Firefly conversion kit.

[c.rainford73]

I too have one and the hull is longer than my standard Sherman upper hulls. It's a beauty

[Kyle_T]

He may have lengthened the hull. I have one I purchased about a month ago. The hull is noticeably longer than the Taigen M4A3. Placing them side by side, with the differential cover as the common point, it's about 1cm longer. Thats using my uncalibrated Mk 1 Eyeball.

I got the measuring tape out last night and bogie to bogie there is 90mm, for both sets I'd be looking at adding another 20mm totally hull, I haven't got the tools or the skills for that unless someone here is close to Essex that would be able to help?

Otherwise it'll be on the back burner for quite some time.

[43rdRecceReg]

I too have one and the hull is longer than my standard Sherman upper hulls. It's a beauty

Here's the Taigen M4A3 (crated edition...sorry about the dust) compared with Dean's kit Firefly hull- well, the one I bought from the initial release, at least. If anything, the M4A3 is slightly longer Perhaps it's an optical illusion.

Sherman Firefly comparison Pic A

Sherman Firefly hull comparison pic B

With the gearbox moulding attached, the Firefly would look longer than it is in the pic; but the point is that the upper deck is the same length, or shorter, than the Taigen (Which has been sitting on a shelf, so I apologise for the dust on it )
If you want to extend the Sherman hull to approximate the Vc M4A4 version, by all means go ahead; but it will mean really accurate sawing and bonding, as well as extra track links. If it's not going on a Sherman catwalk, personally, I'd just use the standard hull. If you're feeling bold, you could bond the front end of a Mato plastic M4A1 onto the front of a standard plastic HL M4A3 to create the 'composite 1c version. That would look cool; but it also requires some accurate sawing.
Incidentally, I didn't know that Dean had altered the upper hull. I've not seen a mention of that before..

[Kyle_T]

That's the kind of thing I was hoping for, just something that would fit and only be a couple of screws to do it, I never showed off my models before now as I do it just for the fun of sticking things together.

I will send an email through the website and see what comes back, it would be nice to have something that looked right but until I regain the confidence to start chopping I may start with looking at the BB system, it leaves a lot to be desired compared to the range and accuracy of the tiger I had, lucky if these ones go 6ft.

[43rdRecceReg]

Do have a look at this exemplary thread (great model and great pics). It's the Firefly 1c with composite upper hull and standard lower hull. This is what can be done; but aiming for less than this superb example can still
produce a nice looking authentic Firefly, without all the nail biting and hair pulling
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=23128&p=211628&hil ... te#p211628