Replicating a photograph: the liberation of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, part 2

After the wordy introduction of part 1 it’s time to start building the tank! The Tamiya kit gives you lots of options to personalise/customise your Sherman. Step 1 immediately presents you with the choice whether you want to have a three-piece or a one-piece differential housing on the front of your vehicle. I obviously can’t tell which type was used on the Sherman Firefly I’m trying to replicate, as I only have a rear view. I much prefer the look of the bolted together three-part cover, but all Sherman Ic Fireflies I come across online (both original photographs and model kits) seem to have the one-piece variant. Rather than running the risk of building some sort of Frankensherman I decided to play it safe and use the one-piece cover.

The three and one-piece differential housings side by side.

Turning to the back of the vehicle, I started adding some custom bits to better match the tank in the photograph. The two eyes were made of the 0.7 mm metal wire that I bought for the Von Richthofen and Brown diorama. I also cut the two rectangular thingies out of a bit of scrap plastic. They are apparently the mounts for a leaf spring that held a towing pintle. Luckily the leaf spring wasn’t mounted in the picture, making my job a little easier.

Rear view of the Sherman

That’s it for now. Next up is to scratch build the smoke generator that is mounted in front of the right engine door.

And a quick reminder of what the end result should look like.

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Little Tanks & Tiny People

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