Sherman BARV
The upper hull with the bits removed that Resicast tells you to.
Superstructure test-fitted to the upper hull.
Basic shape of lower hull built, to ensure good fit to the upper hull (I put them together while the glue dries).
More basic work on the plastic kit hull. The two bits of plastic strip at the rear are to (hopefully) guide the resin superstructure into place.
To get rid of the seam down the middle of the wheels, I decided to use the lathe in my father’s shed, rather than scraping them down like I usually do.
Before and after.
All of the wheels, plus one extra. The one at the front, with the rim on it, did not want to cooperate so I gave up on it and grabbed another wheel from …
… my Sherman spare wheels box … and this is what’s in it even without the two sets of alternative wheels from the kit I’m using for this conversion!
Most of the parts needed to build the bogies. The skids to go on top of the tracks are not there yet, and the wheels have already been put between the suspension arms, and the rest is all the parts for the bogies.
Six bogies built, still minus the track skids.
Superstructure glued to the upper hull, after a lot of fettling to get it to sit reasonably well.
There’s still a big gap at the front that will need filling, though.
Finished bogie, with the front face filed flat and four holes drilled. I also added a bolt head on top, outboard of the skid. There should also be one on the inboard side, but it will be very hard to see with the track in place so I didn’t bother adding it.
Superstructure with the rear plate added, leaving a small gap.
On the other side, though, the gap is much larger 🙁
On the lower hull rear plate is a piece that covers the exhausts on the real tank. The fit of this to the superstructure rear leaves big gaps along the sides, which Resicast’s instructions don’t mention at all but which I can’t leave like this.
The gaps are now filled with car body putty, plus thin plastic card over the turret ring openings on both sides. That will be trimmed to shape once the glue and putty have dried.
Pressing down the plastic card reveals the line of the turret splash guard, letting me cut it to shape fairly easily.
All the putty has been scraped down here, but some more filling was needed afterward, especially at the front.
Sides and underside of the rear extension tidied up with plastic card and more car filler putty.
I sawed the back of the square “box” around the exhaust pipes off because it should angle inward more than it did on the conversion kit part. I then rebuilt the cover from plastic card and punched bolt heads (blue because I had coloured the plastic card on one side with a marking pen).
Details from the conversion set added to the front, and rings (sawed from 7.1 mm plastic tube) into the hull ventilators, as on the real BARV these were waterproofed by welding a flat ring over the opening.
Weld seams added to the front from Magic Sculp epoxy putty, rolled out very thin, pressed into the seam, and textured with a knife tip.
Weld seams on the hull front now mostly complete.
And on the lower rear as well.
More weld seams on the hull, now mostly made with Green Stuff rather than Magic Sculp, because you can roll it out much longer before it breaks.
Green Stuff sticks to the model even worse than Magic Sculp, though, so I had to use superglue to stick it on even before texturing it.
Resicast gives parts for the splash plates around the superstructure, which you have to heat-form over a jig to put the necessary curve into them. They did not want to cooperate, so I just copied them in 0.25 mm plastic card. The plates around the engine cover still need to be added.
View from the top, showing the drain holes, which I put in different places than the Resicast parts have them, because I measured them from photos of a preserved BARV at leicestermodellers.w..om/sherman-barv.html
All of the splash plates are now on. I filled the gaps between the front four plates with thinned putty, but not those with the rear plates because those are separate parts attached to the engine cover on the real BARV.
I made the round part along the top edge with lengths of 1 mm half-round plastic strip, glued to both sides. It still needs some bits filling and scraping down to get rid of the seams, though.
Bending the legs of the catwalks worked better as this photo shows, than per the photo in the instructions. I didn’t hammer it down but used the side of the hammer’s head to gradually push.
Resicast has omitted that the supports under the catwalks are actually L- and T-profile. This is plastic strip added to complete them.
Tow bars and grab rails added to the engine deck. The grab rails are 1 mm plastic rod because the kit parts seem to have shrunk during casting, so they didn’t fit in their locating holes.
The catwalks are on now, and I shortened the left towbar by 14 mm because it was pointed out to me that BARVs carried two lengths.
The bumper on the front doesn’t fit the one-piece transmission housing because it was made for the three-piece. By cutting away the top part of the curve, I did get it to fit well enough, so I only need to remake a few bits of weld after the glue dries.
Anti-slip ridges fitted, made from two pieces of plastic strip glued into a T-shape, because Resicast gives etched L-profile ones that aren’t correct, and forgot those on the superstructure anyway. I also relocated the bilge pump outlet pipe and the two pieces of rod on the superstructure, as their locations are also incorrect in the conversion kit. Oh, and put welds onto the bumper supports where I cut those away to fit the nose.
Rings I made for the rope on the hull sides: copper wire wound around a drill bit, then cut into rings and flattened. (The conversion set has resin rings, but I felt they were on the small side, so I made these a little bigger.)
After glueing the rings to the hull side, I tied the rope to it. The idea here is that the rope, which I glued to the hull at the knots, will protect the rings and keep them on the model.
I remembered that I had a set of Panda Plastics T54E1 tracks partly built for another model that I started years ago but never finished, so they can now go onto this one.
Model withall the remaining detail bits added. I used Asuka’s fire extinguishers instead of the Resicast parts because they’re not as much the wrong size 🙂
The spare track links are Panda, in an Asuka rack, because the conversion set provides a different type, and the plastic rack is finer and easier to glue to the links.
Rear step plate (or whatever you call that) and ladder added to the rear, as well as the snatch block. I had to repair damage to that because it turns out you can’t fit it into its stowage hooks when both the hooks and the block’s rings are glued secure on.
And this build is now complete! Other than the tracks, that is, but I can only really see how long they need to be once the bogies are glued to the hull, which will be after I’ve painted them.
Now with a coat of Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000 from an aerosol can.
The conversion set is missing a piece of equipment stowed under the left rear catwalk, and though I don’t know what it is or is for, I began building what I see in photos of it. This is the basic shape that still needs the details added. It’s basically sprue with thin plastic card and strip.
Ropes on the side painted, because I know I’d get brown paint on the hull side so I’m doing this now, before adding washes etc. as this means I can touch up the grey without it being obvious.
Rack added inside the front bumper. I only did this after painting because I wasn’t sure it was on wartime vehicles, but then found a picture that shows it.
Second attempt at the 2-pounder recoil cylinder, now based on measurements of a real one that someone took for me off the gun he owns 🙂 He a comparison with the first one, which you can see was a bit undersize. The new one still needs more detail added, of course, but the glue has to dry first.
Finished 2-pounder recoil cylinder from the front (as it fits on the BARV, that is).
And from the rear. Most of the details are plastic strip and rod, with punched hexagons and discs, while the rough patches on the sides (where the trunnions were flame-cut off on the real thing) were made by applying some putty and texturing it with a pointed sculpting tool.
Last addition before continuing with the paintwork: a ring bent from copper wire. This was a guide for the cable when that was hooked to the recoil cylinder.
After spraying the new parts with Tamiya XF-81 and adding lighter patches to the panels from XF-81 lightened with white, I applied an all-over wash from Humbrol 140 Gull Grey (the genuine article, from a tin from the 1980s that had never been opened) and a drybrush of Rackham Sharp Grey (paint that has been out of production for about 15 years too …).
Unfortunately, the effect is not strong enough. The colours of both the wash and the drybrush are too close to the base colour, so they don’t show up well. You can tell I applied them by comparing the wheels on the left bogie, which are plain XF-81, with the ones on the right that have had the wash-and-drybrush treatment, but that’s about it.
Second attempt at an overall wash, which has more contrast and so shades the model much better.
A piece of paper helped a lot to get the paint only on the ropes, rather than the hull. This also shows how much washes and drybrushing will change the colour of things: I had painted the ropes with much the same colour brown before shading and highlighting the model, and now they were almost the same colour as the rest of the tank. After re-painting them brown, I added a darker wash and drybrushed highlights on them (again using a piece of paper as a mask) to make them look like wet hemp rope.
With the wheels painted (dark grey followed by slightly thinned Indian ink, then drybrushing with a few shades of grey), I glued the bogies to the hull. The drive sprockets are not glued but held on by their polycaps.
Now that the wheels are on, I could finish the tracks, which are from Panda Plastics (RIP 🙁). They need 77 links each for an Asuka Sherman (except the M4A4).
Tracks sprayed with Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey — and an unpainted spare link to prove there really is paint on the others 🙂
Markings on (a mix of the conversion kit’s and stars and numbers from Asuka’s Sherman V, as I’m not trying to replicate a specific vehicle), and the tracks fitted. The rope is loose at the front, but connected to the 2-pounder recoil cylinder — I still need to work out what to do with the free end.
The tracks were painted with a wash of dark red-brown paint over the grey, then drybrushed with a medium metallic colour and more lightly with a silvery one. The yellowish stuff is sand-coloured paint plus acrylic texture gel to represent sand from the beach.
Figure made from a Bronco war reporter with some Tamiya British infantry arms and an Italeri helmet (because the shape of Bronco’s looks off, and turns out to be just that according to a real one from my collection that I measured up). He’ll get the end of the rope in his left hand once he’s finished.
I’ve attempted to make the sand build-up heavier by adding more acrylic gel, now a type with a grainy texture in it. Of course, it still needs to be painted.
The model is now finished!
Comparison with a Sherman V to show how tall a BARV actually was.
Comentarii
44 2 July, 20:50
gorbyI think you win this weeks prize for most heavy duty modelling tool. 😄
Looks a very interesting conversion.
5 July, 06:33
Jakko > I think you win this weeks prize for most heavy duty modelling tool. 😄
Probably, yeah 🙂 It's a metalworking lathe, so a bit overkill for just turning down the seam on those wheels, but I didn't feel like aching fingers from scraping them down with a knife — I get those even when I hold them in a modelling vice, never mind just between my fingers.
> that kind of set up can tool a real bogie!!
Having seen a disassembled Sherman bogie up close, I must say I think this one is a size too small for that 😉
5 July, 08:53
Jakko @Mr D: that's not the welds yet, it's just the filler needed to plug the gaps 🙁 I'm still debating how to add all the weld seams.
@Ben M: An M2 screw, about 2 cm long, through the hole in the wheel, with a nut to tighten it. It needs to be fairly tight else chances are the wheel will stop as soon as the chisel hits it. On Asuka two-piece wheels, you need to do this before assembling the parts, because the hole on the piece to be glued in is smaller than on the part that has the tyre moulded on it.
9 July, 08:59
Ben MThank you, I can envision the setup. I have a small lathe and arthritis in my hands, this technique could help me a lot. Thanks!
9 July, 11:58
Mr DRegarding weld's l have seen super glue used through a fine tip, you need steady hand n move in pattern to create weld.
Sorry l was looking at the resin 🤔🤣.
Good stuff be keeping eye
On progress 👍👍
9 July, 13:30
Jakko @Ben M: What also works is a modeller's vice. Clamp the wheel in that, scrape down the seam with a straight knife over a third or so of the wheel, then unclamp and turn it, and repeat. If I scrape more than about two or three wheels by hand, my fingers ache enough that I have to stop, so the vice helps a lot. But you also get a lot of plastic scrapings all over your modelling area, so this time, I figured I'd put those in someone else's hobby room instead for a change 😉
@Mr D: Hahaha! The ones on the resin were put there by Resicast 🙂 But I'll now have to make ones that look similar, or at least not out of place next to them. I'm thinking a thin string of two-part epoxy, textured with a sharp tool.
9 July, 17:09
Mr DGood video 👍, the finish on the flat plate work looks authentic, l think it's had better rough cast look from the brush stippling before he added the putty coat.
Good idea on the weld , epoxy putty best as regular epoxy levels out again.
11 July, 12:55
Jakko I've begun to add the weld seams now — see photo 23 🙂 Basically, Magic Sculp two-part epoxy putty that I mixed up a very small amount of, then took even smaller amounts from that and rolled it as thin as I could in my hand before pressing it into the join between the parts. Getting it to stick there is tricky, especially once I began texturing it with the tip of a knife — it wants to adhere to skin and steel much better than to plastic, unfortunately 🙁 But with a bit of perseverance it does eventually stick.
11 July, 17:41
Robert PodkońskiI see some heavy duty equipment here and a lot of elbow grease... Good job so far, Jakko! Keep it up!
16 July, 15:17
Jakko Thanks, though this is fairly straightforward. The most difficult part was finding a good way to curve the splash plates, really.
16 July, 17:21
Mr DTaking shape now, the green welding joints are looking a better medium.
Interesting to see an adaptation taking place of the original.
Thanks for your posts, good to see steps
👍👍👍
25 July, 21:06
Jakko Thanks. TBH, I don't really care to look at photos of finished models — I much prefer seeing how they got to be that way, after which the finished pics make sense 🙂 So I post in-progress photos instead of only what it looks like at the end.
26 July, 08:57
Ben MLooks great, what an interesting subject. I enjoy your in progress photos.
My favorite bit is the martini glass holder up there on the bridge.
30 September, 16:06
Mr DHi Jakko👋
Very nice... great job, thanks for the uploads....be interesting to watch progress.
Like it 😁👍👍
30 September, 16:20
Jakko Thanks, guys 🙂
> I enjoy your in progress photos.
Speaking for myself, I much prefer looking at how a model was built, than how it looks when it's finished 🙂
> My favorite bit is the martini glass holder up there on the bridge.
I take it you mean the No. 19 set 'B' aerial …
30 September, 17:08
Ben MWow, that took a lot of work. Great result, and such an interesting vehicle. I wonder how many of these conversion kits actually get built!
18 October, 12:41
Jakko Thanks 🙂 It did take a good while, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. And I agree with Ben, you have to wonder how many people actually build extensive resin conversion kits these days … they're definitely not for the modeller who just wants to put the parts together.
FWIW, I also have Resicast's Sherman V DD and Terrapin (both complete kits) in my stash, which will probably be even more work 🙂
18 October, 17:07
Ben MI've looked at an m33 conversion for an m3 along with a resin gun to go behind it but honestly builds like this convince me to save my money; I'm not likely to ever build it and it'd just sit in my stash. I like to spend money on things I'll actually build.
I can just vicariously enjoy builds like this! I also really enjoyed your CDL build, all the corrections you did to it were really amazing. I like how deeply you research these things.
18 October, 20:05
Jakko Yes, an M33 would be a pretty intensive build, I would imagine 🙂 TBH, Resicast is probably one of the better "traditional" conversion-kit brands you could go for, but if you can't actually see yourself starting it at all then I agree it's just better to leave it. The main reason I had the BARV kit (and the Terrapin, DD, and some others) is because Resicast was going to close last year, and I don't see any plastic kits of any of these coming out in my lifetime …
As for research: I just want to build a model that's fairly accurate, and when the manufacturer gets it clearly wrong, I try and correct the kit 🙂 That's basically what lead to the detailling added to this model, but also the CDL modifications, adding a FULL set of deep-wading gear to a Churchill, etc. I couldn't have done any of these without being able to ask other people online about things I couldn't discover or work out on my own, though.
18 October, 20:33
Album info
The Resicast conversion set to make a Sherman Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle out of the Asuka Sherman III kit.
