1944 M4A3 105mm

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Alpha,
*chuckles* I don't know about a brothel but it will be nice to have shovels, .50cals, spare tracks, an entire set of Mato bogies + spare road wheels and these are just the few things that come to mind out of the pile I stored last night. ;o) Have a great day, I am looking forward to pictures of your new progress on the Saunders Sherman. Your excellent mantlet has only whetted my appetite for metal on scale armor.
warm regards,
Painless

[PainlessWolf]

45th Day: I tested the bow .30 cal this evening to see what kind of light I was getting out of the LED when the MG fired and the light had to pass up that long Tamiya barrel without the optic fiber installed. I was impressed by the quantity and brightness but if you looked at it from too far of an angle the flash was definitely reduced. I ordered the optic fiber and it should be here in a few days. The fiber for the two Tamiya Shermans and the Pershing and the KV series is the same so if that information is of any use to anyone, there it is. ;o) Next, I had noticed while installing the FoV Exhaust Deflector that my bedroll rack on the rear deck was hiked up on one side. Fortunately, the infamous Glue Monkey hadn't been at it so a drop of Debonder was enough to make it release without breaking. I cleaned up the left side mount and reglued it properly and that was that. Lastly, I addressed the kink in the tubing for the smoker. I noticed that HL has taken to running a bit of wire down one piece of the tubing, presumably so that the smoker oil can run along the wire and have an easier time of getting into the smoker chamber. Of course, this wire was in the tube with the kink and in the course of repairing it, the wire was snipped. This was of no concern since I had already decided to open up one of the plastic caps on top of the smoker and refill it that way since the engine grills on my Sherman's rear deck can be opened. Pictures:

[scalawag]

Hi Painless,

Great build, the attention to detail is amazing

Those Tamiya .50 cals are great and damn you I may have to get a couple now

On that note I saw you were asking for .50 cal ammo in Dgsselkirks resin casting thread, and wondered if you had seen these:

http://www.axels-modellbau-shop.de/kata ... :6526.html

Steve at Welsh dragon also stocks them but is out of stock right now it would seem. They also do 7.92mm rounds for ze germans (guess these would pass as .30 cal too).

I have bought both sizes and they are great, I used a thin strip if adhesive tape to make up belts from them. A great little detail part

Paul

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Scalawag,
I had seen those but had not made the leap to use them in a can with the lid hinged in that excellent Tamiya .50 cal. Now the wheels are turning. Thank you, Sir for the ideas and the compliments. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[scalawag]

Hi Painless,

Here are some (poor) pics of some of mine. Sorry they are not that clear, I am still working out the best way to take closeups.

This is a H/L Sherman with the stock .50Cal. and ammo box which has been chopped to create a space for the rounds to sit.



And this is a Schumo MG34 and mount with the the 7.92mm rounds and a gurtsack from Jagdpanzer. I had to chop the top off of the gurtsack , and then create a hinge from lead foil to that it hangs. I then had to drill out the white metal gurtsack so the the rounds went inside. Lots of fun and lots of swearing



Thought you might be interested.

Paul

[PainlessWolf]

Scalawag,
I am very interested! That is some creative and inspiring work there, Sir. ;o) Beautiful and realistic results that you have achieved. My hat is off to you!
regards,
Painless

P.S. Some meager past attempts I have made to paint molded plastic ammo. Pictures:

[scalawag]

Nicely done Painless.

I really do like these individual rounds. I don't think you ever get that sense of linked rounds from moulded items, they always look too even.

I cut a very thin strip of adhesive tape, layout the rounds the way that I want on this, and then put another strip of adhesive tape over the laid out rounds on top of the first strip of tape, sandwiching the rounds. This then gives you a flexible but fairly fragile belt which can be placed to the gun and ammo can, and fiddled into position as you want. Once it looks right a spot of superglue between each round and the belt will set it into position. It is little fiddly, but I can see you are used to that from the work you have done already.

This was useful as a way of identifying .50Cal round types for painting the tips of the rounds.



I believe it was usual practice during WWII for every 5th round to be a tracer as per this picture, and as you can see the belt links fit round the shoulder of the round and not the widest part.



All adds to the look of thing

[PainlessWolf]

Scalawag,
That is very useful information. Thank you for the pics as well since they show to great extent how much better the individual linked ammo looks. I agree, going forward, I will only use the separate rounds and link them in a fashion like you have described. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[ALPHA]

Hey Painless... how about this idea for fabricating some ammo for your 50 cal.... get brass or copper stock.. chuck it in a hand drill use a mill file to detail it....the belts out of sports wrapping tape... the cloth type....I don't recall where I saw it before... but I do recall at one time the machine gun belts were cloth but more prevalent on the 30s ..anyway it's just a suggestion...

ALPHA

[scalawag]

Yep cloth belts were around too, usually for the .30Cal. Nowhere near as common as the metal links, and I suspect by '44 they were really very rare indeed. More common in the USMC early campaigns I believe. A bit of a hang over from WWI when nearly all MGs used a cloth belt.