Hey, why not one of those concrete “Landing Craft” we were talking about on another thread?
Cheers,
M
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I know Dragon had an LCM with Sherman, all in one box (7369 or a rebox? 7516)
So it’s all built up and primed. Camo is going to wait til the new year.
The LCT project has been scuttled as available kits are expensive given what I want to do (cut the front off) and scratch building the bow of an LCT seems… daunting.
Still, poor little guy is gonna look awfully lonely on the shelf next to all my proper scale behemoths. Therefore. a beach scene it shall be.
Being a fan of the KISS principle, there shall be sand, some simple beach defences made from palm logs and probably a tree or bushes for some colour. Given this was supposed to be set during an invasion of Japan proper, I’m not sure how much vegetation would have been left standing between shore bombardment and clearing for fire lanes, so this may end up just being some beach grasses. We’ll see.
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Looks great Don.
I second that, Cant wait to see the camo!
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Looks really good Don. Well done for sticking with it …
Were all the big guns in fix fire positions or could they move ?
Good question.
From everything I can find and see, they’re fixed. Given the whole point of the tank was to assault fixed fortifications I’m thinking the designers were working under the premise that you’d be shooting at the broad side of a very large barn.
Canadian troops experimented with “tulip” mods to Shermans and Staghounds with 3” rockets “liberated” from the airforce which were adjustable for elevation as well as train with the turret. They were not known for their accuracy. I can’t see this being any different with this beast.
As for the 105mm howitzer my info is conflicting. The single prototype was only fitted with a dummy gun, you can clearly see weld lines in the photos. I can’t confirm if it was intentional or just a prop pending the next phase of development.
Assuming the operational tank would have been fitted with a working 105, I presume some degree of elevation/depression would have been incorporated, but whether it would have been a standard mount like on the 105 Sherman or something more akin to an assault gun like a Stug or Tortoise I don’t know.
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Not my entry, but my inspiration. Airfix 1/74 Sherman M4. Maybe I can learn something by trying to finish this one.
Parts ready for Primer
Primed hull.
I started this years ago and got off on a silly tangent to fill the void under the bustle. Got bored with that and tried test fitting the wheels, decided I had to drill out the spokes and managed to loose one of the road wheels. Tried to make a replacement out of some Evergreen tube and 0.005 sheet.
Might look OK under a coat of paint and some mud.
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“Don’t buy old Airfix tank kits?” 
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I could never get on with their Churchill. Tried it a couple of times over the years and the suspension and tracks always defeated the me!
Mark, great work on that old Sherman. Especially making up the wheel!
Hoping to make a start on my build over the Christmas holidays. Just 3 more days and my 2 week break begins.
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Worth the watch just to hear them call that vague representation of a UH-1N an Apache.
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Trying for that noted British understatement?
I present to you, THUMPER, assigned to a fictional USMC armoured unit during Operation DOWNFALL. Shown here assaulting beach defences on one of the outlying home islands in preparation for the big push.
Kit was a bit of a dogs breakfast, but I think it came together in the end. Painted with Tamiya OD, Wooden Deck Tan and Red Brown. Weathered with W&N Oils.
Thanks for putting this one together Ezra. The small scale stuff was a fun challenge. I am however looking forward to putting away the magnifying glass now
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That’s turned out really well Don.
Great work on that difficult kit. I don’t know if I would have persevered.
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Looks Great Don. Kind of looks Wehrmacht in that colour scheme.
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Thought I’d take a crack at the Matchbox M3 Stuart Honey. Wife was in a bicycle race and I needed something to keep me occupied while I waited for her to finish…
The kit has a shallow floor for the commander, but he pokes out way too far for the little dio they depicted - a running soldier with bayonet in position for stabbing and the commander yelling over the noise of battle - so I removed the floor, added some styrene to the figure’s torso, remodelled the arms and voila, now poking out just enough.
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Looks great, Don. Great little diorama. Only comment would be that the tank kind of sits on top of the sand instead of sinking slightly into it. small point though. Looks greatnone the less.
Great little kit, Peter. Gotta love those old matchbox kits and the cool small bases.
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Yeah, the clay shrank when it dried and the track marks with it. You can see where it’s peeled up at the edges too. I’d need to do some major sanding to get them sized right for the tracks again. It passes the 3 foot look test, so I’m leaving it alone for fear of destroying something I can’t fix.
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