M51 Israeli Sherman

[Chris S]

Here's a little armour build I've recently started on .

Its Dragon's Isherman ...or Israeli Sherman . Its actually one of their older kits with some new bling thrown in the box ,and the age of the kit is showing a bit

 

I started off by making up all six HVSS suspension units ,these are quite nicely detailed and are fully workable ....120 parts here already !

 

 

 

Then got started on the hull ,and this is were the fun starts ....Not !! Just look at the fit of that Tranny housing ...and this is after a lot of sanding and jiggling about !!!

 

 

The rear plate faired a bit better and went into place with no issues .

 

 

But moving to the upper hull and more problems The rear deck just behind the turret ring had a bad bow or sag in it and the upper hull had a warp from front to back too ,set on a flat surface it rocked about corner to corner . So I used some warm water to soften the hull ,then straightened it out ,I fitted the rear deck panel and the back panel to keep it all in shape ,I also added some stiffeners inside the rear deck to make sure the bow didnt come back ...so far its looking good . you might just see the stress marks in the plastic from having to bend it to shape .

 

 

 

Adry fit with the upper and lower along with the tranny housing before fixing it in place.

 

 

 

So I moved on ,filled the edges around the tranny housing ,fitted the bolt down strip and smothed that in as its part of the housing ,then re-textured a quick blast of primer to check .I then fitted the hull MG and brought the upper and lower hull together .

 

 

 

The welds didnt look to hot on the hull ,looking like ...errm ..lumps ..lol so I removed them and made some new welds from Milliput . ( the keen eyed among you will notice I fitted the Idler carrier back to front !! D'uh ....its been fixed now )

 

 

I then started adding parts to the front of the hull while getting the turret together ...which was another nightmare ! the join between the upper and lower part needing some sanding ,filling ,sanding ,then re-textured ,I also removed the ugly looking weld on the Bustle and have made a new Double weld ,still have to add the weld on the bottom of the bustle .

 

 

 

 

And thats where Im at now ,hopefully all the hard work is behind me and I can enjoy the rest of the build

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Chris.

[Steve Scanlon]

Glad to see you getting on with this one Chris, been tempted by this many times but heard many horror stories about it, my favourite version of the Sherman though so I will probably succumb in the end, will be watching this,

Steve.

[Paulster]

Have both, Tamiya and Dragon version of this kit (imagine that Mikey!). The first thing noticed was the part count of the HVSS assemblies. 8 for Tamiya and 24(?) for Dragon. Will be watching closely for as Steve mentioned, also my favorite M4.

[Mikester]

Have both, Tamiya and Dragon version of this kit (imagine that Mikey!). The first thing noticed was the part count of the HVSS assemblies. 8 for Tamiya and 24(?) for Dragon. Will be watching closely for as Steve mentioned, also my favorite M4.

 

I'm shocked!

[Chris S]

Thanks guys , I've been chipping a way at this one over the past few days , should have some pics up tomorrow ...Steve / Paul , Honestly ...not a kit I could recommend ! ,Yes it has some very  nice detail ,and the HVSS are actually workable too But the fit issues are a real nightmare ,even the Etch fenders supplied in the kit dont fit properly ,I had to use the Eduard set . I will finish it tho ...I wont be beat !  lol

 

Chris.

[Steve Scanlon]

Hey Chris,

glad you are going to keep at it, really interested in seeing this one done, maybe I will end up doing the Tamiya one but then again the perverse side of me is still tempted!!

Steve.

[Chris S]

Thanks Steve ,

If I was you ...I'd go for the Tamiya kit !!  lol  ...seriously ! unless you have this one in the stash that is ?

 

Sorry about the lack of updates on this one ,but I am slowly making some headway ...I think lol

Started on some of the etchwork , First up was the guards . I decided to use the kit supplied parts seeing as they where there ...BIG mistake ! the kit etch parts simply didnt fit ,the side guards were not to bad ,but the front corners were absolute rubbish !!! there's just no way they were going to fit .So I turned to the Eduard parts ,but to fit them I had to cut the corners of the sponsons ...no biggy tho , after doing that the Eduard parts fitted a treat and look better too .

 

 

After that I started on the side bins ,again using the Eduard parts instead of the kits plastic parts which dont have much detail on them .

It took me some time getting one side done tho ...lol ,but they look much better ,well worth the effort I think ,they are also mounted on the correct brackets rather than stuck to the side like the plastic ones are .

 

 

 

And thats as far as I've got ! ..hope to have more time to spend on it this week

 

Thanks for looking

 

Chris.

[Chris S]

Thanks Martin

[Steve Scanlon]

Chris how are things progressing? not heard for a while, also I have gone and bought myself the Academy M51, couldn't resist as it was very cheap but obviously I am blaming you, LOL

Steve.

[Jamme]

Hi Chris.

Completely missed this WIP, sorry !

Really nice job you're doing here.

Congrats,

Jamme