M4 (105 mm) HVSS on Okinawa

[Jakko]

After several days of searching for pictures, looking at them, measuring on the model, making some sketches and finally asking on a forum, I built the lower part of the deep-wading gear.

Basic shape:



These are seven pieces of plastic card, plus a length of sprue as a brace. I made the large front plate from 0.5 mm card, and also the upper two parts on both sides. The lower ones are 0.75 mm card, to give some extra strength. When this dried, I glued an oversize piece of 0.13 mm card to the back/bottom:



When this had dried enough, I glue it along the bend and underside too, but then discovered that it's better to curve the plate a little here first. So, I took it back off, then pulled the centre area between a ruler and the edge of my work surface a few times, and glued it back on:



This because the back and undersides bulge outward if you don't make a curve in the plate first. They still do, but a lot less than on the first attempt. The bulge that's still there will get fixed when I add the framework that will go around the top. Once the glue had dried, all I needed to do was trim the plate to size, which is much easier than making it the right size first:



Well, I still need to clean up the seams and do a bunch of other stuff, but it already looks good against the hull:

 

[Jakko]

After puttying and sanding the seams, I painted the inside matt black — the duct will have been full of soot from the exhaust, I would imagine — and then started on the edge along the top:



First I put thin strip flat along the upper edge, which also straightened out the bump on the back because it got glued to the strip, and then a narrower strip vertically on top of that, both aligned with the outside of the duct. The top strips still stick out here, because once more it's easier to make it like this and only trim them down after the glue dries than to try and cut everything to the right length first. It will save you having to cut a new strip because you made one slightly too short, for one.

 

[Modelprofessor]

Looks like good scratch build work . I'm excited to see what you do next

 

[Jakko]

Trim down the ends of the strips Then add a bit more detail to the trunk, stick it on the tank, fit a bottom extension to it, and then proceed with adding the details to the hull and turret. I've been holding off on those until the wading trunk is fitted, for fear of damaging them, but I've taken much longer getting round to actually building this trunk than I would have liked.

 

[JOHN R]

Trim down the ends of the strips Then add a bit more detail to the trunk, stick it on the tank, fit a bottom extension to it, and then proceed with adding the details to the hull and turret. I've been holding off on those until the wading trunk is fitted, for fear of damaging them, but I've taken much longer getting round to actually building this trunk than I would have liked.

Never one to opt out the detail you add is brilliant.

 

[Jakko]

Thanks, though I must say that I'm finding that my fine motor skills aren't quite up to the job anymore to do it exactly as I would like

 

[Jakko]

This part is now done, I think:



Some strip inside the top opening for the reinforcing bars you can see on the real thing, some more strip for the fittings that the upper trunk hooks into, and an angled piece on the underside to cover the engine access doors in the hull rear. The shape is entirely conjecture because I couldn't find any photos that actually show this part.

The plastic strip along the side of the lower hull is the exhaust for the auxiliary generator, which on late-model Shermans runs on the outside like this. It's just two pieces of strip glued together to a 1.5 × 1 mm cross-section, then the edges rounded off and the end opened up with the tip of a knife.