Jakko’s 1:35 Sherman Crab Mk. I — seeing double?

[Jakko]

I added the missing casting marks to the hull front:



The green paint is Tamiya bright green I accidentally ordered instead of clear green — when mail-ordering in France, “clair” does not mean “clear” in English Anyway, it’s there because the decals don’t stick well to the bare plastic.

On to the rear end:



I could finally make the adapter on the air intake, on which the deep-wading shaft sat, after a fellow modeller kindly supplied me with scans of Second World War official photos of the real thing:



It’s a very simple thing, really, but very difficult to work out its shape from any other photos I’ve ever seen, because they’re never from up high or clear enough.

And the station-keeping devices on the sides of the engine deck, in their folded-up position:



These are entirely scratchbuilt. Resicast provides etched hinges, resin discs and plastic rod to make them, but the hinges fold into parts far too wide for the rod, the discs are the wrong style for the tsnk I’m building, and I felt the rod to be too thin in appearance So I just made everything myself, other than the discs, which my father made for me from brass rod on his lathe — all I had to do is hammer them flat and drill out the centre hole again, because they’re so thin they formed themselves into domes when almost done.

To give an idea of the size of these bits, the lower rods are 20 mm long, the upper ones 30-something, and both are 1 mm diameter. The discs are 5.5 mm diameter, the rivets are 0.6 and the bolt heads 0.7. Altogether, each of the two station-keeping devices is 14 parts. I’m glad I’m done with them

As far as I can tell, all I still need to build is the rack (well, the half-rack) on the left-hand side of the hull and the wooden block in the chain on the left rear bogie, and then I can start painting. Though I suspect I may discover a few other things that still need doing …

 

[Jakko]

One more thing done:



I also started on the tracks for the derelict tank the other day. Taking it slow, because this is the usual dull work:



These are Panda Plastics T-48 worn tracks, which assemble in much the same way as the AFV Club tracks I tried a year and a half ago but are much better. There is hardly any clean-up needed and the vast majority of the end connectors actually stay on the track pins. You also get plenty of links: 30 sprues of each kind, making six links per pair of sprues, or 180 links when you only need 166 for a Sherman V (assuming they’re not much too short, of course). The length in the photo is 36 links, by the way.

Of course, I also have to build a second set for the monument tank, and that requires more care because several stretches need to be fitted the wrong way round, for accuracy.

 

[rtfoe]

These tracks do look good Jakko. Other makers should follow the same placement of ejector positions on the sprue.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Another interesting update. Painstaking work. Those station-keeping devices are nice especially given the size Tracks look very good - slow work as you say. This project is unique.
Jim

 

[Jakko]

These tracks do look good Jakko. Other makers should follow the same placement of ejector positions on the sprue.

Agreed, though they get in the way a bit for removing the end connectors, they are nowhere near as annoying as having to file off or, worse, fill eject pin marks on the links themselves (again, see my review of AFV Club’s equivalent tracks).

Another interesting update. Painstaking work. Those station-keeping devices are nice especially given the size Tracks look very good - slow work as you say. This project is unique.

Thanks, and I suspect it is unique, yes — I kind of doubt anyone else has ever tried to build an exact (well, nearly so) replica of this particular tank

 

[Road of Bones]

Lovely scratch building Jakko- I do enjoy seeing home-made parts on a kit

 

[Jakko]

I enjoy making them, though I can tell you already that my next model will be straight from the box

 

[Jakko]

First, I (more or less) completed the casting marks on the monument tank:



You may notice I didn’t add any between the hatches, even though I painted the area green in preparation. This is mostly because even though the Archer set includes a lot of letters, numbers and foundry marks, I don’t think it has enough for me to actually add all the stuff needed here — or to put it another way, it doesn’t include enough of the separate letters and numbers I’ll just leave this area bare, then. By the way, I still had to put extra paint over the top because even with the gloss paint underneath, some of the numbers came loose.

After much looking at the photograph at the start of this thread, I decided the thing on the third bogie is probably a block of wood held on by a cable or rope of some kind, but I can’t for the life of me understand why it’s there. I had already reached the conclusion that I had fixed the chain on the bogie wrong: I had both ends in the same shackle, when the inboard end actually went behind the block and must have been shackled to the axle — though I can’t see how in the photo. In the end, I decided to cut the inboard chain, glue in a block of wood and fix the chain to the axle with a shackle. Much sooner said than I actually did it, but I have now:



Like I said, I cut the link that went through the shackle, and then I worked the upper end of the chain loose as well — luckily the glue and the thin wire I had used there broke easily enough. Then I made the wood from a bit of the tail of a fireworks rocket (tip: pick these up off the street soon after any time fireworks are allowed to be set off where you live ), superglued it to the plastic and made the cable/rope/whatever from more copper wire, simply twisted on the back to keep it in place, because it’ll be out of sight anyway. I then found another shackle in my spares box and made a pin for it from plastic rod, then fixed the chain to it with one new link (actually, one I had made with the rest of the chain but took off when it was too long) and glued everything in place.

* phew *

With that done, all I had to do was add more bits to the stationkeeping arms, because I had totally forgotten about their forward supports. Making these was easy enough from a little plastic card, but they proved very awkward to glue into place. But with that done, I can finally call the build on these models finished! Well, the build part anyway, but I did finish before the group build end date, didn’t I? Oh, wait, I also haven’t finished the tracks yet … damn

Without further ado, then, photos of the two models as I have them now:

 

[Jakko]

Great, I went to put primer onto the models this afternoon and found that both my cans (light grey and white) were almost empty … All I managed to do with the grey was the derelict tank’s turret while the white was just enough for the rest of it, except the backs of the bogies.



I then went online to order some, and soon received an e-mail that it was out of stock but expected at the end of the week So these models are on hold until I get that in. In the meantime, I’ll make a start on what I said above, a model straight from the box!

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Great to see the project at such an advanced stage - build complete. Well done sorting the block of wood on the bogie.
Jim

 

[Road of Bones]

Great job so far Jakko. Took me a while to figure out that the block was chained in there like that to prevent the rearmost wheel from pivoting upwards and making the track too slack. A cunning solution if you don’t have a spare wheel in the field, though the wood had to pretty sturdy, I expect!

 

[Jakko]

Great to see the project at such an advanced stage - build complete. Well done sorting the block of wood on the bogie.

Thanks, though the wood block was the easy bit — the chain is far more fiddly

Took me a while to figure out that the block was chained in there like that to prevent the rearmost wheel from pivoting upwards and making the track too slack. A cunning solution if you don’t have a spare wheel in the field, though the wood had to pretty sturdy, I expect!

On the one hand, I think you may be onto something there, but on the other, I’m not sure this would have been its purpose … The block doesn’t appear to reach down far enough to get all the way to the axle in the one photo I have of it, and I’m not sure it would actually do what you suggest in a working bogie. So, I’ve gotten out my TM 9-752 (for the 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M10) and looked at page 308, which has an exploded view of a bogie. There are two heavy springs (heavy enough that twelve of them can carry a 32-tonne tank) pushing down on the arm, via the spring seat trunnion and bogie lever. If the rear wheel goes up, it also pushes up on the bogie lever, which pivots on the spring seat trunnion and therefore the other end would push the bogie arms on the front of the bogie down, rather than up. (Now I’ve typed this, I have to ask: do you have the Italeri version of the bogies in mind, where the front and rear arm form a single part? They’re two separate arms on the real thing.)

The chain has two effects: it prevents the spring from pushing the bogie arms down into the track’s guide teeth, and it will also prevent the rear wheel pushing those same bogie arms down because it stops the bogie lever as well, just like a wheel there would. I can’t see what a block of would would accomplish here unless the springs themselves are broken or entirely gone, but that is rather unlikely.

 

[Graeme C.]

Nice to see these models getting close to being painted, your scratch building & patience are impressive. The block of wood & chain on the bogie were probably to stop the spring falling out or the suspension arms dragging on the track so the tank could be moved. Just a theory, I could easily be wrong!

 

[Jakko]

Nice to see these models getting close to being painted, your scratch building & patience are impressive.

Thanks, though I wouldn’t say I’ve got patience so much as perseverance — at least until something more interesting comes along

The block of wood & chain on the bogie were probably to stop the spring falling out or the suspension arms dragging on the track so the tank could be moved. Just a theory, I could easily be wrong!

The chain is definitely there to pull up the bogie arms, because otherwise they would foul the guide horns on the track. I still can’t see what the block of wood (if that is what it actually is) would accomplish, though. About the only thing I can think of is to prevent the ends of the chain from ending up on the same side of the axle, which would drop one side down. This sounds kind of unlikely, though, given that the springs would likely force the chain to both ends of the axle anyway, assuming they’re attached not too closely together.

 

[Jakko]

Now I received a new can of primer the other day, I could get on with painting. First, yesterday I finished priming the models:



Today, I put a colour coat on both:



The derelict tank is in MIG 112, SCC 15 (British 1944-45 Olive Drab), while for the monument tank I began with MIG 087 RAL 6014 Gelboliv, but I soon decided that was far too brown. I had chosen it because I figured the monument had been painted with Dutch military green, which is RAL 6014, but it didn’t look right when I had finished spraying the turret. I therefore went back to my paint drawer and looked for something better; I settled on Gunze-Sangyo H64 RLM71 Dark Green, which is a similar colour to the MIG version of RAL 6014 but less brown and more green in hue.

The painting took about an hour and a half, far more than I had thought. That was mostly because spraying the Crab is very intricate, with all that junk on the front and the sides that you have to get paint into. Twelve separate Sherman bogies also don’t make for quick painting, for the same reason.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
A great update the builds are looking top notch.

 

[Graeme C.]

Both are looking good in green Jakko.

 

[Jakko]

Thanks both. Slightly less green now:



I sprayed Tamiya XF-65 field grey over the monument tank to highly panels etc., and then decided it might work well on the derelict one too to tone down the green a bit and make it appear more faded (I felt it was far too green, really). It seems to ave worked, but when I was done there I noticed there was a lack of contrast on the monument tank, so I added a bit of white into what was left in my airbrush and went over that one again, though a bit less than on the first try.

 

[Jakko]

I next gave both models an overall wash of enamel paints:



The monument tank got some Humbrol HU-1 Medium Green 42 (yes, a tin old enough that it has an HU code on it) to add some shading, the derelict one got a wash of White Ensign ARB 19, SCC 15 olive drab. This was not so much for shading, but to tone down both the basic green (which I think is too stark) and the greyness of the field grey overspray.

Next: some drybrushing to bring out detail.

 

[Jakko]

I added another wash to the derelict tank, now Humbrol HP1 U.S. Marine Corps Green enamel (another ancient tin, that looks like it’s hardly ever been used — I got it from new old stock years ago), both to add some shadows and to further fade the paint:



I then drybrushed both of the models all over, the monument with Humbrol 31 Slate Grey enamel and the derelict tank with Revell 36145 Light Olive:



And I painted the tyres on the roadwheels of the monument tank, but not the other one yet:



They first got a coat of dark grey (Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black) and then a wash of Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black, followed by a drybrush of a medium grey to bring out the details and edges.