I won this kit for coming second, in the MOM for september last year. What a prize!! Anyways .. having admired the great work recently by Mr. Bill Plunk, and his Blog approaches (and also as payback to a site that has served me well), Ive decided to do the same. Warning ... Im nowhere near as fast as Bill .. and have other things on the go ... but I´ll keep adding to this thread, as I go along.
Hopefully anybody who has good tips or advice, will chip in .. and I´ll try to answer any questions as well .... Im no Sherman expert, so this will be built mostly OOB with the help of Terry Ashley´s review on PMMS .

Step one has you assembling all the boogies, drive wheels and Idlers.

The drive wheels .. 2 choices are offered .. the "fancy" or the solid plate type, which is correct for the Tarawa version.


The idlers ... with a back insert


The finished boogie ... there are bolts on the V sprue for the track guides but not mentioned on the instructions.


Each wheel on the boogie, again has a back insert, but they are slightly smaller in diameter and result in a visible gap, but this will not really be seen on the finished model.


I filled these in roughly with Mr.Surfacer 500, just in case

To take care of the gap between the separate extensions for the final drive covers and the transmission cover, I cemented both sides and pushed them together, as best I could. Not perfect but .. close enough for me ... some 3D weathering will take care of anything that can be seen.





Here, I decided to leave the kit instructions and join the top and bottom hull first, so any major joining work could be taken care off, without details getting in the way.
The bolted bar that sites between top hull and transmission cover, was fixed to the top hull.


This meant a pretty neat joint here ... some Mr.Surfacer will take care of the very little gaps .. its mostly shadow thats seen here.


This now meant that there is a slight gap at the back.


But this was very easy to take care of by squeezing 0.5mm plastic strip in and cutting it back when the cement had dried. I used a little humbrol putty to tidy up the joint seems. The remaining triangle-shaped hole, is where the idler mounts will be fixed.


All was left was to cut off a nib as called out on step 6

The fixed scopes in front of the driver and machine gunner, will be modelled closed, so there was no need to insert them before joining top and bottom hull.
Thanks to Messers. Roy Chow and Bob Kerr for that information
Its back now to step 2 again .. more images to follow later!

I'll be watching this one closely Frank, have the same kit in the stash and will be keeping notes for when it's turn comes at the bench. You're off to a good start, look forward to your progress.

Hi Frank,

Nice one it will be another useful reference like Bill's blog.

Cheers

Al

Frank,

This kit is in my stash, so I'll be watching your progress.

Thanks!

moving right along frank and looking good, i dont have this yet but i love these SBS builds so i will definatly be following closely.

Great work on your sherman so far. On mine I had a huge gap between the transmission cover and the top hull for some reason but yours looks ok.

Tarawa on the web is a great site about the battle for Tarawa Atoll. Go to weapons and equipment and click on armor to gets some pics and text on the first use of the sherman in the pacific. There are some variations in the shermans, like Charlie had a jerry can rack on the back of the tank.
Charlie

Thanks guys for your kind comments. I´ll keep plugging away and taking pictures ... useful for notes as they happen, and also images of the details, for anybody considering this kit.


I had read about this happening on a few other builds, thats why I took extra care to get this fitting properly. I dry fitted several times so I knew what to expect. Then I cemented both the extensions and the transmission cover (TC) and used a little force toget them tight.
It appears the extensions dont fit the TC properly and does need some coaxing ... it was better to have the gap at the back, as its easier fixed and not as noticeable as the front.
Thanks for the link, although I found this a while back when surfing around to find some info on this kit, and also inspiration for a small base!

Anybody know what issue of Military Modelling has Steve Zaloga´s, version with the rack at the back?

Thanks for the on going build.

The Zaloga Version is in MM 15 Dec 2006 Issue. 7 pages with large photos , detailed build text including some very specific, if minor, Tarawa Marine enhancements.

Well the day had to come .... Id been putting it off for ages .... and its been bugging me for some time ... I had to try soldering! I used the plastic spare-track hangers on my panther recently, as the glued metal ones fell apart ... and now some pieces on the front mud-guards of the sherman needed fixing.
Id recieved some great tips and advice from a Swedish modeller -- Pål Björkman that helped greatly ... and I had all the necessary items .. but all I needed was the ***** to do it!
This is the result for the 2 front mud guards ....





And the 2 piece sight vane(?) for the turret




Unbelievable strength. I filed everythng smooth afterwards, and the joints didnt budge! They may be a bit rough, but hopefully that will improve with practise.
I have to fix the final etch parts on the lower hull and then its on to the turret. Images will follow tomorrow or Tuesday!

Rather than copy the entire method for soldering that I used here, it may be better to check out the link, where it came from. Easy explanation to follow, and this worked for me!
Soldering Basics
By John Robinson

Frank,

It's good to hear i'm not the only one fearful of taking a plunge into soldering. Will have to check out the link on the methods you posted.

I didn´t have much time this week to do much, but I got all the hull steps complete now. Nothing much to note ... it went pretty well.







The axle on the idler wheels is not centered, so this means that they can be placed so that they will take up any slack on the tracks, when fixed in place. (9 o´clock position on the right side, and 3 o´clock on the left side).

I had a stroke of luck during these stages. I managed to get the Military Modelling magazine in a local shop (Thanks Richard) and according to S. Zaloga, the Tarawa shermans did not have the headlights fitted. I had decided to keep mines seperate to ease painting, but now I can skip this alltogether. I´ll punch 2 discs to act as plugs,and add pe chains to attach the plugs.

Another nice touch I saw recently, was Dinesh Ned´s excellent Pacific sherman. He used some thin plastic for straps on the pioneer tools. The image below is Dinesh´s copyright. I´ll be stealing this idea, but will use lead foil instead of plastic.



I have assembled the tow rope but Dragons metal rope is very springy. Should have heated it up before glueing the plastic ends. I want to also attempt some very fine welds around the bush guards, using milliput. As well as looking more realistic, it will give them some extra attachment strength!

This is the first time I have ever attempted anything from the Pacific theater, so my knowledge of this, is at best, poor.
Ive been looking around for a suitable book on the subject and found this cheap on ebay.UK. Quite an interesting book, with good background. Lots of memoirs from actual marines who took part and pretty descriptive accounts of unfolding events. Im hoping to find some inspiration for a small base, so there lots of small bits of info, that I could use.

Next step is the turret. Again I choose to join the two halves, before adding details, so that any gaps could be eliminated. There is quite a significant gap, so I stretched some sprue, and cemented it in place much like adding a weld seam. When dry, I removed the "weld" with a rounded blade and sanded it flat. Then more cement (humbrol polly) was stippled over the whole area, to re-create the cast texture.









The first details have been added to the turret ... straight forward so far ...

Making good progress on this one Frank, I like the approach with the turret seam, will have to remember that one.

Good work Frank and great idea to blog it. I got to the stage where I had to start adding the PE (My bugbear) and stopped to work on something else but seeing yours makes me want to get on. Any thoughts about a crew?

Hey Frank this is a great SBS, and your research has already paid off!
Going to model the nails or cages to repel attacks from foot soldiers?
Would double or triple the workload me reckons
Cheers
Brad

Thanks again guys for your kind words. Appreciated.


Definately no tank crew .. this will be closed up. I have the gen2 marines (and hornet heads), and will use at least one of them. Reading the book pictured above, has given me some ideas.
The marines were landed in "waves" with amtracs and then higgens boats, and the shermans were landed first on the fifth wave. Most were lost immediately, but not by enemy fire but by falling into underwater crators made by the previous navy bombing and drowned or into buried fuel dumps or other dug-in holes and couldn´t drive out. On the "Tarawa on the web" site there is a photo of an abandoned Sherman that fell into a fuel dump and couldn´t pull itself out again. Im thinking along those lines, with at least one soldier taking cover behind the sherman. Zaloga´s article has some great images of these shermans several days after the fighting and they are practically unharmed.
No nails or cages either .... none of the images I have of tarawa shermans had this feature ... this came later on the bigger Islands, I think.


I like this method because its fast. When a gap, hole, seam, etc is filled ... it can cleaned and sanded within an hour.
Cheers.

Well I finally got the build finished. Throughout the build, there´s nothing that will stumble any average modeller. The only exception point would be the front mud guards ... no plastic alternative is given, and glueing them is not an option in my opinion. I supposethey could be left off!
Some images of the finished model. The bottom and lower hull was textured with Mr. surfacer 500 and granite paint to give the forthcoming weathering some texture.
As usual comments and critic are welcome.

Some close up images. Milliput was used for the welds ... next time Im going to try another medium ... found this a little awkward to get decent. The straps were made with the foil from a wine bottle, and Aber buckles for the turret straps. The shovel is from the sparebox, with the holding details shaved off.

Nice build so far frank.Just a thought,about the bogie to hull attachment.
Did you add large bolts around the bogie unit,where it would be bolted to the hull?Its a detail I add if a kit doesn't have them.I did it espescially on the M32 kit bashes I did a while back.

Hi Carl. Thanks very much for the comments.
There is a seperate plate that sits between the boogies and the hull with this deatil on them. Its not clear from the images above, but it is there. I´ll take a close up of this area later when I start the painting process. Cheers.