Desert Rat Achilles

[BUCKY]

Knocking it outta the park! Fabulous details!

[Beekster]

Yeah, this one's been dormant for a while. I have gloss or flat coats curing on various parts for my construction equipment projects and decided to pick this one up again. Not much is ready for prime time, but I'm doing some painting of the interior. I've also ripped off the remains of the deep wading stack to rebuild it. I wasn't happy with how it was looking, and the .015" sheet I used might have been good for scale but was too flimsy. I'm using .020" this time around and will shoot pictures once I have it well along. Five thousandths might not sound like much, but it's a full 33% thicker than the original. And then there's this:

I don't have a good photo of this, but the modified stowage diagram will suffice. Circled is the fire extinguisher panel on the top deck. It's the standard Sherman part with two T-shaped pull handles and on the M10s it was placed in a box to protect it from bullet splash. This is one of those areas where Tamiya cut some corners on the detail:


On the left is the kit part, taken from one of my other M10s in the stash. It's a solid lump that suggests the feature, but to say it's inadequate is a gross understatement. On the right is a corrected one, which still needs a little finessing while peering through my Optivisor magnifying visor. I ground out the lump in the kit part and cleaned up the splash rail surround. Then I swiped the housing from a Asuka kit, drilled out the holes, and made T-handles from .015" rod stock. I'll either order a few extra C sprues from Asuka or make a mold if I ever find an RTV that I'm happy with again.

[JCON]

Welcome back Desert Rat!!!

[Beekster]

Now, this is a much better wading stack base than the first one. Thicker material makes it stiff enough to survive the file & sanding work required to smooth everything out.





Are the holes in the flanges accurately placed? I have no idea. There were several designs for deep-wading gear, and this looks as plausible as any. You can see that there's a gap where the exhaust trunk meets the upper hull. That will get filled once the interior is painted and the top hull can go on for good.

This is the fire extinguisher panel in place on the top deck.



The interior seen through the turret ring is a bit deceptive. The painting isn't nearly as complete as it seems; there's plenty of it left to do yet. I do a bit at a time and set the model aside to dry. The No.19 radio set is taking quite a while to do, but it will be worth it in the end. Might have a picture of that by the end of the weekend. There's also a spare track holder with three spare T54E1 shoes on the transmission cover, but that isn't especially worthy of a photo just yet. There's another one to do yet, with extra duckbill end connectors stuck in it.

[JCON]

Looking good!!!

[Beekster]

Several things of note here. As with the wading trunk, I will diverge from the picture in other aspects as well. Specifically, stowage. Here you see the end connectors in the lower spare track rack. The outer ones are Dragon parts, the middle one is Panda Plastics with the duckbill glued on. To get them to fit, I had to shave down the inside surface of the guide horns but that isn't noticeable when they are in place. I've stuck an ammo box in above it just to see how it looks; it or something similar will likely go in that spot.

Also mocked up is the hull side antenna mount. That's the factory part, and if the photo showed an intact mount with aerial this is what it should look like.



And there's a short run of track fitted around the drive sprocket. The track blocks and inside end connectors are Panda Plastics, and the outer ones are a mix of Dragon and Panda. Dragon has these end connectors with molded-on duckbills in some of their Sherman kits. Panda's duckbills are separate and must be glued on to the end connector, which is tedious, fiddly, and fragile. These end connectors were made in several different variations, often by local suppliers in liberated France & Belgium. It wasn't unusual to see a couple of different typed on one tank. The photo I'm referencing clearly shows different spares on the transmission cover. This track run is a test done this morning. The Dragon parts require only one step beyond simple parts cleanup, and that is using a .028" drill bit to make the holes deeper to fit over the Panda track pins. I'll need to make a hobby shop run to get a couple of extra bits.

And then there's this little beastie:


The REsicast No. 19 set is ready for a flat coat. Yeah, under high magnification the paint looks sketchy. But tucked into the co-driver's compartment and viewed through the hatch it will look perfectly busy.

[JCON]

Nice details!!!

[Beekster]

Got some shine on!




Glosscote went on this morning to seal the paint; when it's cured for several days I will proceed with dark brown pin washes to bring out the shadows and give the interior some more depth.

Meanwhile, some additional comments about the Tamiya M10s. The M10C Achilles kit represents a final-production example with no standoff armor bosses on the sides of the hull or turret. Nothing wrong with that, but the duckbill turret could also be found on hulls with the bosses. Earlier duckbill turrets also had the armor bosses on the side, like the original turret design which used a succession of counterweights: Nothing, then grousers, then slabs of lead, and finally the wedge pieces as used in Tamiya's M10 kit. When I build another model with the parts remaining from this kitbash, it will use the late hull without armor bosses which comes in the Achilles kit. I haven't decided about restoring them on the turret sides; if I do I have plenty of AFV Club parts to do that with. For any M10 or M10C, a duckbill turret with armor bosses on a hull with armor bosses is also a perfectly normal configuration. Swapping parts from the two different kits is the easiest way to get that; only four armor bosses need to be restored on the turret sides.

That late hull from the M10 Achilles kit has another minor irritation. Tamiya's rendition of the British spare track block holders on the transmission is hokey, and to make matters worse they molded parts of it onto the transmission cover part itself. As a result there are raised ridges to remove and little slots up near the bolt strip to be filled, and the contours & texture restored along with adding appropriate casting symbols. Nothing a good modeler can't handle, but definitely a shortcut in kit engineering.

Tamiya's pioneer tools are also rather indifferent. While they do tend to have the appropriate bits that hold them in place molded on, they don't have any straps to retain them. I'll probably use a mix of Academy & Asuka tools on mine, fabricating the occasional bracket where needed and adding tie-down straps

[Beekster]

Hoping for warmer weather tomorrow to shoot more gloss & flat on various projects; it's been a bit too chilly in the garage the last few days. The gloss continues to cure on this project, and while it does I'm working on the hull details out back. I've got the pioneer tools on in the usual Commonwealth configuration with a mix of Tamiya, Asuka, and Academy parts for some visual variation. None have tie-down straps, so I've added footman loops from punched discs and .010" rod stock. The track tension wrench (or spanner, in British-speak) got a new center from drilled rod stock. A retaining pin can be seen there, and PE chains are yet to be fitted to the retention pin and the filler cap pins.




Speaking of filler caps, Tamiya does something really nice with those. The sprue attachment points are quite small and located on the ends of the part that represent the hinge and the retention pin. Most other manufacturers put the sprue attachments on the sides of the circular cap itself, making cleanup more of a chore.

In addition to the chains, I still need to fabricate foil straps with Aber buckles for the tools. That won't happen until the footman loops installed this morning have fully dried. The taillights can go on, and I can get going on the fine file work needed to thin down all four brush guards.

[JCON]

Nice details indeed!!!

[rustybaer]

It's baaaaack! Fun to watch, too.

[Beekster]

I got the enamel grime wash laid in on Sunday, and just this morning shot the flat coat to seal everything in. It will be left to cure over the weekend before I proceed. And yeah, I need to pop the variometer off the top of the radio and reposition it.

[Beekster]

Let's talk lightguards. They are the bane of any Sherman modeler's existence, indeed the same holds true for most tank models. Anything with a guard over the lights or siren or other fitting. Invariably, the kit parts are horrendously thick and overscale. There are a few options for dealing with this. One is to use PE brass. These are actually a bit too thin, and if superglued on the attachment points are always weak. One can use epoxy putty, but that's rather a chore. There are also 3D printed parts which are true to scale. Unfortunately the resin used for that process makes for a very brittle part, which often breaks before you get it separated from the printing sprue. That leaves the kit parts. With some careful file work, those can be rendered into quite acceptable guards that look much better than stock. See here:

On the left are parts that have had some file work done, and on the right the originals. Left side is much better. In this case, the rear guard looks a little choppy in places so while it is still on the sprue I will add some material to smooth things out. That's nothing more than some styrene dust, the leavings of file work, applied with liquid glue. It's easy to add styrene dust sequentially to build up contours.

This is what one looks like when installed:


Much more convincing than the thick kit parts. When this is done, the modified part won't fully fill the recess in the hull that's sized for the kit part. A wee bit of plastic strip will fix that:

A little bit of file work when the glue is dry and the job will be done.

[JCON]

Much better indeed!!!

[Beekster]

More work on the turret. While I have a bunch of tarps & bedrolls from the likes of Verlinden and Accurate Armour, none seemed to quite fit the area correctly, especially with the brass stowage rail there. So I decided to make my own rolls using Aves Epoxy putty:





This is as far as I'll go today. When this has set up, I can refine the contours with some fine file work and add the straps and buckles. This took about an hour and a half; this is what's left over:


Unfortunately, this is wasted material since it has gotten firm enough now that it doesn't drape as well. Also, it has gotten pretty well coated in cornstarch, which I use to keep the stuff from sticking to the glass plate. Once it load up with starch, it doesn't want to stick to the model very well.

Before this, the event I have feared for a while occurred: The lower left tarp support rod broke. Fortunately I have an AFV Club Achilles and most of three Academy Achilles on the parts pallet, so they donated the required parts to replace the rod. I am dumbfounded that I didn't add to the damage while working on the tarps.

[rustybaer]

Aves putty is my friend. I make little hearts with any leftover and put a hole through them, working on a bracelet for my wife. Goofy, right?

[Beekster]

Progress and setbacks. I've got straps on the side stowage now, at the cost of the right side tarp support which broke off while handling the turret. I've got parts to replace both sides once more, but I'm hoping that I don't do more damage.



I've done a little file and scriber work on the side rolls, and I like how they are coming along. I need to give them a good scrub and see how they look. I haven't added any buckles, and I am debating about that. I do want to add another roll to each side, and perhaps some personal haversacks on top. If I do that, it would be a waste of buckles to add then where straps from another roll would cover them. I'm taking my time with this, consulting references and trying to visualize what I want before I mix up more putty. Background work proceeds very slowly on trimming out and drilling all the duckbill end connectors. That's going to be a long, tedious job.

[JCON]

Looking good!!!

[ogrejohn]

Nice work indeed! 

[JED]

Superb work