Kartonbau.de - Alles rund um Papiermodelle, Kartonmodellbau und Bastelbogen

I
saw this model on their website and liked the look of it so I got
it,photocopied page and had a trial build of the inside of the turret
but found that the ribs that are cut from one mill card are very fragile
and I wasn't getting them good enough to do the model justice. so I
then got the laser cut parts unfortunately these don't include tracks!

As
I live in Wiltshire I thought I would put my own markings on the tank
for the Wiltshire Yeomanry who had Shermans first at Alamein and then
regrouped in Syria before moving on to Italy.there is only one drawback
in that the Wiltshire Yeomanry were withdrawn at about the same time as
the firefly was brought into operation with regiments based in Italy, so
I'm going to stretch the facts a bit.

I
have the English instructions for the kit and they suggest starting
with the turret. But I'm going to start with the tracks and hopefully
the new kit enthusiasm will get me through cutting out all the bits
I
have made a slow start on this model doing odd bits here and there
starting with some of the metal parts at work mainly those that needed
fabricating.
there are a lot of track parts,there are 200 tracks and I am making some extra as added armour so I have cut 430 track pins.
the
smallest bits are some 2 mill square blocks by mil thick I had to cut
them into strips and then seal the sides with superglue before cutting
into squares otherwise they were delaminating.the above picture shows the thicker card parts. The killer is going to be cutting out all the holes.


the instructions for the tracks,


there are 27 parts that make up a track link times 200 plus I'm doing
an extra 14. I've booked the padded cell. I might add an extra part not
sure if it's needed or not which will be a strip of card in between the
two metal pins just gives more support to the central block the tracks,
probably will be a case of belt and braces. But isn't much more work as
the waste strip between the top and bottom parts from the inside of the
central block or about the right height.
the rest of the track parts

Been thinking about the Sherman
tracks on the way into work and made up a jig for the connecting bits
parts 262 262a 262b so here it is, also in the picture is the track tread
core parts 260 260a


well still cutting out track, but I did make up
the tread and two connectors from some photocopies hence the washed out
colours. When together better than I thought especially the
connectors.part 262c especially but curling each end and then glueing it
on to part 262a whilst still in the jig and then pushing in part 262de
straight after pulled in the curled ends of part262c. Below are the
trial bits of track.


do you think I should but a little hex nut head in the centre of part 262c where the printed circle is.

here is a link to a Canadian site that shows markings for different tank units and periods
http://www.armouredacorn.com/
this
website shows the restoration of the non-firefly M4A4 Sherman taken off
Salisbury plain training area just by me. To its original glory also
shows the multi-bank engine which I think is an incredible piece of
engineering in itself.
http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php…4A4-restoration
the next link is to a website that shows all the Sherman types and differences between manufacturers
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/index.html
there is another site but I can't find it on this computer that showed the unit markings so have to add it to another post.

Not much to show progress wise except some pots getting fuller.

But
I will have quite a lot of one mill rivets. From all the holes i have
being cutting out. have used a Japanese book Punch to do the holes and
I've made up a set of punches to go with it

on
Saturday I went and looked through the Wiltshire Yeomanry archive
looking at pictures from the Second World War to see what names they
used on their tanks they were usually named after Wiltshire towns and
pubs. There was not one named after my local town devizes but there was
one named Moonrakers,named after some smugglers who fooled excise men by
claiming that they were raking out a cheese from a local pond which was
in fact the reflection of the full moon, the excise men went away
believing in the legend that the locals were a bit dim. Once they were
gone and the coast was clear they raked out the barrels of contraband
from the pond. So this is what I will put on the side of my tank, the
following pictures are of a standard 75 mil Sherman, from when the
regiment was re-equipped after Alamein and they were posted to Syria and
cleared the Vichy French out from Syria and Iran joining the Russians
in Tehran. Before moving on to Italy before returning back to England
understrength as half the regiment had served the four and half years.




Wiltshire
Yeomanry first went out to North Africa as a fully mounted cavalry
Regiment, they then got mechanised with lorries as Searchlight units
before getting their tanks, they formed a principal role as past the
ninth armoured Brigade in punching a hole through the German anti-tank
lines and helping to hold off a German tank counter-attack, that then
led to the German rout. The Wiltshire Yeomanry were left with four
working tanks.here's another tank named after village near me.

I took a photo of these two pictures out of interest.

not sure what this second one is of some German tank destroyer?

Thanks Glue me
I meant to post sooner I thought last weekend that I would finish cutting out the track parts

i
finished cuting out the iner ends and and treads and just had 7 off
the above strips of conetor parts to cut out and then the esey out
treads covering. only cutting the curvy top on the conectors allmost
finnshed me off my thum was to saw to hold the scalpel any more so
stoped with thes two left and the tread covering to do to morrow. fond
thow that i could still cut out some parts to laminat to thicker card
and lable the laser cut parts juring the week. thort larst weekend that
with my sew thum i would of had a burn out on the sherman but if any
think sherman mojo has incresed. Go's back to bounceing a round the
padded room. sorry for the speling brake down but the vois reconision
porgram decided that it did not like this page any more.

During the week I cut out the parts that needed to the laminated to different thicknesses of card.

Well
the Roman models tank factory track assembly line was officially opened
by the one lone employee and track production started with the delivery
of track parts.

The
production started with making up the track treads as shown in the
following pictures the first three show the making up of the inner tread
I followed up on Jim Nunns idea and added an off cut down the centre of
the tread.




I think as Helsinki designed it is okay, but as you see in the fourth
picture where i placed an inertread over the strip that will become the
road wheel it does sit over the centre of the tread and over time it
might sag with the weight of the tank on it, so to be on the safe side
over engineer.

After
I'd glued up the inner tread in the jig as the mortise and tenants were
tight I took the inner tread out and squeezed it together with my
fingers to make sure it was all fitting together well.
As I was
cutting out the outer skin of the treads I pre-folded scoreline s search
just a matter of dry wrapping round in a tread and then applying the
glue and sticking it on

I
then trimmed the length if necessary and then inserted the track pins
to locate the ends and trimmed if necessary and then applied the tread
the only parts I didn't precut were the three rivets which are cut out
the hole punch and apply, which will just leave the edges to be painted.

Thanks Henni Thats what i thourt but am enjoying doing them.

After finishing 40 treads I started on a batch of the connectors

The back part of the connector is bent to shape and placed on the jig.

Then the front part of the connector is bent shape and glued on top of the back part.

The two almost triangular parts are glued in place next.

The
strip that forms the part that holds the track rods in place comes next
I started off by rolling each end round a track rod but the card tended
to delaminate, so use the ends of a fine pair of tweezers this gives me
a tighter curl that fits around the pins on the jig.

A thick square packing piece is quickly placed between the two curled ends to hold them in place.

The
final stage is to place a covering piece over the packing piece, which
completes the Halinski connector. I added 2 glued together avant card 1
mill nuts as well.

Final
picture shows some attempts at doing the tack signs fortunately the
Polish version has the same unit number 52 as the Wiltshire Yeomanry so I
have turned that into a template most of the attempts on the rear plate
we using artists oil paint. The markings on the side I made using
watercolour paints and seem to work better my markings are the white
horse the square troop marking and the name Moonraker. Plus the white
smear for a better word down the side for a spilled petrol stain down
the side I think it works quite well.

Well
an update from the weekend first off the build is going to slow up a
bit as I have acquired a four-legged supervisor who goes by the name of
pudding, she is a nine week old chocolate Labrador. She's been banned
from my modelling room as on her first visit there she left a little
number two present .

Back to business painted and unpainted connectors

two completed sections of track showing inside and outside of the track.

Completed assembled track so far.

Wiltshire
Yeomanry tack markings added to the front and rear pieces of the tank
and am going to have to move the telephone box on the rear to the
outside as on the blank alternate part the white blank for it is in the
centre and I couldn't fit the tack sign in.

well I didn't feel like doing tracks match last
weekend and didn't have much time and my eye was drawn to the machine
gun mounted on the top of the turret so below is the weekend's progress.



I
had a PM from Jim nunn over at paper modellers who is also building the
firefly but hasn't yet started a build thread about the length of the
track pins I premade all 400 pins 17.4 mm in length as mentioned in the
instructions, and found them to be short when I assembled my track I did
think it was my building and they turned out to be a millimetre wider
at 18.4mm. but Jim has found the same is tracks measure 18.5mm so I
think there must be a typo. The machine gun is finished now will post
pics at the weekend so it's back to more track at the weekend. that's
all for now.

below are some pictures of the gun mount, ammunition can,and the gun and mount together.






the
final picture shows painted on tank name with a little kiwi fern leaf
that the ninth armoured Brigade could have on their tanks after their
outstanding work as part of the supercharge at Alamein when they were
attached to the New Zealand division. And the squadron markings on the
turret.

there is a slight misprint on this kit the page that has the under hull
skin on it sort gets lighter and greener as it moves off to one corner.
Unfortunately this lighter corner contains part 1a , this the baseplate
to the transmission the bolts onto the front but as you can see in the
picture below it is a lot greener than the hull.

I
gave it a light wash with the watercolour pencil that I'm using on the
tank tracks ( supracolour 2 soft carand'ache charcoal grey409) but is
more the dark brown and white off the surplus then awash with the colour
I'm using the green edges which is the same make a pencil as above but
is umber 049 over the top is not quite the same but I don't think it
stands out as much.

this final picture was taken right after I'd done it.

HooooRaaa have finished one track just the other one to do now but
hopefully won't take as long as the first one and will not have so many
distractions like digging up Roman archaeology first was digging rubble
out of the Roman hypercost that was part of a villa that then became an
industrial complex making glass and extracting silver from lead.

the
second one was exposing a corner or possible barn or gatehouse or a
back-to-back temple, this corner incorporated a wooden post about 14 in,
square in the corner the wooden posted long rotted away but I did find
an unused Roman nail it was in perfect condition with only one small
bloom of rust on it otherwise it was in mint condition.

that's enough archaeology you want to some track so here's my completed track




while
I'm on track mind here are two old photos the first is from allpar.com a
website that discusses the history of Chrysler tank Arsenal.
the second picture is from a Canadian Army photo site http://warphotos.basnetworks.net/

Aboard a Sherman Firefly Tank
Dutch
women and children sitting on a Sherman VC Firefly tank of Lord
Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians). Harderwijk, Netherlands, April
19th 1945.
Photograph by Captain Jack H. Smith.

Well when I started the Sherman I promised myself that I wouldn't start
on the rest of the model until I've made tracks I broke that with the
50.cal and I done it again now I had a whole day and I just made
connectors it didn't go as well as I thought and I almost had connector
burnout the trouble with them is that you think you've made a nice
number then remember that there are 2 to each tread. So this weekend I
made up the lower hull of the tank I had already cut out the outside
skin just to get an idea of the size of the model smaller than I
thought. The first picture shows the outside skin and the inside skin
which has been laminated.

the second shows the parts drain plugs I think they go on the bottom of the outside skin

part two the inside skin glued to the inside of the outside skin.

the
outside the outside skin part one with the extra plate on the front and
Bolt heads that hold the transmission front on glued on as well as the
drain plugs.

the side frames added and the inside side skins ready to be glued in place.

site skin glued in place.

part four parts that make up the rear bulkhead of the tank.

the
rear bulkhead made up and all glued in place this was not quite as
straightforward as it seemed as the inside curve is different to the
outside curve and two strips of card parts 4e and 4d are glued to the
inside of the outside curve and the inside curve. I glued part 4 the
inside skin to part 4b after glueing the hatch and top opening with an
edging strip I then glued these in place the front edge of part four has
to slide over and be glued to the thickning piece of the floor of the
hull. I then glued in place parts 4e 4d.4c I glued to the inside of the
outside skin part 1 and then glued 4c to 4b. I hope I'm not going to
have trouble as this back part is about 0.5 of a mill, thicker than the
sides.



Cut a peace of card to fit in the front-end just to help hold the shape. well that's all for the moment back to the tracks.

Thanks haduwolff they were designed for infantry support and not really as tank killers. They were used as they were efficient to make and certainly Chrysler churn them out quicker and cheaper than their contract with the US government, and the Americans wouldn't use anything that wasn't theirs so they only had some fireflies.Bit of a delayed post being trying to get upgrader speech recognition
software working. Despite making a jig that allows me to make 11
connectors at a time 12 if you include the original jig, that does seem
to make them go better they were driving me a bit nutty. So I decided to
go in place the suspension nuts to the inside of the hull.

First to the floor.



Then the sides and rear

It was my birthday not long ago and I had the day off so was able to do
some modelling and is a treat I would make a start on the turret as
that's what's the instructions suggested being the hardest part. It all
went together well starting off by making up the interior skins. Parts
305 to 305h ,305d needed some trimming to fit and parts 305g/305h fits
the other way round to how they shown on the instructions highlighted in
the pictures.












I
didn't cut out the hatch openings as I wanted the parts to be stronger,
the only downside is that the openings to be cut out are harder to do
when it's all glued up.
The next stage was to build a skeleton over the built-up inner skin
using parts t1/t25 as I had the laser parts the cutting out of these was
fairly easy bit of a nightmare to cut some of these parts out of card
by hand.
I did do a test build before I got the laser parts might
just see the turret on the back of some of these pictures and is one of
the main reasons why got laser Parts. The only parts not included in the
laser cut ones are t3/t4 which form the front face of the turret. Once a
skeleton was all formed I filled in the gaps as suggested in the
instructions with scrap card I use leftover laser cut card of the same
sickness but was a bit of a mistake as it was quite spongy and even
after hardening with super glue was hard to file and the front curve of
the turret to the top need quite a bit of filing when I came to fit the
outer skins.











I
also added parts 307/307c the lining to the pistol port and part 306
the lining to the cut out on the back of the bustle that gives access to
the new added on radio housing.
And as shown in the last picture I
added on the base ring parts 308/308b to get the rest of the turret to
the correct round shape.

first two pictures show the turret with extra packing between the skeleton frames.


Outer skin parts cut out parts 306/306i.

Main
skin glued in position on top using the turret openings to get it in
the correct position. The skeleton frames and packing needed filing to
get a good fit for the outer skins.







Found
with the pistol port side that I hadn't filed enough and had to cut the
skin just in front of the white portion for the armour round the pistol
port and then position the back part around the pistol port opening I
then had to cut one mill strip to fill the gap in front of the pistol
port. Final picture shows parts 310 the ring round the commanders
opening, part 311 around bit below the mantle opening and parts 312 four
round discs on top of the turret.
That's all for now have a good Christmas everyone
On Christmas Eve started the air vent and finished it Christmas morning.


The inside


Then did the armour round the pistol port.


By big jig for the track connectors.

And
the radio. mainly set on a military frequency but does seem to turn
easily to a jazz station. I found I needed to harden the round parts for
the radio I use super glue for those which worked well and had the
advantage of slightly glossing the card which is useful on the dials.As
the hole punch drill I use can rip the card if it is of any thickness.

Well I wasn't hundred percent happy with the pistol port side of the
turret where I had inserted a strip, because it was too small and I'm a
lazy perfectionist, To some extent i was lulled by the good fit of
Helsinki kits and thinking that the skeleton frames would be the correct
size. I was wrong and hence I had to insert strip. well I took off the
front section of the skin apart for a little bit at the front under the
mantle opening. I then filed hardened with super glue and filed some
more cut slithers off with a scalpel and filed again while continually
try fitting the skin until it matched up with the back half. If only I
had done that all first I wouldn't have to have done the surgery. I also
removed the ring round the air vent and the armour ring round the
pistol port and chamfered the edges and did a bit of filling with some
coloured glue. The turret looks a lot better to the naked eye but of
course the camera somehow highlights the slight mismatches that the eye
seems to blend in.




Last picture shows the completed radio and all the parts that make up the added armoured bustle around the radio.
Assembled the armour box goes round the radio no real problems. Only you
need to watch out if you use laser cut parts to remember to cut out the
paper patterns for the outer sections of armour as the sides and back
are stepped and the paper patterns have other small strip of green on
the top of them I haven't yet glued the radio in place as I got to add
some wiring and therefore haven't glued the lid on either.







Last two pictures show the aerial mountings, a right angle piece of
metal between them and a little something next the air vent on the
front. I think that's it for the turret now back to the tracks and I got
a bit of other work to finish off.

Well I'm still alive and so is this build i have
got to complete a reconstruction drawing of a Roman villa so the Sherman
has taken a backseat but the track is progressing slowly. I have about
20 more track links to go to complete the second track plus extras to
mount on the turret.


The
second picture shows Cpl R Young and Sgt GE Murray both of the Fort
Garry horse repairing the track, Sherman VC firefly tank, Putte,
Netherlands, October 6, 1944. Unknown copyright library and archives
Canada.
Next is the inside fitting the main aerial, I'm going to
pause on the turret build as I think I've done the hard bit. I'm going
to start back following the parts in numerical sequence.

The parts for component five possibly drain plugs?

Part five fixed in position in the base of the hull, circled in red

bent up some varying thicknesses of brass wire for the extinguisher lines
the fuel lines and a pipe that runs round the top opening on the back of
the tank possibly connects to fuel tanks.

With the scorching speed at which I'm assembling the tracks I decided I
would add four of the six engine bay fire extinguishing horms and their
pipework

As it was a bank holiday weekend I decided to give
myself a day paper modelling, so on with the Sherman still doing track
links but I am getting near the end now. So have taken a break from them
and continued with the tank build.
First five pictures are the engine mounts parts 10 the two side mounts and 11 and 12 for the rear mounts.





Instructions now say to make up the engine as it is easier to fit before fitting out the rest of the hull interior.


I
will let the pictures show you the story started off with the central
crankcase parts 77 to 78 and then moved on to making up the five
cylinder heads although they are the same they have different fittings
on them so it is important to keep them correctly labelled.parts 79 to
88 so far.

I finished off the relief parts 88 could they be core plugs?Then added parts 89/89a.


Then parts 90.


Then added cover plates 91, 91a had a hole in it covering this hole was 91b a tube to take a pipe.


Parts 92 which are brackets to hold the coil.


Next move onto adding the coolant inlet or outlet manifolds, this is now where care needs to be taken as they are all different.
The first is for the top cylinder parts 93.

Next was 94 and goes on the top of the left middle cylinder looking from the back of the engine.



And finally for this update part 95 which goes on the bottom left cylinder head looking from the back of the engine.

So far everything has fitted well.

Another update finish the last two cylinder water manifolds part number 96


Pic of a multibank engine that shows the manifolds

then
onto the intake and exhaust manifolds for four of the cylinders heads
starting off with parts 97 the centre section and the connection to the
carburettor pipe.



Part 98 exhaust manifold with flange for exhaust pipe fitting.




Thought
I'd add some additional detail and added some hex heads to the exhaust
flange and also the flanges on the cylinder ends for the water pipes to
the water pump.

Parts 99 the other side exhaust manifold.


The completed exhaust manifold the next stage will be to add to inlet manifold.

that's all for now

little bit more progress part number hundred the
inlet manifolds there is an option to make these in paper or wire I went
with the paper option as I haven't done this bent paper tube before
and will have to do it for the exhausts later so a bit of practice.


I made one of the tools looks like a track removal tool.

A bit more of the engine continued with parts 101
to 104 that make up the fifth manifold this one is slightly different to
others I did have to trim parts 102 inlet manifolds as they were
slightly long.

Some pictures of the cylinder heads dry fitted to the central block.



So onto the cam gearing houses parts 105 there are 3 of these.

Well time to dance a jig pop the cork on some
champagne and have a party! I have finished tracks, for both sides and
some extra for spares and a bit of extra armour.

The
two completed tracks one showing the inside of the track and the other
the outside after looking at some old pictures show and fireflies I did
notice that the cleats on the rubber treads seem to be a lighter colour
so rather than leaving the cleats the same brown colours the treads I
painted them with some watered-down steel paint I think it's an
improvement.

Spare
treads and some track that I'll fix to the front and the side of the
turret as extra applied armour I may make up some more but I don't want
to bury the model under a lot of track, armour.

Surplus treads and connectors

Now
that the masochism is over until the next tracked vehicle I can relax
and get back to the engine, and now that I don't have a desk covered in
little pots I can even get back to doing some of the SD 14 as the a3
sheets that take up quite a bit of room.

Now the track is finished it is back to the engine.


And assembling parts 109 which I think is probably the cam pulley if
it was a conventional engine. Reasonably straightforward only care needs
be taken in rolling the paper tube that forms the back shaft that it is
the right diameter.


The pulleys mounted in place.

Parts 110 the distributor care needs be taken again with the paper tubes to get them to the right diameter.


The
distributors fixed in place with the engine dry assembled to make sure
that that should bit as were facing the right way as near as possible to
the cylinder head.


Parts 111 the coil .

Assembled.

Fixed in place on their brackets on the end of the cylinder heads.

Cylinder heads glued to the central block the back of the engine.

Looking at it from the front.

And the sides.


Timing casing and the distributors glued in place on the back of the engine.

Engine just placed in the back of the tank there is a bit more space round it than I thought.
[img]http://www.ukpapermodels.com/albums/albums/userpics/10009/small227.JPG[img]
Part 112 plate that fits on the front of the engine and will take the housing for drive gears.
[img]http://www.ukpapermodels.com/albums/albums/userpics/10009/small228.JPG[/img]
That's it for now working on the wiring at the moment for the spark plugs and coils.

I got carried away last time and just glued on the coils all facing the
same way it was only after I looked the illustrations again as I
realised 2 are facing in the opposite direction so I had to do some
surgery.



First
three pictures show the engine with the coils in the correct position
and the spark plug and coil leads in place, I made these and some fine
electrical wire that had seven strands in it I cut off the excess
insulation to give me enough for the guide tube I then cut down the
length except for about eight an inch so I could feed the wires out in
the right place on the cylinder head ways to shop each colour the wires
back.

Next
is of the feed wires of the coils fitted this is some old possibly
galvanised wire that came from a wooden plank on frame ship model the
wire as tarnish down to a nice grey colour.

Moving on to the
other end of the engine part 113 the makes up the drive gear casing has
been glued to part 112 the back flange and parts 114 the gear ends
possibly have been glued in place.

the inside of the real part 112/113.

Next
three pictures show parts 115 being added these did need a bit of
trimming and the L-shaped parts were slightly short and a shorter side
this didn't matter too much as they were really be noticed as it is on
the side should really come down to part 112 .



Part number 116 the first part of the drive shaft or went together straightforwardly.
[img]http://www.ukpapermodels.com/albums/albums/userpics/10009/small238.JPG[img]
I got carried away again seems to be common with this kit and made a start parts 117 the supports for the throttle arms,
[img]http://www.ukpapermodels.com/albums/albums/userpics/10009/small239.JPG[/img]

then glanced back to the instruction sheet assembling this comes a bit
later on I should have moved on to the water pump so that'll be the next
update.

The next instalment water pump parts 120
the water pump centre front

Back

The
centre dry fitted in place along with pipework fitting the pipework was
a bit harder than it could be as I had glued into place all the
distributor wires and the water pump pipes, go underneath them but it
worked out okay.

Brass
wire painted black and all glued into place I use PVA glue the brass
wire in place starting off with the bottom two houses to help all the
centre in place with some glue on it I then fitted the others in place.

[img]http://www.ukpapermodels.com/albums/albums/userpics/10009/small244.JPG[img]
[/img]http://www.ukpapermodels.com/albums/albums/userpics/10009/small245.JPG[/img]
Next the carburettor parts122

Main carburettor body assembled

The fuel intake part I think

Two parts joined together

The air intake valves parts123

Fixed on the carburettor's

Mounted on their spacing brackets parts 124


grear caseing fixst to the engine.

That's it for the moment

Next instalment of the Sherman the air intake for
the carburettors no problems. The pictures tell you everything you need
to know.

Another instalment the carburettor is fitted to the intake pipes



This
is where my dyslexia kicked in and I found that I'd put them on the
wrong way round have been takes facing the back of the engine not the
front to match up so I had to remove the carburettor is only intake
pipes and the other way this means that rather than having seems on the
intake pipes facedown they are now on the top

Before fitting the carburettors in place on the intake pipes to the
cylinder heads I jumped ahead of the instructions and made the engine
mounts the front engine mounts parts 118 fixed to the side of the gear
casing


The rear engine mount 121 being constructed


And fixed to the engine

Air intake and carburettor assembly with intake pipes fixed the engine




The
engine dry fixed in the engine bay just to check the fit and that the
left side carburettors wants to be bit lower, the front engine bulkhead
part 13 is also dry fitted

Then
what turned out to be a fiddly and frustrating little bit of assembly
fixing up the five throttle control rods levers. Could I get the super
glue to glue but in the end it seemed to work.

Starter motor part 119

And fixed in place on the engine


Added part 123 a sort of cover on top of the engine.


After
this I put the engine back in engine compartment and just placed a
ruler on top of the front engine bulkhead down onto the rear engine
bulkhead just to see how it all fitted with the supposedly top on only
to discover that the carburettors were too high so the moment I'm in the
process of lowering them all down so the carburettor the top central
cylinder will actually have to sit on top of the inlet manifold not be a
little proud of it inlet pipe that is proving difficultust is inlet
pipe to the top right hand cylinder head looking at it from the back
where the inlet pipe is a s shape but all that's for the next update.

More progress managed to lower the carburettors down a bit but it's
going to be a tight fit height wise. First up the bracket to hold the
oil filters parts 126.


Made up oil filters parts 127.

Tried
out Enrico's method of making paper Rod by twisting up cigarette paper ,
I use this to scratch make the fuel lines from the fuel pump bottom
right of the engine up to the carburettors had trouble again getting the
super glue to work so will have to go out and get some more. I made up
parts 130 oil pressure valve the bit of brass wire on the front of it is
to take a sleeve of wire insulation I will fit this when I insert a
make up the back screen of the engine bay.

Parts 128 the oil filter fixing brackets glued in place on the oil filters and glued to part 126 with one pipe glued in place.

Two pictures showing the finished oil filters glued in place on the engine.


The engine is almost done now moving on to the radiator. radiator carcass parts 131.

Radiator carcass engine dry fitted into the back of the tank.

That's all for now.

Had most to this weekend on the Sherman so got quite a bit done main
faces glued to the radiator carcass and the two holes through it lined
edging frames are cut out ready to glue on. Parts 123

Edging frames glued on front and back.


Sides glued on including the fixing brackets which fix on on top of the front engine mounts. Parts 133


The
top of the radiator parts 134 , 134 e and f was a bit confusing how
these two went on I put part134e on the inside and part134f on the
outside and the two subassemblies of the filler cap, parts136, 137 and
the top hose fittings, Parts 135 I fixed some nuts to the top of these
as the printing wasn't that clear on the black .



Subassemblies fixed to the radiator top.

Radiator top fixed to the radiator and the two bottom hose fittings parts138.

engine and radiator test fitted in the engine compartment still fits okay.


On
with the fan flywheel assembly the illustrations are not that clear on
this, need to keep looking at the picture and build at the same time.
First I assembled parts140 and 140b and fixed to the back the rolled
tube part 140k. This engages with the starting motor.

The fan body made up. Just a inner ring to be glued in place.

The completed fan hub.

The fan hub and the cut out fins.

The fins glued in place.

The
fan inside the fanguard made up of parts 139. This was fairly
straightforward just needing care when glueing it up to get it could go
in the right shape and don't score like I did the two lines running
across it just blows the corners. It also added nuts around the edge as a
printed ones didn't show up very clearly. a bit pointless really as
they will not be seen but they do add to the fan guard.

The completed fan with the first part of the drive shaft fitted to the front part 141.

The
nasty to make return radiator hoses from the cylinders to the top of
the radiator these are made from some soft wire insulation but was
difficult getting them bent to shape and cut to length and joining to
bits together.

The
hoses fixed into place the fit isn't brilliant but there is good as I
can get them without damaging too much of the engine already made.


Fan
and fan guard glued to the radiator , although I haven't actually glued
to the fan in place so it is free to turn nice touch by the designer.

Sides and back view with the radiator and engine.



Two
views of the engine tried in the engine Bay is not much room there now.
just the exhausts and of the hose from the bottom of radiator to the
water pump to finish the engine.

Last engine components to be done on the exhaust pipes that looked daunting but turned out okay the parts before cutting out


Start the longer exhaust pipe.


This
point I dry fitted the copper rod that I bent up that forms the
radiator hoses possibly radiator to the water pump the model they just
show it formed from a single Rod, but looking at the pictures of the
real engine where these joining the water pump it looks like the pipes
have been crimped in so I used to length the copper rod and made a sharp
right angle on on one end of each and then filed the outer face to
almost half the thickness of the Rod then silver soldered them together
to look more like the actual hose fittings. I then dry fitted the end of
the exhaust pipe to check its fit, but they clashed so I had to re-bend
left hand side of radiator hose so it went slightly lower and wider so I
could fix the exhaust in.

The radiator hoses fixed in place

Longer
left-hand side completed exhaust the exhausts are easier than I thought
to make up I dampen the inside of the exhaust pipe part and then rolled
it up into a tube and glued the edge bits together ransom brass rod of
the right diameter once the glue dried I stood to tube up the brass rod
applied glued to the edges of the gap in the tube and brought the
segments together one at a time to form the curves in the pipe.

The shorter right-hand pipe completed.

Somehow
seem to have taken these two pictures from the inner side where the
seems are it would look better taken from the other side.
Exhaust pipes fitted to the engine and she fired up just fine



Euphoria
was short lived when I came to fit the engine into the hull of the tank
it was a tight fit and I thought I'd take the two side fire horns off
getting it in it did fit the right-hand exhaust is just a little too
wide so that's taking it off and making it a bit narrower and refitting
it the moment it's hard against a side and I've got to fit the plate the
covers a fuel tank in their somehow. That's for the next update till
then thanks for watching.

Made up the ends the drive shaft, as in the instructions they haven't
been glued to the drive shaft to allow adjustment to fit onto the
transmission.


Dry test fit of the engine with the shortened exhaust.


Views of the completed engine with and without the drive shaft in place.









The made up fuel tanks.



And then the steel plates form the side of the engine Bay in front of the fuel tanks I added nuts on for extra realism.


Next
I jumped ahead and made up the plates that fits the underside of the
Hull to accommodate the fan and engine. I also added fixing bolts on top
of the printed ones on these plates as well. first is parts 298 which
is a cover for the bottom of the fan.



Next is a slightly domed plate that fits under the engine parts 299.


And finally to flat plates which also fit under the engine parts 230 and 231.


Plates in front of the fuel tanks and the plates in the bottom of the hull fixed in place.




The fuel tanks fixed in place.