Replicating a photograph: the liberation of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, part 3

I’ve got a bit more work done on the Sherman. For starters, I’ve added the smoke generator that’s attached to the right engine door. It’s made out of Miliput and some metal wire for the brackets. It’s a little rough, but I think it will look decent enough once painted.

The next step was to assemble the bogies. The road wheels had a pretty noticeable mold seam, but nothing that could not be fixed with some sanding. Here I was again presented with a choice. The kit comes with spoked and solid (stamped) wheels. It’s up to you whether you chose the former or the latter, or perhaps mix and match both types to represent field repairs as the different wheel types were interchangeable. For my Sherman I chose the solid wheels. I also opted to add the welded on appliqué armour to the hull, but you can leave that off if you want.

So far there is a lot to like about the Tamiya kit. There is one thing, though, that I absolutely hate. For some reason - I guess to save some money - the sponsons have no floor. This means that when you look at the bottom of the vehicle, there are two enormous gaping holes above the bogies. Of course, these will be partially hidden from sight by the tracks, but still. I decided to fill in these holes with two strips of polystyrene. It took a bit of sanding to make the 3 mm thick strips fit, because the front of the hull is angled inwards. It’s not the best job ever, but with some filler and some paint it will look fine and it certainly beats having two massive holes there.

There is also a significant gap in the rear wall of the vehicle, in between the two round air filters. I only realised this after gluing the top of the hull on, so had to patch it from the inside. It’s not all that noticeable in the picture as I used a bit of brown plastic, but the gap is at least a full centimetre high. Shoddy work, Tamiya!