Gday folks
Finally gotten my Sherman back into gear... Been mothballed for a while whilst waiting wearily wondering when my update set would arrive...
I'm going to depict an M4 from the 70th Tank Battalion... They supported the 82d AB after the landings at Normandy, and then pushed through the bocage before the breakout at St. Lo for Operation Cobra...




This is a close up of the splithatch cupola, which needed some jazzing up as the Tamiya piece lacks a lot of detail... And frankly I don't wanna shell out the lolly for the more detailed Tiger or Resicast versions...
Pretty basic stuff, but as it will have a figure in the hatch it won't be seen under full scrutiny I have also added the lever on the padded hatch, and will show pics of later... The resin is Formations, and the brass is leftover Aber (too fiddly for Joe Average!)

Will try and produce some better close ups... The white on the turret is Mr Surfacer 500...
I have recently acquired the Bison decal set of the 70th Tank Battalion D-Day edition, and obviously not having used them yet, I can only vouch for how they look, which is bonzer! Will be my first tank that has some variety in markings, with large white edged red numbers, cartoon logo etc.
Thanks for having a peep
Cheers
Brad
:EDIT: The title has been changed (automatically?) and should read battalion, not brigade... ?????

Hi Brad,

Looking good, very famous Regiment, look forward to seeing more.

Question, do the metal barrels paint well? Never used them so far.

Cheers

Al

Nice work Bradley! You might want to consider removing the ant. pot on the glacis, its too big. Formations has them or you could slice one off an MP Models M-50 kit - or make it from Sculpty.

And you are correct its the 70th Tank Batt., not brigade.

Keep it up!

Chris

Gday Chris
Do you mean that the antenna pot has too much of a flare around the base? Should it be the style as per M4A2s with a semi-circular top (squared off on the glacis side) and steeper sides when meeting the glacis at the weld seam?

Bradley,
Not like the M4A2s, just smaller than the original. I don't have exact measurements, but it looks like its about a reduction of 1 mm all the way around. If you have the Squadron book onthe Sherman I think there's one picture of an M4 thats rebuilt (Applique, siren guard, etc...) that has the detail you need.

Sorry I can't provide pix...
Chris

Gday Al
Yep, there are no probs with the metal barrel. Of course there needs to be a primer/undercoat... I just use a grey primer out of a rattler, and everything adheres to it afterwards

Bradley, the actual glacis on the Tamiya M4 is based on a real M4A4. I don't know what Tamiya were thinking but they got the hoods and the Antenna Base wrong. There was a great series of posts on ML about this a year ago but I'm not sure the search function is working properly these days.
Drop me an email at
abowie - at - bigpond - dot - com and I'll send you some of those threads including sketches etc

Al Bowie

Bradley, I found the post re the pots:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/thread/1115633322/Sherman+glacis+antenna+pots
It has sketches which really show this up well.

I also found the one re the hoods:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/thread/1115992396/Beating+a+dead+horse%2C+but....

They are currently page 88 or so on missing Lynx Allied DG.

Very good info for Sherman lovers

Thanks Al, these will be a great help...
Nothing like more info on Shermans!
Cheers
Brad
P.S. I have the flat return rollers from the DML M4A1(76) could these be usable on the M4, having been refitted in England prior to the landings?

I'm lookin' forward to seein' some more progress on this build! I like the use of Mr. Surfacer 500 on the turret, lookin' good!

Brad the M4 should have horizontal return roller brackets. Tamiya took a big shotcut with the M4 and just added the late bogie. By that stage of the war the "Pillow Block" risewr would have been added to the roller bracket as per the DML and Academy bogies,. The upswept arm was designed to aviod the use of the riser by simply raising the roller by bending its support arm upwards.

AL

Hi again
Here are a couple more progress pics...


Added the periscope guards, latch, and some resin and PE doo dads, just to bring a bit more than my usual detail to the commanders' hatch




Same deal with the loaders' periscope...

More pics to come... I made the kit supplied one piece transmission cover into and earlier more rounded version with some sanding and filling... Made some clevices out of styrene.
Im sure by the end of this build I'm gonna be miffed at the amount of extras and effort involved at bringing this kit up to par... Haven't filled the sponsons yet... They are always a joy...
If you can see anything I've missed re the hatch that woul be easy enough to add, please, let me know!
Cheers
Brad