Sherman Calliope

[smurfben]

Hi everyone, I thought some of you might be interested in taking a look at my Sherman Calliope build. I used the Rubicon Sherman as the base and added the Warlord Game rocket launcher and S&S models sandbag armour set. I'll leave some picture here for your pleasure but I'd also really appreciate you looking at my blog for all the extra details!











Enjoy them!

Blog post for painting here: http://musingsofasmurf.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/painting-sherman-calliope.html
Blog post for building here: http://musingsofasmurf.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/building-sherman-calliope-for-boltaction.html

[ripley]

Great job on cross kitting 3 companies products plus some scratch building .  And the paint job looks really good as well , I can never get my US stuff to look quite the right shade of OD in smaller scales . What paint did you use ? Now a couple of observations from a modeling perspective : the rear of the turret needs lift rings ( maybe you still have the ones from the front hull , or are they covered by the sand bags ? ) . I don't know how you would fix it now  , but the sand bags are too high , covering the periscopes and probably even the drivers open hatch vision , check your photo of Annabelle  to see how the bags sit just below the hull top . And your rear box should open away from the tank , so a crewman can stand on the engine deck as opposed to having to find a ladder , plus if you add stuff to the engine deck the hatch won't open all the way making it dangerous for your scale crew  to pick up the rockets and keep their  footing . ( no we can't stop the shelling for a Health  &  Safety meeting ) .   

[Pinky]

I agree with Ripley's points about the sandbag armour, but this model has a real 'presence' - it captures the look of the real thing rather well.  I also agree with Ripley about getting US Army Olive Drab right in this scale - yours looks like the right shade, and the weathering looks authentic too.

I read your blog - all you really need to get the plasticard additions straight is a steel ruler.  And you can buy narrow strips so you don't have to measure and cut them.  That said, these stowage boxes seem to have been pretty crudely built.  They weren't for ammo - they were for the crew's gear, as the rockets would otherwise have incinerated everything on the rear deck when fired.

This makes me want to try and sandbag a Rubicon Sherman as well.

[ultravanillasmurf]

Nice model and excellent photographs.

My cheat on plastic card is to use evergreen, plastruct and Slaters' bar, strip and rod, my Warlord Shermans have 6.3mm square cross section turret and in one case rear hull box. Same with the unfinished carrier.

[smurfben]

Thank you Ripley and Pinky for your comments and praise I'll reply to each of you individually if that's ok?

Ripley: I can see your point about the sandbags now that you mention it. Unfortunately, it's a problem with the S&S kit and the Rubicon Sherman. There's a chance that the bags don't obscure the periscopes on the Warlord Sherman kit as the sandbags were designed with that kit in mind. For the future I would recommend using a dremmel to remove the left hand side bags from the top and then re-sculpting them to be lower and flatter. Sounds like a lot of work!!

I didn't realise the storage box opened the other way, woops! I built it using a scale modellers forum post as a reference here: http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/thread/1378568484/M4A3+Sherman+Calliope+WIP

I didn't check any real photos. Damn it, oh well, it's done now! With regards to the lift rings, I can add those on with wire easily, I'll just need to check where they go. The Rubicon kit doesn't seem to come with them.

Pinky: Thanks very much. I've got a steel ruler and I always use a very sharp Stanley blade but I can never get perfect right angles. It's very annoying. I think I'll have to slash out on a whole repertior of different plasti-cards soon as I can certainly see the benefits of having different strips.

Ahh that's very interesting and I hadn't thought about the back blast from the rockets incinerating everything! Makes total sense now that you mention it In that case, I think I'll hold off adding the stowage then, I can use it for my other vehicles instead.

Both: Sadly I don't own an air brush yet some all my vehicles are hand painted. First I base coated it black (GW) then I based it with army painter's army green. Using a large brush, I painted 3+ thin coats of Vallejo brown violet to get a consistent even cover. Next I apply a wash of GW's camoshade to areas that include detail such as the engine block and hatches etc... Then I lightly dry brush some areas with increasingly lighter shades by mixing in German beige to brown violet. I also applied a sharp highlight around the hull lines and the turret curves using brown violet and German beige. After that I apply any transfers, paint any lettering and weather as appropriate. I hope that helps. I'll try and produce a blog post with pictures when I get round to the Jumbo. 

Edit: Thank you ultravanillasmurf for the plasticard tips. Do you have any photos of your Shermans?

[ultravanillasmurf]

Hi,

The post on my M4s is here: http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/british-army-m4-tank.html

I put the box on the rear hull OVER the hole for the crank handle, I did not do the research ^___^.

For right angled cuts, I use either a small engineers square or for thicker materials a mitre box and a razor saw. The saw is a bit of a sloppy fit in the mitre box, you might try fitting some brass channel to improve the fit.

Oh, and I have a pack of HO scale crates and stuff that has some useful bits including boxes (they have a slight fill issue) that I either use as is, or wrap them in microstrip.

[Pinky]

Wow, just checked your blog, UVS - your scratchbuilt and scavenged stowage is great!  One small point - the 'bustle box' on the turret should just have a lid, not 3 square raised panels.  Those were a feature of one variant of Firefly turret extension (which you describe as a "radio box"), not the bustle box.  The bustle box was often fitted to Firefly turrets, leading to a very elongated appearance.

[ultravanillasmurf]

One small point - the 'bustle box' on the turret should just have a lid, not 3 square raised panels.  Those were a feature of one variant of Firefly turret extension (which you describe as a "radio box"), not the bustle box.  The bustle box was often fitted to Firefly turrets, leading to a very elongated appearance.

More research failure on my part, I based it on the Sherman Crab drawing in the George Bradford book, I should have checked the Firefly drawing in the same book ^~~~~^.

[ripley]

Nice work on your 2 British Shermans .  I did the same thing with mine , covering the crank hole on the rear , I should know better , having built a dozen or so Shermans in 1/35 .  Bit of a disappointment WL didn't include the crank on their kit as it was much needed and very visible piece of kit on both the M4 AND M4A1. I've found as I build 4 or 5 of each vehicle , I tend to want to add more kit or battle damage or even cut open hatches and add crew to the newest tank . Bit of a bummer trying to go back and bring my 1st or 2nd kit up to the level of the  latest one . lol .  I'll have to give your method and colors a try next US tank I paint , I expect you get quite a variation in a squad of tanks as there are variibles in the amount of color you add ( I mean you don't measure exactly ) . Always hated having every tank painted and kitted out exactly the same as every other tank in the unit . Just look at the tanks in Fury as examlpes , all were painted various shades of OD and all had mostly the same crew gear but placed as each  crew saw fit . I know its Hollywood    but its not bad as a reference point .

[ultravanillasmurf]

The rear plate on the M4A3 may, or may not have a socket for a crank on the rear plate:
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/sherman_types/m4a3/m4a3.html

It might be a feature of 47° hulls.

[ripley]

That round fitting  goes  in the nut hole on the  big track wrench , on the right side of the rear is the metal piece for the wrench handle end . Only the 9 cylinder Radial  engined M4 and M4A1 had the crank handle . Something to do with all the oil settling in the lower half of the engine when stopped . You cranked the engine by hand to move the oil to the upper pistons before firing it up . Think late 1930s style airplanes , which I guess these engines were originally fitted in .

[Pinky]

The hole for the crank was quite small, and (judging from photos) was frequently covered with stowage - although probably nothing that couldn't be moved easily.  The protruding circular fitting was for the distinctive track tensioning wrench.  Below is a photo from the Shadock site showing a late M4 rear with both the wrench and starting handle in place.

[ultravanillasmurf]

That is useful to know.