tracks arrived in the post ( Thank you very much Joe (GreatBrit) ) and Archer kindly provide some reference pic's on their website. So I get to work, set up my modelbench, log on the net ( I should tell you about my job one night.. ) and check the reference pic's.... Oh bugger, here we go, one Firefly with NO added armour... which I not only added, but also repositioned...,after the first paint coat.. , Sandshhield strips, which I have now added after all, a toolbox on the glacis rather than the hullrear.... and most bother of all, one pic shows very clearly that the turret didn't have the pistol/shell ejection port.... . Now I can live with small inaccuracies, but this was taking the proverbial.. So of came the port, out came the filler, and in came the nice men in white coats... .
The colour is the fifth attempt, big green on the screen, but in the flesh I'm happy with it. Weathering (finally ) will perfect that anyway..

For those who are still reading, here's some progress pic's





I'm going to lay down now..

Henk

S now that you got the tank figured out.... when are you going to tackle the indi link tracks????

Hi Henk..... Nahh! I haven't got the heart to tell you ...Those guys in the white coats will be dragging you off kicking and screaming.....
Oh well I better tell you anyway....When the pistol port was removed from the turret the casting at the front right side of the turret was reenforced as seen on the later turrets...Not add on armor but cast in...but I won't tell anyone if you don't ...lol
Formations makes this turret or you can do it yourself for your next firefly ...I added this to an M4A3 from Tamiya...this is how it should look...


Rick

Hi Allan, I won't use the indy links, Joe kindly send me a Accurate Armour Resin Track set.

Rick.....Rick....It will be our little secret... .
Are you familiar with the Pink Panther movies? I'm developing a Commisioner Dreyfuss twitch... :-) :-).


Cheers
Henk