Chilean M51 Sherman Conversion for Tamiya Kit no.323

Thanks for the most kind review, Eric!  Getting this to market was definitely a challenge, but quite rewarding.  The things you might do to scratchbuild something for yourself don't always translate to what is required to make castings, so there was a steep learning curve for that.  That's why we ended up with the brass louver arrangement:  I could build those armored lids in plastic, but they were fragile and would not have survived molding.  Once the decision was made to do those in brass, it made sense to do the track wrench bracket and turret box brackets in brass, too.  One item I did not include was a proper tubular gun travel lock.  The reason is simple; I haven't fabbed one up that I'm happy with.  Dragon, Academy, and Accurate Armour all make that part anyway.  None is quite right in detail, but all are readily available and I theorized that most customers probably had one or both of the plastic kits in their stash anyway.

Next up is a conversion to do the Chilean M60 HMGS with the IMI 60mm gun.  In the absence of a really good M50 kit, this will be a bit of a kitbash special. The parts are engineered for the Tasca M4A4 hull, but are easily adaptable to other hull types (shorten the rear section of the engine deck & relocate three bolt heads).  The turret bits are intended for a DEF turret with the bustle length corrected, but will also work with Formations, Dragon, or MP models with a bit of work.  My aluminum barrel will be a part of the kit, along with a new mantlet.  An optional upgrade will be a complete upper hull with the extended driver's hoods and IR periscope, and a second upgrade will be a complete set of lower hull parts to match, all designed to accept a Tasca/Asuka HVSS accessory suspension (customer to provide that).  Only three brass parts required for this kit!

Beyond that, I am finishing up bits for a very simple conversion set to do an M50 with a fabricated flat-plate engine deck, based on an image in Tom Gannon's book.  Rather further down the road are sets to do a Lebanese Firefly, and both types of the Argentine Firefly Repotenciado.  Both of those will require some brass, none of which has been designed yet.

Other suggestions for arcane Sherman bits or variants are welcome.

Greg

Nice job on the review Eric, good stuff right there.

Really?!?  I did a lot of the research for the South American sheets for Johan, and bought a bunch of decal sheets earlier this year.  Where did you hear that he has sold/closed the business?

Yeah, I emailed him and got it sorted.  And ordered a few more Bison sheets for my stash, of course.  It's a bummer that he's not planning on reprinting all the Bison products under the new Star Decals banner.  I may have to work on him to do a new sheet containing the Chilean & Argentine tanks.

That one is dormant right now.  The interior was never intended for anything other than my own model, and that's already inside the (dormant) model.  The Cummins was overtaken by events, specifically the release of the Tamiya kit.  I've never been entirely happy with the dimensions I've been given for the Cummins, and what I've got so far is definitely too large to fit.  I have to start over from scratch on that one. Doesn't help that it seems that Tamiya's firewall is perhaps .040" too far aft, and the wall thickness of the hull is rather overscale. 

Thanx for mentioning the Bison decal sheet. Mine just showed up. Got it off evil-bay.