Unconverting a Sherman V from the Rye Field Models Sherman VC

[Jakko]

The wading trunks are supplied as etched parts in the Resicast set: a rectangular piece with fold lines for the body, with a grating for underneath and a rectangle for the top, to form the lip there. I decided to solder them together, despite not being very skilled in this:



They still need a little filing, as there are some thicker bits of solder in places, but all in all, I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.

Here they are on the model, still loose:

 

[Jakko]

Some stuff added to the hull front:



The spare tracks are all Asuka, the machine gun in its canvas cover is Resicast, but from another set than the one all the other bits came from (you can tell by the colour of the resin). This is purely because I broke the part that came with that set when cleaning it up, as the pour plug is attached to the thin end of the cover, but luckily I had some spares from previous sets.

Above the tracks is a white bit of plastic, two strips made into an L-profile for the step on the glacis plate. The kit has an etched bit, which I had great difficulty bending it to shape, because it’s about 2 mm wide and needs to be bent along its length. Once I had finally succeeded, it pinged out of my tweezers and disappeared

The headlight guards come with the kit, but I added the tube on the side from some 1 mm copper pipe. This is for holding the plug that seals the headlight socket when the light isn’t mounted, and since it isn’t in photos of the real tank, I put some plastic rod into the holes and therefore needed to have empty tubes on the headlight guards too. Quick tip, though: anneal the light guards (front and rear) before bending them with the jig that RFM gives you in the box. If you don’t, they’re hard to get into the correct shape — but I only thought of this when I had done three of the four

That fourth is the one on the left front, which has been squashed flat somehow. This is apparent in a post-war photo, but film of the tank during the war also shows it already. No idea what caused it, but I had to replicate it I first glued the guard to the model in its normal shape, and once the glue had had a few hours to dry, I carefully pressed it down onto the glacis plate, aiming for the shape the real thing seems to have had. That didn’t quite succeed, but it’s close enough.

I also added the tail lights and tools on the rear deck, with thin plastic card for straps:



On the left-hand side, I removed the locating ridges and tie-downs for the cleaning rods of the 17-pounder gun, as these obviously weren’t on regular Shermans. I used the same very thin plastic card to block the air intakes on the hull corners, instead of fitting the etched grilles that the kit provides. This because the tank was waterproofed, which it wouldn’t be with those vents open — trying to wade to engine deck depth would have flooded the whole interior through them, eventually.

And then:



… after taking the previous photo, while I moved the hull back to my workbench, I dropped it The deep-wading chute broke off the model. Luckily it wasn’t worse than this, but unluckily, part of the chute snapped off as you can see. I haven’t found it yet on the floor, but of course, I did find the step from the glacis plate …

 

[Jakko]

It’s been fixed by now, I glued it back on and made a replacement plate from some plastic card.

 

[Isitme]

Jakko,
This is coming along nicely.
I had the same problem with the gun mantlet and in the end added the Asuka to the Dragon turret.
Keep going, interesting build.
Mike.

 

[Mini Me]

I'm with Mike on this Jakko.....looking the "Dog's". Rick H.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko, nice work the soldering looks good and is the only way to go with large boxes of PE. Any build up of solder can be filled off or even scraped with a blade.

 

[Jakko]

This is coming along nicely.

Thanks, though progress has been slightly slow of late Now I’ve got a set of C235 ammo boxes and T49 track, though, I can make a start on finishing the model.

I had the same problem with the gun mantlet and in the end added the Asuka to the Dragon turret.

Different manufacturers appear to have different ideas about the exact shape and size … At least the Asuka part should have fit in the hole in the Dragon turret, I assume?

Maybe, to see which brand got it right, I should go and see if I can still measure up a real one before it gets put back together

I'm with Mike on this Jakko.....looking the "Dog's". Rick H.

Thanks

nice work the soldering looks good and is the only way to go with large boxes of PE.

Thanks. The parts bend well enough that you could glue them, but I can just imagine them splitting apart at some point, so I felt soldering was really the only way to go. Also, it’s a bit of practice for soldering together the stowage rack that I still need to build for the hull front.

Any build up of solder can be filled off or even scraped with a blade.

I’ve filed it down a bit, but because the trunks have ended up slightly concave, that didn’t get everything off that needs to go. I’ll try scraping it, thanks for the tip.

 

[Jakko]

The stowage bin for the hull rear:



The bin itself is from the kit, including the etched snaps; the kit also provides two etched padlocks, but I decided to leave them off. The box on top is from PanzerArt, a C235 ammo box (but they call it B235 for some reason) that was fixed to the bin lid on the real tank. The little bracket on the side is aluminium, from a printing plate, and is there because this bin will go on the tank like this:



It was normally carried on the rear plate, with those brackets sliding over the little square posts I made from plastic strip here. RFM has moulded the posts and the brackets onto the bin, so I had to cut them off and replace them for the bin to go on the engine deck, as per pictures of the real tank during the landing, because the wading trunk prevents it being on the rear plate. Once those had been removed, the crew did move the bin to its upright position on the hull rear, other photos show, but resting on the wading chute (the part fixed to the hull, that broke off on my model earlier) because that still prevents it being fitted on the posts.

I also got my set of T49 links in, so I could add one to the hull front, together with some more spare tracks and that odd little mat visible in some photos of the real tank. Also, I put a piece of brass rod on the hull front, on which a spare wheel could be mounted (but wasn’t on this tank):

 

[JR]

Just had an interesting read through, you certainly know loads about these and it shows.

 

[Jakko]

Thanks And yeah, I know rather more about this kind of thing than may be considered absolutely necessary … It gets especially bad when I want to build a model of a real vehicle, like here

 

[Jakko]

Yesterday evening, I made the basic shape for the stowage rack on the hull front. The real thing was made from angle iron and strip. I decided to use brass L-profile and some bits of strip cut from a photo-etched fret, which took probably about an hour in all to cut and solder together. It didn’t go great, mainly due to my fairly low soldering skills. Still, some perseverance later, I had a rack that stayed together and didn’t have too many unsightly blobs of solder on it.

However, I then noticed one side was obviously higher than the other: 10 mm vs. 11 mm. The reason is probably because I find brass difficult to cut to length accurately, coupled with slightly larger distance between the parts on one side than the other, due to the difficulties I had with the soldering. Anyway, I decided this afternoon to give it a second attempt, in much more easily worked plastic. Compare the two, I know which one I think came out better:



The reason I initially decided on brass is because the brass L-profile I had was a bit finer and sharper than the plastic, but there’s not much point in that if the assembled rack looks bad overall.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
One thing you can try when constructing this sort of thing. Is to "Tin" this means applying a thin solder coat to both parts where the joint will be made so all you have to do is hold the joint together apply the heat to remelt the solder at the joint then the solder will flow together. Hope I have made myself clear.

 

[Jakko]

Oh, I did that — I first put flux on the areas that were to be soldered, then tinned them and finally actually soldered by putting them together and pressing the iron to the joint so the solder on the two parts flowed together. The chief problem I had was that most of this stuff was just too small and light to properly hold in position. Using something like a knife or a sculpting tool, I could press one part down on the tile I used as a work surface, but not the other, so at least one part was bound to move when I tried applying heat. I had to resort to various improvised means of holding the bits together and still had to have at least two, and usually more, goes at most joints after the first one or two.

It would have been easier if I had been able to make the whole surround out of a single piece of brass with notches filed for bending: then all I would have had to do, is apply solder to the joints to strengthen them, rather than having to actually join them. Unfortunately, only one of those bends actually worked, the rest broke as a result of trying to file a notch — and even if they hadn’t chances are good that I would still have had sides of unequal length. Yes, metalworking is another a skill I don’t particularly possess Plastic is just so much easier to work with that I can’t really be bothered to put much effort into learning these skills.

Talking of which, I cut a piece of thin plastic card and added a lip from strip to it, to make the panel that sat inside the frame on the real tank:



For some reason it’s not just a flat bit but had that edge on it, and holes along the other edge that I still need to drill.

 

[Jakko]

Going fast for a bit … I drilled the holes after looking at a photo of the real tank where they were to go, then glued the rack to the model:



I also made two brass wire brackets along the mudguards, whose function or origin I can’t quite determine either, but they seem to be there so that the rack can be chained to it and not fall forward. I still need to add the chain, obviously.

The jerrycans are already glued in place, because I’m using them to support the rack They are from the old Italeri set, and already painted because I found them like that in my big(gish) box of jerrycans.

 

[Tim Marlow]

This is looking very good now Jakko. Pity about the brass frame because it does look a little more refined. What was your issue with cutting the brass section? A tip for cleaning out solder from an internal fold is to use a jewellers or electricians screwdriver With the end sharpened to ninety degrees. It will clean it out a treat. Just resharpen the end with an oil stone occasionally to keep it cutting well.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
As John says you do know a lot and progress is good. I find that for brass things like the rack as heat is applied to one joint the one nearby comes apart even using heat sinks. I'm glad the damage was repairable.
Jim

 

[Jakko]

This is looking very good now Jakko.

Thanks.

What was your issue with cutting the brass section?

Mainly the lack of precision possible with a hacksaw, or a triangular cross-section file for that matter. I find it almost impossible to saw where I want to, because the saw tends to jump sideways at random before actually making a cut. Plastic is of course far easier to saw and with a much thinner blade, so this problem hardly ever crops up with that for me.

A tip for cleaning out solder from an internal fold is to use a jewellers or electricians screwdriver With the end sharpened to ninety degrees.

Thanks, I didn’t know that. I struggled to get excess solder out after some attempts — I couldn’t do it with a knife blade, and melting it also failed because capillary action (I suppose) just kept it in the channel formed by the two sides of the profile.

I find that for brass things like the rack as heat is applied to one joint the one nearby comes apart even using heat sinks.

That is the main thing I had been afraid of, too Luckily it didn’t, probably partly because of how I had been using items I had at hand to hold down the parts, which also made them act like heat sinks.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Jakko
To cut thin section brass accurately the distance between the teeth on the saw needs to be less than the gauge of the material being cut. It will simply grab or bind if the teeth are too big. I would recommend investing in an adjustable frame jewellers piercing saw with a selection of blades down to 6/0 (76 teeth per inch). They are very cheap and make cutting brass a far more pleasurable experience. Brass and nickel silver are actually very soft, so a modellers razor saw should also cut them without issue.

A decent tool supplier like Proops would be a good starting point.

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Holding parts in alignment during soldering is very easy with aluminium hair grips. They can also be used to hold wads of wet tissue in place to act as heat sinks during soldering.

It’s worth getting your small metalwork and soldering “chops” up to speed. They are very useful tools to have in your armoury of techniques.

 

[Jakko]

To cut thin section brass accurately the distance between the teeth on the saw needs to be less than the gauge of the material being cut.

I didn’t know that, but it makes sense, and explains well why I had such trouble cutting the L-profile here.

Brass and nickel silver are actually very soft, so a modellers razor saw should also cut them without issue.

I don’t think I’d want to risk it All the brass rod etc. I’ve ever used hasn’t felt very soft when I sawed or filed it.

aluminium hair grips.

Not something I’ve ever had a need to own

They can also be used to hold wads of wet tissue in place to act as heat sinks during soldering.

Luckily, that wasn’t an issue here despite my initial worries that it would be.

It’s worth getting your small metalwork and soldering “chops” up to speed. They are very useful tools to have in your armoury of techniques.

Oh, I agree. But at the same time, I need them rarely enough that I don’t get to actually improve my skill much. Yes, I know, I could practice on random offcuts — except that that’s not how I learn easily I have a difficult time making myself practice “dry” without an actual thing it’s needed for, so I guess I’ll get more practice in next time I have something that would be best built in brass The tips you gave will definitely come in handy then, though.

 

[Jakko]

On with the turret. On the right front, there was a piece of four links of T49 track, which appears to have hung loose as its position changes in different pictures of the real tank. This is shortly after the war, when most of the spare track links were still on the tank:



So, I built another four links from the Bronco set and glued them to the tank, with a piece of thin copper wire for the cable (or whatever it is) that seems to keep them on the real tank:



The left and rear also received additional bits:



The main things here are the tie-downs on the left side and the aerial bases on the rear. I made the tie-downs from some 0.5 mm punched discs and stretched sprue, because as with the MiniArt Medium Tank M3, I couldn’t get along with the etched parts provided by the kit. I didn’t fit the lower ones, though, because they will be covered by a large piece of stowage hung from these tie-downs.

Here’s a closer look at the aerial bases:



The left and middle ones came with the kit, though I replaced the bolt heads on the left one. The one on the right is scratchbuilt, just a bit of 2 mm rod that I filed into a point and then glued to a 4 mm diameter disc with bolt heads. The platform is cut from a bit of aluminium sheet, a 4 mm square with a thin extension on one side to raise the lot above the turret roof, as is (just) visible in the photo of the real tank above.