Double Blog: Blue Shermans from Lebanon

[Philipp Gross]

And now for something completely different.

Back in the old days of Model Armour Gary and I agreed on a double build of two rather obscure versions of the otherwise well known Sherman. He is going to build one of the 16 Lebanese Fireflies, which found their way there from Italy in 1949. I'm sure he can tell you much more about that later

My project is a former IDF M50 Super Sherman in service with one of the various factions during the Lebanese Civil War in the early 80s.

All of this would be obscure enough, but the interesting part comes now: Many of these were painted blue, with shades ranging from very light greyish pale blue to outright dark blue. Some even had a camo scheme in two shades of blue. I have a good colour picture of some of these, with the running gear left in the original IDF sand colour:



You can find more pictures here, if you scroll down a fair bit.

I'll be using Dragon's old M50 kit, reissued a few years ago through Cyberhobby. I haven't planned on using any aftermarket sets (for lack of availability mostly), but I might scratchbuild a few things here and there. With Gary on the team it will be hard enough to keep pace anyway



The kit is mostly the same as the previous issue, though I'm not ruling out that Dragon has made a few tweaks on some parts. The most obvious new feature are the DS tracks, of which you get three. Yes, three. Since this tank is based on an M4A4 hull, it's slightly longer than your regular Sherman. To make the tracks fit, we're supposed to cut the 3rd into pieces and add it to the other two. We'll see how that will turn out....



I'd love to dive right in, but I'm afraid it's far too late already and I need to get up early tomorrow. So hopefully I'll be starting this journey after the usual daily torment at work. Thanks for watching and see you then

Philipp

[Rod Dumouchel]

So am I off the hook for doing a Panzer III now, since you are doing this double blog with Gary, of a proper AFV?(I hope Gary agreed to lend you some of his elves otherwise I don't think you are going to be able to keep up ).

Kidding aside I like the subject. Can't wait to see what you do with the M50, and Gary with the firefly

Regards,

Rod

[Raoul Kunz]

Wait what?! Seriously? Smurf M4A4s?!

Sounds awesome!


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz

[Glenn Knight]

Hi Philipp
Blue is supposed to have a calming effect

Looking forward to seeing this build progress

Cheers
Glenn

[Steve Hutchinson]

Blue Shermans, what next

2 tone blue camo

That does sound very cool,

Time to break your duck Philipp, and I am sure Gary will keep the pace up with the build and 1001 additions in a multiple materials

Great choice, and 6 wheels too

Steve H

[Gary Boxall]

And here we go - I'm the second half of the Lebanese twins

As Phillip correctly says, my contribution will be one of the Fireflies used by the Lebanese factions and were in fact, still in use up to 1979, making these the longest serving 17pdr-armed Shermans. They underwent several engine changes and I'm going to focus on what was essentially the same conversion that the Egyptians did to their M4 FL10 Shermans. This involved fitting a GM 6046 Twin Diesel engine along with the M4A2 style engine deck from around the early 1960s. The exhaust exited through the upper rear plate where the twin silencers were fitted.

For my build, I'm sticking with the best Firefly kit on the market by Tasca (Though Tamiya have just released a reboxed version) which I picked up from Vinnie a little while back. To this I'll be adding the usual plethora of photo-etch along with an RB Model turned barrel. My extensive Sherman spares box is providing the M4A2 engine deck.

I'm looking at building a knocked out and abandoned vehicle and to help with that, Steve Reid from CelticWerks very kindly cast some burnt out wheels and VVSS suspension parts after I sent him the masters. I'll be adding some Panda 'skeleton' tracks to complete the look. AK's Middle East War Colour set 1 provides the SLA Blue colour.

So, here are the ingredients....







It's not a straightforward case of simply building an M4A4 hull with M4A2 parts as the tool stowage was different on these vehicles. There were also some version which used a single or 3 piece transmission cover while some had a boxed type rear engine access doors and others had the standard M4A4 type. The turret had newer antenna bases and a guard rail over the commander's blade sight. I'll talk more about these as the build progresses.

Thanks for tuning in.

Gary

[Justin Wooding]

Very interesting Philipp and Gary! This will be a great blog to watch and looking forward to an eye catching couple of Shermans Thanks for sharing that link also, there are some great reference photos and diorama ideas there.

Have Gary's elves make it to the new website?

[Vlad Seabrook-Smith]

Should be a good one to watch.

So who will be first to use their blue tank as an avatar?

[Philipp Gross]

Thanks everybody for dropping in!

Since I hadn't really much opportunity to start building in the about 10 minutes since I came home from work I must ask for a little more patience

Philipp

[Philipp Gross]

Alright then. Didn't get much done tonight, but the keel is laid. Of course, Dragon has prepared a few surprises to keep us alert. Wouldn't want to let things get boring, eh?

Surprise number 1: The mounting plates for the HVSS suspension have these two little pins to keep them properly aligned. In theory. In practice it prevents any sort of fit. You have to chop off the upper pin to get them to fit to the lower hull, which is a standard M4A4 piece as far as the kit is concerned.



Surprise number 2: The triangular braces on the underside extend too far to the sides. Since nobody will see anything of it ever again, I messily chopped off a few millimetres from both sides. I'm fairly certain the semicircular cover of the M4A4 engine was missing on the M50, but since I don't know how it looks in reality I'm leaving it as it is for now.



Surprise number 3: The HVSS has five small return rollers per side, three atop the suspension units and two smaller ones inbetween. There are no markings whatsoever for their placement, once again thanks to the standard M4A4 hull being provided. You know you're getting old when you notice such things before it's too late



There's the final result for today. I still hope to have the lower hull done by the time Gary is painting his Firefly

Philipp