… and another two and a half years on
As I’ve recently been building the other Sherman V that landed at Westkapelle (the one this model started out to be, before I changed it to the other one), I decided to finish this one at the same time. Should give a nice “before” and “after” thing that way.
In the time since the last post I made in this thread, I realised I had made a number of errors and omissions. Things like the wrong flaps on the periscopes (they should be pointed instead of flat), not having fitted the base for the air inlet duct, discovering that the thing on the smoke launcher bracket is an aerial base, etc.
Removing the periscope flaps was not as hard as I imagined. Making the pointed ones proved difficult from plastic strip that I tried filing into the necessary shape. In the end I asked a friend of mine to make them on his 3D printer, and then all I had to do was stick them on.
I also decided to remove the oversize aerial base I had put on the glacis plate and instead fit one left over from another Asuka Sherman, that I didn’t have three years ago. This was more involved than expected, because I ended up having to file the whole top of the rounded projection on the glacis plate flat, then build up its rim again from a piece of plastic tube and putty.
The rear mudguards I had made from aluminium were nothing like the real thing, so when someone recently gave me a few plastic ones, I replaced them with those. The dented one was made by carefully heating it with a cigarette lighter and deforming it. It needed some scraping and putty to appear properly sheet steel after that, though.
Now, why did this stall for so long? Mainly because I couldn’t find a good way to apply the name to the side of the tank, if I’m honest. A solution presented itself unexpectedly earlier this year, though:
These are two the same sets of Star
Decals markings for vehicles on Walcheren that include this particular tank,
Wolf of Badenoch. I only need one, of course, and had purchased the set at the top some years ago for this reason (among others). However, I discovered it didn’t include the name, which is the hardest bit to get right
When, some months ago, I ordered another set of
decals from Star, for French Shermans for an entirely different project, I was pleasantly surprised that they had included the second set shown above for free — thank you, Mr. Lexell
I suppose this was because I had supplied him with additional information on these tanks, resulting in this difference between the two sets:
An extra sheet with
Wolf of Badenoch and arm of service markings, giving me the
decals I need to actually put a name on the tank
Oh, and here’s a shot of the two tanks together: