Fort Garry Horse Firefly Vc. (RFM 1/35)

[JCON]

Mysterious indeed... hope you get it sorted!

[DuckyShot]

Regardless, base paint is done. Pretty much done with the turret as far as initial finish goes. Applied the decals and faded them, picked out the light, periscopes and the MG. Assembled the bogies on the hull, just have to pick out the black road wheels.

[DuckyShot]

Well, I have spent half the morning sitting on call reading through war diaries. I couldn't find digitized war diaries of the 1st Hussars, so I started going through the FGH diaries. I stumbled across this convoy order that tells me the origin of the 2CC/51 and its a convoy marking and the only Armored unit in that convoy was the FGH. So it's FGH all the way. So I'm happy about that.

While going through trying to figure this out, I did make contact with the guy that researched the markings for print scale's decals. Seems like a nice guy, possibly a good contact to have.

[JCON]

That's awesome!!!

[JED]

Nice bit of detective work, I have an ongoing task of reading diary writings from a Fusilier from WW1 which belong to one of my Regimental museums, the aim being to make it easier and quicker for those who want to look at such transcripts. These will be available with the originals to download eventually. The build is coming along great.

[Beekster]

As Jed notes, excellent detective work. That convoy number nails down the date, which will inform location, weather, and ground conditions for weathering. Convoy markings like that were typically chalked on because they were temporary identifiers, so within a few days only remnants would likely survive...especially if it rains. The FGH was part of the Canadian push into the Rhineland from around Nijmegen in February of '45, and it was indeed quite wet. Many Canadian tanks had a lot of welded track sections added as stand-off armor. Your subject doesn't, according to the reference images. It may be a recent replacement from the tank delivery regiment, which prepared tanks for issue but that was limited to ensuring that all OVM was fitted and the tank was fully fueled and ammunitioned.

[DuckyShot]

Thanks! The photo had decent labeling from the archives with date and general location, but it's not like they are always perfect and I've found some bad mistakes before. But the convoy marker confirmed everything in the photo for sure. But yeah, somewhere between Malden and Goch, February 17th, 1945. And having that date made it fairly easy to find in the war diary.

[DuckyShot]

Got the last decals done and did a wash tonight.




And then later I got back to it and did drybrushing.

[ogrejohn]

That sure is looking good! 

[JCON]

Looks good from over here...

[DuckyShot]

Worked on the track armor chucks last night and got them installed. Upon further inspection of the reference picture, both headlights were removed from the tank. The one track chunk is sitting on top of the headlight guard. I then wrote in the convoy number, I attempted to do it with a pencil crayon as I have had success with that in the past, but I couldn't get a good result, so I had to revert to paint. Pencil crayon looks way more like chalk, but beggars cant be choosers... I also finally put on a rail on the turret for baggage.

[JCON]

Looks good!!!

[Dukemaddog]

Most impressive Ducky! I love the tracks and I think you nailed the chalked on look of the numbers.

[DuckyShot]

Thanks Mark, I'm happy with the tracks. The chalked numbers... I like the ones on the track, not as happy with the one on the glacis but its good enough for me.


I've been working at chipping.... I've never done chipping before and its nerve wracking to know how much in spots. But I like the look of it, just hope it looks good overall.

[DuckyShot]

Chipping done, might have to do some on the chassis, but we'll get there later. Started putting the stowage on, couple pieces on the turret. Tools are done as well.

[JCON]

Getting closer to the finish line!!!

[mustang1989]

Such masterful work on display here. What I really like is the research work down to the fella that researched the markings for the decals. By any means necessary I say. I've gone to great lengths to acquire information before to include Rick Dobbertin for his wild Pontiac J2000 car back in the 90's. Most of these folks are indeed nice and good to work with and one usually winds up with a ton of useful information that will help any given build.

[DuckyShot]

I appreciate that mustang!!

I had one minor mishap that I've neglected to share. When gluing the lens in the light on the turret, It sealed off completely and the glue would not dry on the back of the lens, so I ended up drilling a hole in the back of the light so that it would finally dry. Even then it took a full day before the clear glue dried and disappeared. So I was able to fill the hole last night, you can see it in the last picture.

I'm really hoping my tracks get here soon.

[JED]

Looking very good indeed

[DuckyShot]

Rear stowage completed. Still waiting on a package with a couple pieces needed for my front stowage.