Hey Ezra, that’s funny! The barrel you’re going to get in the Verlinden kit WILL be resin and warped. I just put an aluminum 17 pounder barrel and a spool of wire tow cable in an envelope for you. It will be on it’s way this afternoon. I’ll PM you the tracking number. We were thinking of the same thing at the same time. That’s funny.
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Oooh wow, thanks Matt!
No Problem, you’re welcome.
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In March of 1945 three British Firefly turrets were sent to Canada for trials, to see if they could be fitted to the M4A1 hulls. The three Grizzlies had the turrets swapped out and the interior modified to fit the extra ammo inside the hull. The Co driver’s seat was taken out and the Firefly ammo bins were fitted into the seat area, the .30 cal machine gun was also taken out, the hole was left open and not welded over. Of the three Grizzlies that were converted only one example Grizzly CT-160258 and exits as a monument at CFB Borden, then the home of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School.
Taken from the M4A1 Grizzly reference DVD
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Thanks for that info, I didnt know the Grizz’s serial number. One thing is from the research Ive been doing they say that the hole wasnt welded over like a regular firefly or left open, it was just plugged up. I may be wrong though.
Ive nearly finished the upper hull. I filled all the excess holes then built the fire extinguisher mounts. I also decided to leave off the shovel so I had to scratch build the mounts for it.
(And tow cable mounts.)
I also built the jerrycan racks on the rear.
All thats left is some plastic parts, casting marks and weld beads then I’m done with the upper hull.
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Yesterday the Metal barrel from Matt and the Verlinden firefly turret arrived. I was really surprised by the detail on the turret as I didn’t expect much. I had to pull out my razor saw though as I needed to remove the resin basket cast onto the turret to graft my scratch built one on. The turret so far is a mix of Verlinden resin, Dragon plastic, Taska plastic, Aber barrel and Tamiya grey putty. I still need to replace and add the grab handles on the side of the turret and upper hull with wires, as well as adding weld beads.
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No Sherman expert by any means but your scratched turret box looks a bit oversized to me. Can someone else more knowledgeable make a judgment? Thanks 
Great job on the box nonetheless.
Thanks! I mean its defiantly possible, I used a mix of taska and Dragon parts for it ( Green Taska, Grey Dragon) so I would think its the right size. I think it also looks a bit big as the Verlinden turret slopes down more at the rear then the Dragon turret.
Looking Outstanding Ezra! You certainly produce fast results!
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Ezra, It is all looking very good…keep up the excellent work!
I may take your build as inspiration and build one of these in
1:48 scale…someday
Cheers,
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Thanks Joe! I quickly made the tie downs on the hull and turret. They look a little rough on camera but look quite good through the mk.1 eyeball.
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Hard to tell from pictures but your turret looks okay to me. I compared it to my Tasca firefly turret. I can probably be of more help if @Armorsmith can poin out the issue is a little more specific about what looks out of scale?
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@Mead93 Thanks for the response. To me it looks too deep(front to back) and a bit to wide. As I said not a Sherman expert by any stretch but it just looks off. Not trying to nit pick but it just struck me that something about it seemed off as soon as I saw it. Don’t get me wrong Erza does great work and has an amazing eye for detail in such a young modeler.
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Oh yeah no worries! Didn’t think you were being too nit picky or rude. Just thought maybe I could take some measurements of mine to help Ezra out, if I knew what was wrong. I know he would be capable of fixing what ever issue arose
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Without actual measurements it is hard to say if there are issues. I cannot find any direct side on pictures, but this seems to be the closest and based on this the turret bin seems closely aligned to the rear bogie roller, and Ezra’s seems to match that. The height also seems to match the position in relation to the aerial mount ring and also the gap between the bottom of the bin and the bottom of the bustle. Eyeballing it, I’d say this is way good enough.
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Thanks Peter, Mead and Armorsmith! I appreciate all the help.
There is a grove on the back of the hull , that is missing and is a feature of all small hatch M4A1 hulls cast by General Steel, and was on all Grizzlies.
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Funny you brought that up I was just trying to find a good way to make the grove. Mabye a file or something…
If it helps you might want to know I built a Skink on the old DML hull, and found there was enough “meat” in the hull to allow me to use a small flat file to cut the groove, which I then shaped with a bit of sandpaper to get the rounded edges.
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