It Begins! My M4A1 based Sherman Firefly Build.

[X82d Pathfinder]

John:
Feel free to use any idea or ask questions. This is actually my first 1/16 build as far as scratch building. There is so much information here. Many of the builds here incorporate ideas of others. We tend to just try and improve on them when necessary. I have a load of new pictures, I just need to get them up. I finally came up with a good mix for SCC15 paint. I like Humbrol and I have started playing with a few AV acrylics, however they are far too soft for something that is handled constantly. I am not a huge Tamiya fan either, however their paint is durable and will probably get the nod on this build.

-Dan

[DRAGONWAGON]

Dan,

You can always consider a sprayed on coat of Gunze H304, a brilliant shade of OD!! If you want a rock-hard coat for protection, just get your hands on a can of "Purity Seal" from Games Workshop, mist over in two thin coats, and this will leave an almost indestructable gloss coat, afterwards a thin coaut of matt varnish and your work is safely sealed!!

My two cents, John McSherman.

[X82d Pathfinder]

John- Future floor wax is rock hard too, however last time I used it I had to use 1000 grit so the flat clear would stick.. Ha That's a thought. Thank you for the suggestion.

[X82d Pathfinder]

Testing Turret LH side

[X82d Pathfinder]

Well, I have taken a long hiatus and chronological order of completion isn't possible, however I will try to group pictures and post. If there are any questions, feel free to ask!

After much study on transmission housings, I elected to run the one piece cast unit. It seems the spare track links also were mounted in several ways, however I chose to mount them in the verticle style instead of the horizontal format.
I started with Nick's resin casting and modified it with the Shumo cable retainer, fabricated track holder and closed the holes that allowed access for the motor and gear mounting.
I also added a .020 X .156 strip plastic and quite a few 090 screws, which I drilled, then threaded each hole.
The last photo is the transmission cover in Tamiya primer which shows the final detail and welds to good advantage.

I used many 090 bolts to make the bottom look more like the prototype. Bovington was kind enough to supply pictures and well as Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

Bolt Detail fron transmission cover.jpg (42.31 KiB) Viewed 4901 times

[X82d Pathfinder]

Another issue I noted is the resin fenders would need to come off to service the tracks, drives and to allow removal of the transmission cover. Being I added the braces against the transmission cover, I came up with the changes as following on Nick Aguilar's resin parts. They were lacking some details, so I added an angled piece of strip streen and three 090 bolts and nuts to make them look more prototypical. I also elected to use 080 bolts to mount them. I counter sunk two on each fender, then used filler to hide them. They're like studs. The Tamiya aluminum tub is drilled so the "studs" go though the end of the tub and are nutted from the bottom. The fit is very precise. Being I decided to also add the sand skirt mounts I needed to make sure they butted up perfectly with those on the hull.

[X82d Pathfinder]

Well, being the cheap bastard I can be, I elected to remove the transmission side covers from the hull I bought from the ever kind Forgebear, AKA Dave. If you need anything, I highly recommended him. Great service, attitude and willingness to help. I removed the covers from the Mato hull via the old silk button thread method, then taped a piece of 220 grit sand paper to a clip board and sanded them flat using the figure eight method so the material was removed evenly and the covers wound up flat.
I used a small chisel to cut off the nipple looking bolt heads that Mato molded on the and replaced them with about 60 pieces of .80 plastic hex rod to appear like bolt heads.

I counter sunk two holes in the cover and used .90 screws to mount them after tapping the Tamiya suppled hull extention/side transmission covers. This is the raw item and final product in primer.
Granted, it was a pain, but it saved about 50.00.

After fitting the covers, something dawned on me. If I elected to run the metal tracks the drive sprocket require more support. I elected to use the bearings mounted in the aluminum ring. I didn't want to cut up the plastic transmission side plates, so I decided to see if the bearings and their carrier could be mounted on the inside. I ran into a clearance issue with the gear boxes, however I was able to fix the issue by removing the pin that supports the gear on the lower front and pushing it back through the opposite side of the gear box so it winds up in the middle. The E-clip side gives just enough clearance to mount the bearings on the inside! Sass, thanks for the spares! ( If you have questions about how this is done, feel free to ask me.)

[Red Devils]

Great job Jumper. Love the detail.

[X82d Pathfinder]

Red Devils-
Thank you for the compliment. I am quite in the arrears posting the build. I will be caught up over the next few days. I was a Red Devil and a white Devil. Any foreign wings? I earned my Brit wings. I HATE balloons! AATW-FILO!

[X82d Pathfinder]

Finding accurate pictures of the bottom of the hull is difficult, so detailing it becomes an issue. I found scale drawings of the M4 from Aberdeen, so this is my rendering.
I extensively used sheet plastic, plastic triangle stock and 24 090 bolts, which I drilled and tapped the holes for each, cutting the protruding portion flush with nippers from the inside of the hull. I also used HO railroad truck bearing covers to simulate the drain plugs that were for the transmission and engine directly below them that were visible at the access covers. The others were made with a circle punch and plastic hex rod. I was going to use the hex rod like I did the side transmission covers on the engine access cover, but my concern was the bolt heads catching things on the ground and them being pulled off.