Sherman M4(105)

[X82d Pathfinder]

John:
Copy cat! Ha! I have a HUGE stock of Evergreen and Plastistuct shapes thanks to my M4A1 build. I was lucky and found the lock plates in the correct shape looking through model railroad detail items when I did my hatches.I made the rest of mine with files and sand paper however. It's actually been fun and a challenging at the same time. If your math skills are weak you may struggle with scaling down componets from drawings and original examples . I did come up with something interesting to make the periscope look more realistic. I found .110 thick clear sheet plastic after an exhaustive search. I filed the angle on the back side and then I polished them until they were transparent again, then I use a small piece of chrome bare metal foil for the refective side, then I mask off the clear portion of the vision block. I spray them and then when you unmask the front side you can see the shiny mirror like you can a real vision block. I also didn't bother going to the trouble to make it scale length. This portion only shows at the top where it's exposed and the bottom of the Aguilar supplied vision block body. Very good! My prototype actually has the entire stock number on it, so I duplicated it. What a pain!

-Dan

[DRAGONWAGON]

When finishing the building process on the Sherman's turret, it struck me there was no spotlight in the kit. The handle was present but no spotlight.....
I contacted Nick Aguilar, but no luck. So I started thinking how to make, and what to use for a spotlight. I ended up with a small cylindrical container for bloodsamples, it was plastic, so easy to cut, and it had more or less the right diameter. After an hour or so, it resulted in this:





I planned to place it in the "transport modus" so I didn't have to make the lens, and I didn't have to bother about the thickness of the used material.
When placed on the turret, I was happy with the result....Mind the spotlight is not glued at this pic, therefore it is not entirely straight....



Thanks for looking, John.

[X82d Pathfinder]

John:
Brilliant! I was looking for something to replicate the light, yet I found nothing that was the right size for the back. I have no idea were to get one of those locally. That looks fantastic!

-Dan

[DRAGONWAGON]

Dan:

Problem solved....PM me your addres and I'll send you a couple....

Grtz, John.

[X82d Pathfinder]

Thanks, John. I will now.

[X82d Pathfinder]

John:
Here is a good shot for reference.

-Dan

[DRAGONWAGON]

Thanks for the pic Dan.....

I'm sure yours will turn out far better than mine, but I'm satisfied with the result so far. Might get some extra fine-tuning....

Your tubes will be sent today (2012-08-04). John.

[DRAGONWAGON]

Didn't do too much last days, here's a couple of overview shots of the turret:









John.

[X82d Pathfinder]

John:

This is coming along fantastically! The little details make the blank canvas of that antiquated Tamiya 105 turret look so much better. Have you decided if you're going to use an off the shelf olive drab, or are you going to mix it?

-Dan

[DRAGONWAGON]

Dan,

I always mix my OD, starting with Gunze H304 Olive Drab FS34087 and then light it up with light sand or Deck tan.....gives you that bleeched effect I like a lot......

You'll see, I start with the tub real soon.....John.