Hurricane update

Here are some pictures of Hurricane's turret. I filled the pistol port on the left side, thickened the cheek armor on the right side, drilled out the periscope. and added a weld bead to the bottom of the bustle.




The weld beads Tamiya used on the M4 chassis are all wrong. So I glued down some .001x.002 Evergreen strip plastic, then softened it up with liquid cement, and then sculpted the softened plastic with a sharpened eyeglass screw driver. It's hard to make out in the pictures, but turned out pretty well. I added other weld beads using stretched sprue around the smaller castings, and added various drainage holes that were on real Shermans.




I've also worked on the bogies a little. I carved out the the top roller, replaced the skid with the one in the Aber set, and added various holes, nuts and bolts where appropriate.



Lastly there is the lower chassis. I ended up sticking with the Tamiya part, the the Adalbertus one piece housing. I also used my Waldron punch and die set to punch various sized plastic disks to use for panels and bolts.

Still building braille scale

I haven't abandoned 1/72 armor by any means, or aircraft modelling for that matter either.  I'm still buying and building a little of everything, and sadly never really finishing much of anything.  My wife and I went camping a couple of times this summer, and that's where I've done most of my 1/72 armor.  I took several kits to work on during day light hours.

First up is Dragon's Firefly Vc.  I've always loved the Firefly with it's long barrel, and I really like this kit.  I've built it almost entirely out of the box, with the exception of adding 3 Tichy Train Shops bolts to each VVSS bogie.

Next up is Dragons M4A3 105mm.  Again I'm building this out of the box, just adding bolts to the bogies.

and speaking of after market items!

I've been a long time sufferer of AMS (Advanced Modelers Syndrome).  I just can't seem to build many kits out of the box, and since Hurricane is being built for AMPS competition, I've pretty much given myself [or my wallet] free reign.  I've made a few additional purchases besides the Adalbertus parts.

Aber's photoetch set for the Tamiya M4.  I'm going to try and use almost all of it.

Fighting 48th's Type 51 rubber block tracks, very nicely molded.

Hauler US tank tools.  Shave them off the kit only to glue them back on?

ArmorScale 75mm barrel

Archer stars and shipping stencils

Archer casting symbols - these are cool 1/35, 1/48/ and 1/72 symbols all on one sheet!

Is my shopping spree done? Of course not! I found a Tamiya M4A1, and went ahead and picked it up so I would have a solid drive sprocket. I'd kind of like to have some figures on the tank, I still need to either make or buy the wading trunks, and there's always more reference material!

Hurricane's transmission cover

I really liked Iron Divisions Sherman lower hull, it has a lot of detail that the Tamiya die cast part lacks.  However, I just couldn't get the Iron Division lower hull to mate with the Tamiya upper hull without some minor/major surgery.  So then my question was how to model the one piece transmission cover?  Tamiya includes one in their M4A1, the only trouble was I couldn't find one anywhere.  Perth Modeler has a good number of reviews of 48 scale armor and accessories, and I found a company called Adalbertus in Poland that makes a one piece cover for the Tamiya kit.  So I ordered the part, along with a Sherman stowage set they also make.

The Adalbertus transmission is meant to be a drop in replacement for the Tamiya Sherman.  It's cleanly  molded in grey resin, and includes a nice cast texture, factory casting marks, tow pintles, and the top bolt flange that wasn't on the Iron Division part.  Mine was a very nice casting, except right at the pour block, were the molding was less distinct.  However, I cut the part off with a razor saw, and after a little time with a sanding stick, the cover fit like it came with the kit.

and another sibling!

I noticed another shot of a 2nd AD contemporary of Hurricane on Missing-Lynx Allied forum.  The picture is too blurry to make out the unit, but it is reportedly from the attack on Carenten, between 13th and 21st June, 1944.  It's another good shot that will help when decaling Hurricane.

Hurricane's sibling!

I've hit my normal summer modelling slow down.  I haven't abandoned modelling completely, but have been slowly plugging away on a couple of Dragon 1/72 kits, and my build of Tamiya's 1/48 scale M4.  I've decided Hurricane will be my main AMPS '09 build, getting most of my extra attention.  I'll continue my normal 10 -15 kits at ones, but build the others mostly "out of the box."

I've got the two famous pictures of Hurricane, which are great, but they aren't the best resolution, and leave a lot for interpretation.  While poring over my Sherman references I found an interesting picture in Michael Green's "M4 Sherman at War."  There was a nice clear picture of an M4 taken from the left front corner.  The remark under the photo mentioned said that it was a "staged shot," but it remarkably resembled Hurricane!  

Hey, is that an H on the turret???...Hmmm...it's got a one piece transmission just like Hurricane...Hey those tracks are the same T51 rubber block Hurricane had...wait a second it's been water proofed for an amphibious assault.....look at those unit marking....2 delta 66 delta...Hurricane was 2nd Armored Division, 66th Armoured Regiment, wasn't it????.....What's that name on the side....Hawkeye!

While doing research for Huricane earlier this year I remember reading a comment on Missing-Lynx Allied forum that Hawkeye was a sister tank to Hurricane.  However, I've never seen a picture of it.  Now I've got this great shot of Hawkeye, and while it's not Hurricane it's reasonable to assume H Company would make their tanks the same and have similar stowage arrangements, etc.  This picture also has made me decide to do Huuricane in amphibious configuration.  Now I just need to build or buy some deep wadinf trunks! 

Also a little blog house keeping has been done.  A bunch of the braille scalers have gotten together and reserected Doug Chaltry's "On the Way" (including Doug).  In the mean time Doug has put together another great braille scale site dedicated to 1/72 scale Shermans.  It also looks like my wife took down her blog, so I've removed that link. She got quite the following on blogger, but got all blogged out with the pressure. She's now big into all things fiber (spinning it into yarn and has directed her web aspirations to something called Ravelry. So all the female followers I had Jo/Kiwijo had, will know where to find her!