I bought an RFM 1/35th M4A3 76W HVSS Sherman tank! Now add an RFM Firefly Vc! (closing in on done with the Vc)

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Mid Week UPDATE!!!

 

Andy's Ships fast. The Aber 17 Pounder Barrel came. Its really nice little bit of metal. AND its a almost a direct drop in. The opening on the mantlet, and gun shield just needed a little sanding to fit together.  The Kit barrel and brake didn't seem bad, I just have a thing for aluminum barrels and it was 10 bucks. 

Kit barrel next to new one. 

the little bits. 

Got it into the cradle, dropped it, it broke the glue joint on the muzzle brake, but didn't damage anything.  On try two, I get things together tweaked. Took at all apart, cleaned all the old glue off, started over and got it right on the third try. 

Test fit.  The gun test fit... I messed up the machine gun mount, so used a M1919, I had in the junk pile, cut the barrel off and then glued the barrel into the gun shield. Everything fits very nice without glue. 

Main radio box is glued, the add-on storage box is just hanging. 

The upper hull is not glued on yet, I'm not sure If I'm going to do that before paint. I still have a few detail bits to put on here and there. I need to get all the tools cleaned up so I can spray them hull color when I paint the tank. I'm going to do the tracks, and maybe start painting over the coming weekend. Decided to go with Tamiya Flat Green, I like the color, want this tank to stand out from the E8 when both are done. 

 

I found a cat whisker that fell out of maybe the laziest cat in the world, and will use that as an antenna. I'm pretty happy how this is coming out. I'm still really enjoying myself, and feel pretty good about starting back up on the E8.  I know I can paint these tanks up pretty nice... Airplanes are so much more daunting!  

 

There is one detail I am not looking foreword too, there are 9 footman loops, each about the size of a nice metal sliver, that have to go on the turret, in nice neat rows... 

 

 

Thanks for looking at my junk! 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Progress has been made, small parts have been sacrificed to the void, the Gods must be pleased... Anyway, the Hull and turret are almost done. All I have to do today is, glue the upper hull to the lower hull. Ad the PE for the fender mounting strips and the footman loops. The PE loops did not work out, so I cut up a .030 brass rod to replace them.  I'll start cutting track off sprue this afternoon. I should have the time to put them together Monday.

 

 Quick shot of the RC Sherman, I got this "fuel stains" paint in a little bottle with a brush from Mig, called a brusher. Looks pretty good. I can't wait for the 1/16th M4A3e8 from Tacom comes out!

 

Ok back to 1/35

I decided to crank out all the little bits of PE left, to get the hull ready to glue.  I only lost one little PE bit, and it is gone, no sign of it. It didn't even go flying, one second it was on my finger, and it dropped off and went into another dimension. I also lost a little part for the loaders hatch stop, but I can make something for that out of a bit of black rubber.  You can see my cat whisker antenna too. I found, not extracted that whisker. I think it looks ok. 

The majestic beast who donated it.  Yes I know he is to fat. That cat is very lazy, he looks at you like your stupid for trying to get him to play lazer. No toy, or the other cat trying to get him to play works. The only time he will run is to A: run to food. B: Run from the above RC tank C: Chase the outdoor cat if it sneaks in. They are not pals.  The other cat is a fairly large cat himself. 

Did well with this box. 

The turret box is the one I lost the hasp for. After paint no one will notice it.

I used white glue to hold the Commanders hatch halves in place. If I get a commander figure at some point I can pop it open. I decided to put a periscope guard on the Gunners sight/periscope most early American Shermans did not have a guard for this scope, and they came up with a big armored cover for it later.  When I looked at firefly pictures, a few had no guard, but most had one, but it was not exactly like the others and was almost always messed up. The PE one works well for that.  

 

looking the real life photos over, it made be feell better about PE being a little bent off or off true, since these tanks get beat up and a lot brackets and bendable things, get bent. One had a periscope guard nearly crushed down all the way. It was on the co-drivers hatch, so not one that saw much use. 

 

 

 

When I took this pic, I noticed one of the PE parts had fallen off, I have it and will put it back on.  You can see in this photo the co-drivers side off the hull droops down below the upper hull. I did not get the sponson floor on properly, and its takes a lot of pressure to push it together.  I took a bunch of Tamiya liquid, soaked the glue joint, the put a paint bottle under the corner, and more in the hull, and let it dry like that. I didn't take pictures sadly. But it fixed it, the hull fits very nice now and should be easy to glue. I wouldn't normally even bother, but to put the PE fender mounting strips on, the hull needs to be glued. 

 

Nice front Shot

back shot

 

The printed rear light guard has been very anoying, it keeps popping off... it's off again...

 

I'll post again soon. I should be primering this thing this afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Big update, though I may out my green base down tonight.  I'm going to add just a touch of black to my green base, then use the regular flat green for all later coats. 

 

I got all everything that needed to be glued down on the hull and turret. The little brass fender strips were a pain until I figured out to tape them in place... The footman loops from the PE fret didn't work out, so I made my own from the smallest brass rod I had. 

 

Got everything taped down to the cardboard strip ready to prime!

Primer going on. 

 

Primer mostly done.

It looks so much better in primer!   Funny story. It's windy, but not that windy, but windy enough to blow the turret off the spray primer cap I was using to cradle it. It fell 4 feet to concrete and did not break! 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Small update. Got my base coat of green on. 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Got the dark base done. Got the gun shield glued on. Got the gun mount glued it. Got the rear storage box glued on. Also started on the tracks. I really wish I had the nice nippers, since the ones I have leave a little bump on each track pad, so two for each link will have to be cleaned a little. Very easy to do but there are a lot of the little buggers. 

 

I should have taken more pics, I'll do a few shots of the link jig all together.  These are all the parts. You put the flat link in, put the holding bracket in place, put the end links in  using the snap in holders, the add a touch of glue, and the pad with the tread, and then press it togethers. Then leave the damn thing alone, until its dry!  I know because I got curious how you would but the sprue off the end links you can see at the top of the screen, and in doing so, knocked the a tread pad off. Now that I have done it, it seems like it will be easy, but time consuming. The end product will be nice. 

 

All the big stuff glued in place. So now, just some final light coats, painting the tools, road wheels and then a clear coat and the decals.  Well, and finishing the tracks. 

 

I'm probably going to start back up on the E8 while I work on the tracks for this, I want each block to have time to dry before I pull it out of the jig, so it will be slow. The rest of the tank is basically done. I'm not going to ad the M2 machine gun, the Brits did not use them on these tanks. They thought the commander had better things to do than mess with the .50. 

 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Final weekend update. I got all the dark base one, 2 Tamiya XF-5 with a little black mixed in for the base. The regular XF-5 for the final coats. I think I went to heavy on the regular lighter XF-5 or not dark enough on the base. Either way, I think it looks ok, not great. I got the road wheels mostly done, I just have to do the edges with a finer brush. I got gunmetal on the sprockets and idlers and will do some light silver airbrushing on them. Then either future, I found a full, old bottle, and it seems fine or a clear, I always remeber future working better than a clear gloss but was a pain to find. 

 

Future, or Krylon gloss clear?   

 

Then the decals, and weather can start. I was going to do the tools tonight but I ran out of time. I'm surprised I got as much done as I did, my wife came down with severe Shingles last week. It's medieval what is oozing out of her face and scalp... Who knew how terrible that could be... 

 

Getting the last of the green on.  This was 2 and a half Tamiya Minis of XF-5. 

 

doing the home made "Nato" Black on the wheels, and the worn paint on the sprockets and idlers. 

Another angle. 

 

I can still see yellow in these pictures, that is very hard to see in person =(

 

I'm running out of stuff to do other than the tracks.  

 

This is shaping up to be the nicest model I've ever built I think. 

 

[jeroen_R90S]

Looking sharp -my last tank build was an ancient Italeri Sherman with rubber band tracks. Things sure changed a lot since then!

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Thanks!

 

They really have changed a lot, yet, still some things are the same. You can still buy, almost every kit Tamiya made in the 80s to this day! 

 

The level of detail that comes out of the box on the high end kits is almost over the top, this kit has photoetch in places you can almost not see it.  It's pretty cool really. I glad I decided to get back into the hobby. The Tamiya 1/32 Corsair is calling to me...

Edited July 14, 2022 by JeepsGunsTanks

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Small update, I have been painting the little tools and junk, and I can put it all on, none of the decals are anywhere near them.  

 

Since I used way to much wood colored paint for this bits, I did the tools on the RC Sherman too. 

 

I'll install the tools tomorrow, and hit it with a gloss clear and do the decals Friday, and hit it with the flat clear, then I can get to the weathering.  I probably sit down for a few hours with an audio book and do the tracks on Saturday.

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Weekend update 1: The Carpet Monster won!

 

so, I got the tools all painted, and on, got the clears on, got to do the decals, and the Maddox handle fell off and went missing. I have a spare, I think, in the E8 box, when I get to them on that kit, I'll paint it up and add it back on this one. It's not super noticeable, so no biggie, but its anoying. 

 

Here it is after a nice coating of clear Krylon Gloss.

Decals going on. These decals went on very easy, were nice and tough, and I only had one minor problem with a the tip of one star. 

 

 

Now with the Mr Super Clear Mat spray. 

 

I think it's looking pretty good. I have to admit, I like the mat look over true flat, I think it gives the model a little more life in small scale. In real life, flat vehicles look flat to me, but in plastic the flat doesn't look exactly right. 

 

These decals are for the 1st Squadron, 2nd Armored Regiment, Polish 1st Armored Division spring of 44. 

 

So now, I need to do the tow cable, put the clear lens on the spotlight, and get the tracks done. Plus weathering and finishing the paint jop. 

 

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

OK, new update. TRACKS DONE!  Man, I learned a lot. 

 

The tracks for these tanks are really nice, and the bracket/jig setup they give you is almost fool proof once you get the hang of it. You put the upper pads on a holder, clamp them down with a little bar setup. Put the end connector tree in place, and lock it in with another bracket. Once both sets are on, the bar holding the pads in place can come off, and you just put some glue on the middle of the upper pad, and but the lower pad on, and press it in place. You do six pads at a time, once all the pads are glued you can  use the bar that held the pads down in the first step to press the whole set together. 

 

I knew I was going to mess this up a bunch, and I did, so instead of taking Chuck up on his very generous offer, I decided to just order a set. I may use the rest to make add off armor for the front of the hull. I had no idea how much I was going to need, and no idea when I was going to need it so I ordered it. They are not very expensive. If anyone makes this kit, I too have spares I can put in the mail. The key, the part you can not mess up, is the end link connectors, and they are fragile. My cat walked on several and once an end link is broken off, trying to get them to work is no fun. 

 

You can see the pads and brackets in this image, the fragile bits are up on the right. They give you not a single extra one. Pads you have a few spares, but not the end links. 

 

 

Here you can see one side of the end links in place. 

 

Here you can see it all together. With one of the end link trees cut the other in place. You need to cut these before you glue the upper pads in place. It helps get pressure on the pas and not the links. You can slip a fine sprue cutter in there and nip them right off. 

Here you can see sections ready to be linked together. You just take two sections, press them into the bracket you use to make the sections, two of the base brackets end on end work perfectly to link the longer sections, the end link teeth lock into the base brackets and line everything up. 

Here you can see me using the base bracket to repair a section that came apart when I dropped it on the floor. 

The important things to know about doing this. I used Tamiya fine cement, and it works better than CA. Your doing six pads at a time. the glue on the outer two pads on each end is more important than the center two. You can, and should use way more cement than you think. I was very conservative at first and had to redo several sections because the fell apart. I also learned to not mess with the sections for at least a 10 or 15 minutes, but I ended up leaving the sections alone overnight before linking the bigger sections. Another thing you need to do, when you cut the tree off the end links, it leaves a little bit that needs to be trimmed right at the point of the link, if you do not trim this, it's a bigger pain than normal to get the guide horns to fit back into the base bracket. Getting these horns lined up to get the tracks linked right was the biggest challenge.  Oh, also, once the six block sections were together and glued, and dried overnight, I did a test on them to see if the links were glued good. While in the bracket bundle fixing a loose link is easy, out, not so much. So I tapped each section on the tweezers fairly aggressively before popping them apart. 

 

That all said, dropping them on concrete from 4 feet up is not good for them. 

 

Everything all fixed.  Ready for paint. 

 

Here you can see the track all linked together and painted.  I pained them flat, and linked them and put them on. Next time I would put them on and put the last link in place on each using the track bracket. I had to do this anyway, since one popped apart as I tried to get it in place.  You can see the base bracket in place on the track where I joined the run. 

Here one is on the tank.

 

Both in place 

 

I would have no issues doing these tracks again. Now that I got one of the nice sprue cutters, the cheap Master Tools one, because the Meng ones were out of stock everywhere, there would be way less time spent cleaning each pad, doing them again would be very easy. The system is easy to deal with once you get to know it. 

 

I also started work up on the Easy 8. 

The GAA motor is a little kit all by itself. 

 

I need to get a few tools back in place, they fell off while I got the tracks on, and weather it. But its 90% done now, and I'm really pleased with the tank. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by JeepsGunsTanks

[ChuckD]

Hey, congrats on completing the tracks!  I echo all your sentiments regarding their fragility.  They look great when done though and really aren't hard to assemble once you get the gist of the process.  No worse than any other indi-link track.  

 

Anyway, looking forward to seeing the finished product!

[JeepsGunsTanks]

My cat, decided to do cat things, and he knocked the Firefly off the table onto the floor. All in all the damage is light, the fall knocked off a light guard, the antenna, and all the tools. I found all the parts, but one little bracket, NO ONE WILL EVEN NOTICE, so I just have to glue a few things back on and touch it up. 

 

@ChuckD I agree about the tracks, the finished product, with the working suspension is really a step up from the older kits. They even survived the fall no worse for it! 

Edited September 3, 2022 by JeepsGunsTanks