Dragon Sherman Vc Firefly + Diorama - The Italian Job.....LAST UPDATE

[chalkyw]

Howdy Folks,

I've been on roll with my builds lately so I thought I'd keep it going and with my Cromwell D-Day build stalled (see here if your interested http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 1&start=20) while waiting for things to dry it was time to start a new diorama project to keep me out of the pub

A couple of weeks ago I found myself a bargain older Dragon Firefly kit on ebay which I fancied having a go at in my personal adventure to try and build all types of British & Commonwealth AFV's in all theatres in WW2


....that was the Tank sorted but then I needed some inspiration. The net threw up a couple of things but in the end I thought I needed to visit Italy.

I found the box art for another Dragon Sherman quite appealing as a scene, as I like the buildings and think they'd be fun to try and replicate


and this period photo of a Sherman crew in Italy just added the final pieces of the jigsaw together as I like the relaxed nature of it


So here we go again......

The Firefly kit is a bit dated and on opening the box I found a few less sprues than a couple of other Dragon kits I've got in the stash but it was all there and even had a small dragon card with some PE and a metal tow cable, so all in all I was pleased with it.


The seller threw in some pages from a 1995 copy of Military Modeller which reviewed the kit and showed a build which corrected a few accuracy issues with it. This was interesting to read for me as if I followed the article then there was a bit of scratch building involved to add a few bits and pieces to more accurately replicate a Firefly Vc, which got my juices flowing

First up were the wheels and bogies but according to the magazine article, the kits bogies were the wrong type for a Firefly Vc as Fireflys had a horizontal return roller bracket instead of upswept as in the kit. The roller itself was then raised on spacers off this bracket and luckily with a growing Sherman spares box I was able to correct them. The kits track skids also needed correcting and again I was lucky enough to have some in the spares box.


Some of the kit parts are a bit soft in detail but the new bogies were a lot sharper and also I had some sprockets that were sharper too but were the wrong fitting for the hull so I had to add some sprue rods to them


Next the Idler wheel brackets needed correcting but I had to 'borrow' these from another Sherman kit which I'll replace when I get to it, again they were the wrong fitting so I added a styrene rod


Then it was on to the rear plate which needed a few additions....the smoke emitters were cast from a mould I made from some on my Cromwell and I wired them in to the connection boxes, I added a towing hook bracket and spring towing attachment brackets and deep wading weldware, all made from styrene sheet and rod. The towing hook bracket was detailed with a few PE bolt heads I had


I'm a lot further along with this build but I'll wrap this up for today as you've probably nodded off by now

As always, I hope you like what you see and please let me know why if you don't or have any other suggestions to how to improve anything.
Cheers
Chalky

[Madmattmodels89]

Ahhhhh Italy my homeland!!! I will follow this build very closely and awesome start on the kit your detail level is stunning

[Augustus]

Yep, another Chalky build I like the look of, and look forward to following.

Just remember Chalky "you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

[SergioSolo]

Nice project! I'll be following your progress

[AgentG]

Looking good from here.

G

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #1:

Hokay Peeps, as I mentioned in the last post I'm a bit ahead of you with this one so here's some pics of the next stage in the build.

The Firefly is going to be crewless except for the commander and with the front hatches open.......so what to do with open hatches where you can see inside????......well the answer is to add an interior .......I scratch built a basic interior for an M3 Stuart Honey a while ago which some of you might remember (http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 29&t=18254 so I thought I'd give it a go again.

Problem number 1 was that the Firefly doesn't come with an interior like the Stuart kit did and problem number 2 was that there's a big transmission block in the front of a Sherman that sticks out like a sore thumb ....... my only saving grace was that the hatches are small so you don't see very much, but it bothered me having nothing inside all the same.

So it was head scratching time

Well, as luck would have it, I have a Sexton Self Propelled Gun in the stash which is based on a Sherman chassis and the kit has some front end interior detail, so I broke out the resin mould kit and set about taking moulds from the Sexton interior and resin cast the bits I needed. As I said you can't see much through the hatches so I kept it basic and cast just the transmission block and linkage and the seats for the driver etc


Everything fitted pretty nicely so it all got superglued in place and I went around with Perfect Plastic Putty and filled any gaps, I also put a styrene sheet in behind it all so that you can't see the empty hull beyond


This was then very roughly painted and given a black oil wash to dirty it up a bit. The wash is wet in the first pic and the second is after had it dried and was given a dull coat



All in all with the limited view through the hatches I thought it looked pretty good as at least it gives a hint of an interior

While I was waiting for all that to dry I built the first figure which is the commander who will be in the turret hatch. I've had an Ultracast figure sitting around for a while which seemed to fit but I had to turn his head through 90deg to fit in with the dio scene


Next it will be on to the upper hull and adding a few extra bits and pieces
Cheers
Chalky

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #2:

Upper hull detailing included more detailed hatches from the spares box


A few bits of PE


and some more for the tools


added a jerry can holder and first aid kit which were scratch built from styrene sheet and PE sprue and some PE bolt heads


this one won't have side skirts but I decided to add the attachment brackets built form styrene sheet


and stuck them on the sides and rear



Next up will be the turret

[Madmattmodels89]

Your scratchbuilding and pe skill is amazing can't wait to see more!

[Stokesy44]

Looking good. Love al the detail work

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #3:

The turret

First up was a resin 17pdr breach just because I just wanted too and cause you can see it through the commanders hatch which I got from Hannants, made by Resicast I think. It didn't quite fit as it's for a Tasca kit but you won't see the join anyway


The I set about detailing the fixtures and fittings with various bits. The commanders cupola and hatch was the wrong type in the kit according to the detail up instructions I'm following but I had one in the spares bin and I scratch built the Alidade gun sight from styrene sheet, as well as adding various bits of PE I had for another Sherman kit. I also added a few bits here and there like the commanders hatch lock




Because the Firefly has a 17pdr gun, the breech is loooonger than a standard Sherman, so Fireflys have an add-on wireless box on the rear of the turret as the radio was moved outside to accommodate the bigger recoil of the 17pdr. The kit had a bit of the detailing wrong on this so it was sanded off and a few PE bolt heads added. I also scratch built a bracket to hold a stowage box. This was made by bending PE sprue to create metal angles which were then 'welded' to the wireless box and a piece of PE mesh put in the bottom. The alternative was to directly fix a stowage box to the wireless box but I thought I'd be a bit different as I saw this on another build and thought it looked good.




I forgot to take a photo but I then painted the inside of the turret white and the gun breech in gunmetal and the sealed it all up. I forgot to mention earlier but as you can see I gave the turret some more casting texture with Mr Surfacer 500 and though not shown here I went over the join between the 2 turret pieces as well.


Next up is some more work on the hull and some stowage

[chalkyw]

Looking good. Love al the detail work

Your scratchbuilding and pe skill is amazing can't wait to see more!

I forgot to say thanks Guys before I posted the update

[Madmattmodels89]

Your attention to details is supreme mate. No I can't never reach your status my friend! Awesome job and seeing this unfold is amazing

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #4:

Here's a couple of pics of my labours on the hull and turret after the last update which is slowly coming together



After all that it was time to think about stowage, which I want on both the front and rear of the hull and I'll also be adding a few bits to the turret as well. This pic includes some of what I might add but it has changed a bit since this photo was taken. The white bits are casts I took myself from bits in the spares box using a resin mould kit, which means I don't have to keep buying new bits . You can also see the stowage bin made from PE to add to the rack on the rear of the turret (its in the centre at the bottom), this came from a PE set for a Cromwell which I didn't use on that build


The rear stowage is easy enough as you just glue it on and add a few ropes but on the front it needs something to stop it falling off. There are quite a few ways to do this it seems and I decided a welded metal frame was the way I'd go. I'd already bent a few bits of PE sprue to make metal angles for the stowage rack so I did some more and made up a frame for the front, which was added along with some PE front fenders and all superglued in place. I thought about adding some weld seams but its all a bit small but I still might yet. If I do, I'll do them with stretched spure 'wires' and melt them with Tamiya Extra Thin and shape weld marks with my craft knife



So folks, that's about all the detailing I'll be doing to this one, minus the stowage, which is all waiting to go on and will be the next update but here's a couple of pics of what all the PE etc looks like so far, with the wheels, bogies and gun barrel added as well.




As I mentioned, next time I'll be adding the stowage and then on to the tracks

[Madmattmodels89]

Amazing!! I need to cast some stowage for my Stuart also! Your detail makes me drool! Great job my friend!

[chalkyw]

Amazing!! I need to cast some stowage for my Stuart also! Your detail makes me drool! Great job my friend!

Cheers Matt, looking at the photos it all doesn't look like much but there's about 30hrs of work and lots of swearing there when I think about it

[spock1701]

Such talent! Amazing build, man!!

[Madmattmodels89]

Man that 17pdr is a beast!

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #5:

Next up is the stowage for the Firefly which consists of the front and rear of the hull and the turret. Here are a few pics showing the rough placements of it all as it will all come off for painting




The front stowage fits in behind the metal frame I made and will have a few ropes added


I'll probably add a couple of tarps over the rear stuff before adding more ropes to keep it in place. You can just see them but I made a couple of wooden ammo boxes from wooden stir sticks


All the rucksacks etc for the turret have had lead wire (flattened) straps added and then fed through the brackets of the turret sides and I made some headphones and goggles left on the tank using kit parts and lead wire straps again as well as the sling for the tommy gun and chin straps for the helmets. The wiring for the headphones is just copper electrical wire and a map case seemed appropriate too



One thing I forgot to mention in the last update was that the side hatch on the turret of a Firefly was welded shut so I removed the hinges and did some welding using stretched sprue melted with Extra thin which turned out ok so I'll definitely do some more 'welding' in the future


Last, was the addition of a bucket which I added some dents to with the sanding stick and added a wire handle, mostly because I broke the kit one


Next up are the tracks which are indy link in this kit......3 parts per link and a lot of sanding, not looking forward to that but we'll give it a go

[AridTalons]

Wow, Chalky. You never cease to amaze. Sherman is looking damn fine!

You might want to change your signature. I don't see any newb work being done here.

[chalkyw]

Wow, Chalky. You never cease to amaze. Sherman is looking damn fine!

You might want to change your signature. I don't see any newb work being done here.

Thank you Sir, most kind ......Lol, I'll stop with the 'newbie' when I don't have to watch other builds to know how to do stuff but I'll admit I have learnt a lot in the 7 months since I started modelling again

[Madmattmodels89]

Awesome my friend! Lovely weld lines there! I will take up your advice on future builds! Everything on your model just falls in perfect place ! Can't wait to see it painted!

[Augustus]

Love ya work chalky. What did you use to stick the lead straps, would good old CA hold that?

[Augustus]

Oh and while I'm at it, what type of glue for the ammo boxes made of wooden stirrers?
Cheers matey.

[chalkyw]

Love ya work chalky. What did you use to stick the lead straps, would good old CA hold that?

Oh and while I'm at it, what type of glue for the ammo boxes made of wooden stirrers?
Cheers matey.

Thanks mate, appreciate the kind words
CA for the lead wire and wood glue for the wooden boxes.....here's a pic for you, a bit rough but should look ok when stained and partly hidden under a tarp

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #6:

Not much progress on the Firefly but I did manage to find a couple of hours spare and painted the commander figure as I just fancied doing some painting.......the camera flash has washed him out a bit but I'm happy with how he's turned out

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking good

[chalkyw]

Looking good

Cheers Kev

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #7:

Well after that brief interlude we come to the tracks for this baby.......the tracks that came with the kit were individual links and guide teeth on sprues, 3 pieces per link


This is my first time with tracks like this and they looked a bit intimidating but I drew breath and jumped in feet first This pic is half an hour later with sprue cutters and sanding stick......half a sprue down


and 2 and a half to go ....and I haven't even reached for the glue yet


When I'd finished all the cutting and sanding I stuck 'Fury' on the DVD player for a bit of Sherman inspiration and got in to a routine with the TET.....eventually, I had one track glued


and by the end of the film I had two


After all that I needed a drink

So that's it for the Firefly and at the moment she is sat in the bench waiting for me to start the painting. I'm going to put this on hold for a bit as we've got hot weather here in the UK at the moment and last time I sprayed in temperatures like this things didn't go well. In the meantime I'll make a start on the dio base. I'm going to attempt my first cut away building and road surface, so the next update will show the progress I've made on that.

Thanks again for the all the comments and as I always say, let me know what you think, good or bad.
Till next time
Cheers
Chalky

[Madmattmodels89]

Looking smooth chalky! I like what youv done with the figure and those tracks look very good!

The ones on my M5A1 are a piece of work but rewarding yours look flawless

[chalkyw]

yours look flawless

You obviously haven't looked close enough Matt, lol

[Madmattmodels89]

yours look flawless

You obviously haven't looked close enough Matt, lol

Don't sell yourself short mate!

[Stokesy44]

The tank looks awesome but all that stowage on top makes it even better. Superb detail with all the different materials. Cannot wait to see this thing have some paint. FIRST CLASS

[chalkyw]

The tank looks awesome but all that stowage on top makes it even better. Superb detail with all the different materials. Cannot wait to see this thing have some paint. FIRST CLASS

Cheers Stokesy

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #8:

A small update with some progress on the diorama as painting the Firefly is on hold at the moment while I wait for more favourable air brushing weather but there's lots to do as there's the dio base itself and a few more figures to put together and paint as well.

I'm starting the base with my usual 'el cheapo' Ikea picture frame, they're called Ribba and come in various sizes but I like this particular size for my 1/35 dio bases as it fits nicely on my shelves. Here I've marked out a rough plan in felt tip but I'm sure things will move around as I progress


My rough plan is to have a cut away Italian style house on one side with a walled garden, a cobble stone road running diagonally across the base with maybe some trees lining the street but i'm not 100% sure yet as I'll wing it as I go along I expect

There are various ways to make buildings it seems but in my research I came across this website for Dovedale Models

http://www.dovedalemodels.co.uk/

The guy, David Wright, builds commission pieces for model railways and has some amazing buildings in his gallery - check it out


Anyway I noticed he has a DVD and book for sale with how too's on how he does it, so I ordered the book as it looked like and is a very interesting read with loads of really practical advice on building scale buildings....well worth buying is my recommendation .....you can get both direct from the website but they're available on Amazon and Ebay as well


So it turns out that he makes his models using very cheap and simple materials such as Foam Core board, old xmas/birthday cards, paper and DAS to name a few and all of which I had in the dio bits box or lying around the house......So the method of construction was sorted

Here's the Foam core board, this is A4 size - not sure if its called something else outside the UK but its foam sandwiched between card and comes in various thicknesses and sheet sizes and I got it from the local arts and craft shop


I printed a 1/35 ruler made on my computer and got stuck in with the ruler, pencil and scalpel blade and roughed out the shape of a generic 'house' with windows and a door and got cutting. Pretty simple stuff as I only need 2 elevations.......My job is in Architecture and all this brought back memories of my student days making architectural models for college projects using the same materials


Then I mocked it all up with masking tape and cut a template for the roof area using card and added a garden wall with a gateway in it which will probably have some railings on top of the wall as well. I'll also be adding a wall on the near side of the road to add some foreground interest


So that's it for now, not a lot to see at the moment but next time I'll be adding a roof and first floor structure to the house which I'll be scratch building from wooden stir sticks and balsa wood.

Cheers
Chalky

[Madmattmodels89]

Stunning progress chalky as always! I like the diorama set up!

[Quax]

Amazing work Chalky but I have to echo others, if you're going to keep newbie in your signature then I'm going to have to change mine to "totally inept"! (Which is ironic because I am...)

[Augustus]

The dio looks great already!

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #9:

So after I had roughed out the shape of a building in the last update, it was time to start adding some detail to it with construction 'stuff'.

First up was to give it a roof and roof structure which I made from wooden stir sticks and balsa wood from the local craft shop. Stupidly I forgot to take any photos of the build process as I got in a 'zone' with it and cracked on but bear with, as all will be revealed in a while. Anyway this is what I came up with

which is basically a couple of roof trusses connected by purlins with sarking boards laid over the top. Theoretically there should be rafters on top of the purlins but its only a model so I thought what the heck . The front was given a fascia board and the gable which you can't see has a barge board made from balsa


So with the roof done it was time to add a first floor structure which I did remember to take photo's of and the principles for building the roof where the same.

First up I made a cardboard template for the size and shape taken from the foam core building and on the top side I marked out the joist positions.

Next I cut the stir sticks in to appropriate board lengths and split them in three to produce floor board sized planks....TBH, all the sizes where done by eye but cutting each stick in three seemed to come out roughly the right size



Next I taped the joists, which were blasa wood strips of an appropriate depth, to the template (forgot the camera again!!) and started laying the boards on top in staggered rows and sticking them down with wood glue as I went and eventually I ended up with this

One thing I found was that because the wood glue doesn't dry instantly I had to go in every now and again and dot a bit of CA glue around just to get some 'instant' rigidity to it so that I could handle it and carry on working


Then using a long balded razor saw I trimmed it all back to the shape of the cardboard template and bingo it looked like a timber floor


When it had set solid I went over the top surface with wood glue on my finger and spread it all over and added sawdust from the bench to fill any gaps between the boards as there were quite a few. Then when this had dryed I got a sheet of 240 grit sandpaper and sanded the top surface back to remove the wood glue and get it all nice and even and this is what I ended up with

Which when the time comes will take a stain nicely without any glue patches showing through.......fingers crossed

After that it was glued in place in the building and TBH I was pretty damn chuffed buy how it all looked


I haven't decided if I should add a ceiling to the underside of the roof trusses yet .....what do you guys think???....yes or no!!


Next up on this will be a bit of tiling and a bit of rendering and plastering to the walls and maybe a ceiling if I get enough encouragement to do it but the next update will be a short one on the rest of the figures which I put together in the evenings this week. Again I forgot to take pics of building them but I'll show you the results in primer and let you know what I did....YAWN!!!

So I hope you're still enjoying the build and maybe you'll tune in next time
Cheers
Chalky

[hansolo]

Very nice scratch building work!!

[chalkyw]

Very nice scratch building work!!

Cheers

[InitialProduction1]

Wow beautiful scratch build chalkyw. Really looking forward to the next update.

[Madmattmodels89]

Should I have ever to build my own house I'll make sure I'll call you chalky! Astonishing work my friend!!! Keep it up!

[demarcation]

Fantastic work so far mate!! Looks superb!

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #10:

After the work in the last update it was time to pay some attention to the roof and walls of the building, first up was the roof which I decided is going to have a barrel tile roof. The outer tiles will be covered in a future update but the under layer of inverted tiles I did using drinking straws cut in half and glued to the roof structure


these were then trimmed back to the roof shape and given a coat of primer and at the same time I went over the outside of the walls and gave them a thin'ish' coat of DAS air dry clay to give them a rough rendered texture. All techniques covered in the book I mentioned in the last update.


The DAS took a day or two to harden and during the process warped two corners so I corrected that by weighting them down for a day which straightened them a bit . Next I added window and door frames using balsa wood and also gave the windows external wooden cills as well



Then I sanded the walls to get rid of finger prints and brush strokes in the DAS. I thought the walls need a bit of distressing so I got my cheap 'dremel' and using a flat bit, carefully carved out a few patches in the render and carved stone patterns using a scalpel blade to simulate where render had fallen off.




I mentioned a while ago that I was ahead of you guys with the build but this update brings us pretty much back in sync, so updates from now on will be as I've just done them so they might be a bit less frequent as I've realised this dio is going to take a while given everything I want to do.

Hope you're still enjoying and also thanks to all of you that have commented
Cheers
Chalky

PS: Forgot to say that yesterday I set up a YouTube page and added some slideshow videos of the dio builds that I've done so far this year, you can check it out here if your interested https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUlYm2 ... VZRAIDmRhw

[Madmattmodels89]

Amazing job on that wall my friend! I love the added detail with the dremel! You sir are in for a masterpiece of a diorama!

I also subscribed your YouTube channel!

[chalkyw]

UPDATE #11:

After finishing the render to the outside of the dio building in the last update I then went around the inside of the walls and 'plastered' them using super fine smooth Polyfilla. This was done with an artists palette knife and it actually looks like it's been plastered at least it does to my level of plastering skills


I'm leaving the dio alone for a bit as TBH I've got a bit bored with it.....so what to do next

I know ......PAINT THE FIREFLY

First a coat of primer.....as you can tell, at the moment I'm a Tamiya paint guy as its all locally available and no hassle and since I started using Mr Color Levelling thinner the paint has become a lot easier to use....anyway primer


Next, a base coat using Mike Starmers mix for British OD which is greener and also a bit lighter than Olive Drab from the bottle, I also lightened the mix a bit and did some fading


then I did the detail painting as I want this to be underneath all the weathering

I worked on the premise that the platform for the stowage box was added in the field so wasn't painted




During the research for the Firefly I also found out that the 17lb'er barrel was a bit of a give away to it being on a par with the fire power of a Panther or Tiger so the crews came up with various ways to try and disguise the length of the barrel or make it less obvious. One way to do this was to add a disruptive pattern to the end of the barrel, so I gave it a go after finding a couple of pics online and even at 1/35 I was surprised by how well it worked

in this first pic I noticed the blemish on the hull side which was repainted



Lastly it was gloss coat and decals. The markings are for the 17th/21st Lancers who were with 6th Armoured Brigade in Italy. I've left off the squadron markings as they will all be covered by stowage so it seemed a waste of effort, and decals, to put them on.



I hope you're still watching and if so still enjoying the build.....comments and crits are always welcome.
Cheers
Chalky

[Madmattmodels89]

Wow my friend! I love the paint job on the fly! Nice fading can't wait to see your weathering! And the plaster looks amazing! U sure u don't build houses????

[Augustus]

Right, I'm getting fed up now, having to say how good your kits are after every update! So, I'll just pretend I'm here to seek information.

What is DAS? Is it a brand name for some sort of clay or other craft materials?

[Stokesy44]

Paint job looks superb, really moving along now. Massively enjoying watching this thing as it develops.

Crazy super skills mate!

[chalkyw]

Wow my friend! I love the paint job on the fly! Nice fading can't wait to see your weathering! And the plaster looks amazing! U sure u don't build houses????

Cheers Matt .....I don't build houses but I do draw them for a living, though this one would probably fall over in a light breeze if it was full size