A cheap Airfix Sherman turns Duck! (DD-Sherman conversion)

[Rob1970]

Guess who's back..?

Aye, after surgery to remove my gall-bladder and the recovery (which took more energy then I expected, I am back! Well, kinda... I could have been back 2 weeks ago, if I hadn't torn my hamstring on the weekend before I was supposed to go back to work.

Which means 4 to 6 more weeks of forced rest...

The past two of which I was unable to sit behind my workbench, because a torn hamstring is a pain in the *rse...

But today I could sit! HALLELUJA!!!

First thing to show is Infernal Machine Mk.II!

It's bigger, and I can switch frames and suctioney-holey plates so I can used smaller pieces of styrene.

I made an insert for the original screens I did, to close off the gaping hole at the top.

Like thus...

Infernal Machine Mk.II, a sheet of 1mm styrene and some heat and suction later... All cleaned up and trimmed, ready for the internals.

Using the old template to bend the round stock for the inner frame... Never -ever- throw away a template! Ever!

Frames going in. And the thinner skirt allows for a lot more detailing.

Yup yup yup... very happy.

Next; the tuuuuuuubes!!

Rob

 

[Albertese]

Nice vac-forming... looks pretty dang authentic!

--Alex

 

[Mike J.]

Happy to see this continuing.

 

[MonsieurTox]

Awesome !

 

[swgeek]

Build is looking great. I've been wanting to do one of theses myself lately.

 

[Rob1970]

Little Know Fact: The screens of the Sherman DD were raised with the help of an early version of the Internet; a series of tubes!

*cough*

Well, maybe not. They were raised by inflating tubes made of rubberized canvas. Once raised, metal bars kept the frames in place.

To replicate these I decided to work by candle-light, and took some 2.1mm Evergreen tube...

I heated a pair of round-tip pliers...

... and crimped the end of the tube.

Two more well-place crimps for each of the frames...

Repeat that for what feel like a bazzilion times, and glue them inside the screen...

And when you have all the long tubes done, you still have to do about the same amount of short one...

So yeah, this is gonna take a while.

Rob

 

[Ruddigger]

Some really interesting techniques on display throughout this build. I'm really enjoying it.