Hello to one and all. I am currently peeking out from beneath the shadows of the "Dark Side" and having a go at some Allied armour.

My 1st 1/48th project is the M4A4 Firefly ( this will be my first actual build in several years ). I hope to do one serving with the 2nd Battalion Irish Guards.

For this build I have the Tamiya Firefly , Fighting 48th M4A4 conversion + T62 tracks , Armourscale 17 Pounder gun , Accurate Armour decals.
As reference material I have the MOS #19 , Sherman Firefly by Mark Hayward, Osprey New Vanguard #141 Sherman Firefly , the Concord books on British armour in france/Belgium - Holland & Germany and the Adalbertus Set No. 48-504 pressed steel wheels ( unfortunately egg shaped )

I have started work on the turret and I have a few questions for those who know much much more than I do on the Firefly and Shermans in general.

I want to fit the cheek armour to the turret and the extra armour to the hull sides. Does any body have a clear photo of these applied to the Firefly that will show any weld beads? I have added some to the rear side of the radio box where it mets the turret. I cannot see these details in my reference material and would like to know would they be accurate if I did apply them to the cheek armour and hull side armour?

Second question concerns casting number , plant markings etc. Did these occur on the Firefly's turret and hull front?
If so what type and form did they take? Is there any specific sequence that they can be applied in?

Thanks in advance for any help that you may be able to give me

Best regards

Paul

Hi Paul, two 'must-have' references I can thouroughly recommend are the Armour PhotoGallery #13 Sherman Vc Firefly by W Gawrych, ISBN 83-920254-6-6, and Mark Haywards amazing publication on the Firefly. Both have loads of photos and drawings showing lots of Fireflies in all their various forms, and Marks book goes into very fine detail on the whys and whens of all sorts of developments and modifications. I'll warn you know though, the more you learn, the more you realise there is to learn, and you can end up delaying your model for the sake of smaller and smaller bits of missing information, until you end up like me, never actually finishing anything!!

Keep us posted with progress of course!

Tim

PS Can't fault your choice of components, by the way!!

 

PPS Doh! You already know what is in the Hayward book, obviously.

www.fighting48th.com

all this Sherman mania i am suffering

Tim you are indeed correct... I have stumbled into a pond of Sherman quicksand that has grabbed hold tight onto my imagination. There I was thinking that a one off Sherman in 1/48th would be enough to keep me happy. WRONG!!! Oh how wrong was I

I already have several more Shermans "planned" and I am not even foot out of the starting blocks!!!! Looks like I will be visiting your shop again Tim

That ArmourPhoto Gallery #13 on the Firefly.... I have been trying to hunt it down for a reasonable price but to no avail
Its on my list of "things I really need". I have picked up two other books in that series.. the Achilles and the M4A2... see the compulsion has started already

When things are more progressed I will post some WIP pix Tim. I had much "fun" replacing the co-axial MG with some steel tubing

Leo.... thanks for the advice and I will bear that in mind during the build. Much appreciated I have ordered some Archer decals showing those foundry marks and casting numbers.


Best

Paul

I am far from being a 'Sherman expert', but as far as I know every separate component of the Sherman had a casting number somewhere on it. There were casting nos. on the turret top between the commander's and loader's hatches, and on the turret rear, but the latter would be concealed behind the added radio compartment. Depending on the foundry, there was a large cast mark on the glacis (usually hidden behind stowage). Photos of Irish Guards' Shermans had quite a lot of stowage on the hull front all covered with a very fine mesh netting. Hope this helps a little.

Thanks to Dennis Trowbridge and his fantastic armour pix website I have found some of those missing answers

http://jtrowbridge5.smugmug.com/gallery/4956335_4WkzZ#296564403_azFpF

I have also managed to source a copy of the APG #13 Sherman VC Firefly

Best

Paul

http://www.ecifirefly.com/walkaround/walkaround-index.html
This is the Grizzly/Firefly that I am helping to restore. The turret is pretty much like standard M4A4 Fireflys, so I'm told.
Garfield

I have pics on my site of a standard Sherman V. It should help with the applique armor part of your questions:

http://www.toadmanstankpictures.com/firefly.htm

While the link does say "firefly", it isn't. I made a mistake when I named the file.

Chris "toadman" Hughes
http://www.toadmanstankpictures.com

Garfield and Chris. Thank you very much for those links. They will be very useful to me. Much appreciated

Best Regards

Paul