"Road to Arnhem": Sherman Firefly.

[ww2hispanomodels]

Well, after some month of nothing ( more or less) here is my next project. This one I'll try to finish by the end of Octover, so you'll see all the process
I'll use this kit from Cyber-hobby ( dragon):



As you can see here, I'm still in the step number 1 - 2. It's a really nice kit, full of pieces that, if you have some parts from others sherman, you can build one more!





My idea is to put a lot of ammo boxes, helmets, weapons... in this tank, like some of the shermans that went to Arnhem on ww2:







That's it for the moment, I'll post some info from the battle in Arnhem or about the sherman tanks in this battle if you want

[Coen]

I've used this kit to build two of my Fireflys.
I love the firefly.
Next to the Tiger I it's my favourite WWII AFV.
I'll certainly enjoy watching you build this Dude.
I haven't built a Firefly in a while now, so this will be a treat.

[longlance67]

Having never built anything like this before I gonna really enjoy you work your magic on this project


cant wait to see how this comes together

all we need now is a little Micheal Caine


cheers


Shane

[Coen]

"A Bridge too Far" Freaking awesome movie.

[longlance67]

So many great actors in that film, I love Gene Hackmens horrible Polish accent hahahaha

[Coen]

I love the pretend Tigers (Leopards). Then there's that Half-track thing on the bridge.
And we can't forget Elliot Gould.
Great subject ww2hispanomodels, I can tell this will be a popular build haha.

[ww2hispanomodels]

Thanks for the comments. Yea, the dio will be based in the film . If there's no problem with copyright with the music of the film, in the final reveal it will appear the song

[longlance67]

this will be a great build !!

I've never copped the tiger's were Leo 1's also thought they were centurions lol

or my favorite actor in the film Antony Hopkins as Major Frost

[ww2hispanomodels]

Great subject ww2hispanomodels, I can tell this will be a popular build haha.

Well, I went to Arnhem two years ago ( I have family in Holland) and I wanted to do a dio about some of the things that happened. If you want to see some photos that I took you can go here:
http://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopi ... 84&t=11533

[Coen]

Wow... that was completely cool Dude.
One day I plan on a trip to Europe and I want to visit as many military museums as I can while I'm there.
My wife will want to kill be by the time that we're done, but the photos that I'll have will be worth it. haha.

[ww2hispanomodels]

Most of you might know what happened during the operation market garde, but for all who don't know a lot of information about this battle here there's some information about the battle ( text from BBC history):

The first day:

On Sunday 17 September, 500 gliders and 1,500 aircraft flew over the men of XXX corps, whose job was to follow beneath them in their tanks and trucks. As the aircraft flew over, the Allied guns began a huge barrage to hit the Germans guarding the road ahead. The weather that day was beautiful, with a cloudless blue sky and a warming autumn sun. Major Tony Hibbert remembers:
'... an enormous feeling of excitement, and I think everyone at that stage felt totally confident they would win. Certainly the flight over from England was absolutely beautiful. There was an absolute mass, an armada as far as the eye could see, in both directions, and about 20 planes wide, the most extraordinary sight I've ever seen.'

Moffat Burriss was a company commander in the American 82nd airborne division, charged with taking one of the crucial bridges at Grave.
'I remember standing in the door with a Sergeant, and we looked down as we flew over the bridge, and the tracer started swinging toward us and we ducked back, looked at each other and started laughing, because why were we ducking behind this little thin skin of the plane? It would not stop a bullet. And he stuck his head out and said you dirty Krauts, we'll be down there and get you in a minute.'

The sergeant's prediction was right. American and British gliders and parachutists drifted down on target, gathered up their equipment and began to move towards the bridges they had to take. The road up which XXX corps would have to travel to reach the bridges was narrow, just wide enough for two vehicles to pass. It was defended by small groups of determined German infantry.

As the XXX corps tanks approached, they picked off the leading nine vehicles, bringing the whole column to a standstill. It was 40 minutes before they moved again. The Germans were quick to organise against the airborne troops.

The British paratroopers began their advance towards Arnhem, and were soon under attack. They quickly found that their radios didn't work properly. It was impossible to co-ordinate the attack properly, because no one could communicate. However, one British battalion did find a way through the German perimeter around Arnhem, and by 8pm on the first day, they had captured the northern end of the road bridge across the Rhine. The Americans had also reached their objectives. But most of the bridges had been blown up before they could be captured.

At the end of the first day, XXX corps had advanced only seven miles from their start line, and had not reached the first in the sequence of bridges. Meanwhile the Germans were reinforcing, and their tanks were moving into Arnhem ready to take on the lightly armed British paratroopers.

So near yet so far:

On 18 September, the second day, XXX corps began to make the progress expected of them. Their tanks covered 20 miles in a few hours, hooking up with the Americans at one of the intact bridges near Grave. On the third day they reached Nijmegen, where the Americans were still fighting in the streets in their efforts to reach the bridge across the might River Waal.

Once they had taken Nijmegen bridge, only Arnhem would be left, and the north end at least was still in British hands. It seemed that Operation Market Garden might succeed.

But they could not get across the bridge. General Horrocks, XXX corps commander, ordered American troops to attack across the River Waal, so that they could capture the German end. The attack was enormously costly.

'The bullets hitting the water looked like a hailstorm, kicking up little spouts of water. When we reached about the halfway point, then the mortar and artillery fire started falling. And when a boat was hit with an artillery shell or a mortar shell, it just disintegrated, and everybody was lost.' (Moffat Burriss)

Half of Burriss's company was killed or wounded on the crossing. The survivors reached the far bank, and from there successfully stormed the Nijmegen bridge. At last the route to Arnhem was in Allied hands. However, it was too late for the British parachute battalion at the north end of the bridge. The Germans had moved their tanks into the town, and one by one they were demolishing the houses in which the British were fighting.

By now the paratroops had few anti-tank weapons, they had no food, and, crucially, they had little ammunition left. Major Tony Hibbert remembers the German tanks were now devastatingly effective.

'We really had nothing we could do to them, and they drove up and down the street, firing high explosive into the side of the building, to create the gap, and then firing smoke shells through that. The phosphorus from the smoke shells burned us out. By about 8 o'clock, on Wednesday evening, the fires got out of control and of course we had by this time about 300 wounded in the cellars.'

The Allied troops were forced to abandon their positions near the bridge, and to try and fight their way out. Three miles from Arnhem British paratroops were holding a pocket of land at the village of Oosterberck. By now XXX corps, commanded by General Horrocks, was on the other side of the river from the airborne troops. They could not, however, cross.

German artillery controlled the river. Horrocks decided to evacuate the British survivors; only some 2,500 eventually made the crossing. The Parachute division had left behind nearly 1,500 dead, and more than 6,500 prisoners, many badly wounded.

Operation Market Garden had failed. It would be another four months before the Allies crossed the Rhine again and captured the German industrial heartland. The war dragged on, costing the lives of many thousands of civilians and servicemen.

For more information, I recommend you to go to wikipedia or, if you have the opportunity, go to Arnhem and Holland, it's amazing!

[Gav0909]

Great topic to build mate. I once built a Sherman Firefly Hybrid hull for 15mm Flames of War. Although they do no model for it, so had to get a normal Firefly model, cut the front off the hull, and stick the front of a cast hull sherman in its place. All in 15mm scale! I won the competition it was for, so it was worth it lol.

[ww2hispanomodels]

Here some pictures of the progress of this weekend. Hope you enjoy it :

[Coen]

Great work dude.
Nice job on those pesky PE brush guards.

[ww2hispanomodels]

Great work dude.
Nice job on those pesky PE brush guards.

Thanks! With this tank I'll try to use all what I know about modelling. I'll use pigments, oil paints, filters... But first I have to buy some of them

[Coen]

haha... That would certainly help haha.

[longlance67]

some nice progress there mate, your fairly motoring along this one

Another interesting element to Market Garden was that General Kurt Student director of all German airborne forces also was involved, as being the man who more or less invented most of the tactics of airborne warfare he was one of the reasons why the drop zones in his sector were shut down so quickly as he knew from his own experiences with his Fallschrimager in Crete how counter the drop. I found this very ironic to say the least



great progress





Shane.

[ww2hispanomodels]

Well, new photos. I finally finished the chasis part and in by the end of this week I think it will be all completed. The tracks are not fixed yet, I just wanted to see what it looks like. Hope you enjoy it:









The kits I'm gonna use as boxes and equipment will be this ( I don't have it yet):

The first one will be this from Verlinden:



And this one from masterbox:

[longlance67]

nice work

[gosselin2112]

Awesome subject. Operation Market Garden and the following operations and engagements in the area during the Fall of '44 are pretty interesting. The fighting was very fluid, much different from other areas of the front at the time. I'll post a note about a book I just finished about the topic.

Again, nice build. Looking forward to seeing all the stowage you plan on adding.

Now go knock out a Tiger with it

Russ

[Coen]

I've used that stowage kit a few times myself. It's top drawer.
It's packed full of great stuff!!

[ww2hispanomodels]

Thanks for all the support!

Now go knock out a Tiger with it

Russ

Well, I'm not shure if I'll put a tiger in the dio, I'm thinking about a panzer V, we'll see

[ww2hispanomodels]

Just say that the project is not off, the sherman is finished but I'm waiting for the verlinden kit and the panzer. Stay there!

[EasyEight96]

Cool kit you got there.. how are you planning to paint the rubber tyres?? It sure looks difficult with wheels already glued to the suspension

[Schoof]

loving the build i very much like to see how the diorama turns out

[ww2hispanomodels]

Cool kit you got there.. how are you planning to paint the rubber tyres?? It sure looks difficult with wheels already glued to the suspension

Thanks! They are not gluded, that was just for the photo!

[Rob]

Nice looking kit. It's coming on a treat and those accessories are really going to make it special

[ww2hispanomodels]

New things: As you can see, I'm back! I used some parts of the verlinden kit to decorate. I also used some old parts from tanks I didn't used in the past. For example, the green parts are from an Italeri sherman kit and the yellow parts are from an Italeri M10 kit.

[Coen]

Great use of stowage dude!
I love the look of a tank covered in stowage, it makes it look they're part of the daily life of 4 or 5 fellas.
Well done buddy!

[DC87]

As you can see, I'm back!

Nice stowage, this Sherman is going to be ace when it's done

[EasyEight96]

Nicely done love it so much