So I don't know if many of you know, but recently Dean has acquired a partially built Dragon 1/6 scale Sherman. We have seen this NIB kit couple of years ago at a local hobby store, but neither of us pull the trigger then and have been thinking about it since. As you all know Dean has his hands full now with the 1/6 KT, so he kindly offered the Sherman to me which I happily accepted. And so it begins. I have since acquired most of the after market upgrade from Spyker on this kit. The only two upgrade I didn't purchase which I might still is the bogie working suspension and the nylon tracks. 

The reason I didn't acquire the bogie suspension kit is because the bogies are already built and I am not sure if it is worthwhile for me to try to retrofit them. The tracks I am not too concern about as I don't expect this baby to be running alot. Turret recoil/elevation/rotation will be added, as well as motorized and hull re-enforcement. I have a spent limit on this and I am hitting it even without the upgraded tracks and bogie suspension. My target is to have it ready for Oshawa again this year and hopefully offer to sell it to our 1/6 Quebec friends who purchased my 1/6 M3 last year.

Since this is even bigger than the M3, I can only work at one section at a time and here is a peek at the turret.

Wow!

Cool. Is it the 105 like Derek's Tamiya? How much paint is that going to need? I used 4.5 cans of Tamiya TS-3 just on doing a repaint on my Tamiya Tiger 

1/6 tag Jarlath..........

Well I can't afford to paint this with Tamiya spray bomb that's for sure. Maybe the larger cans from Vallejo or even Canadian Tires flat camo. That's a problem for another day.

My immediate issue is that the recoil kit from Spyker is for the original 75mm barrel and not the larger 105mm barrel. Back to the drawing board. The mantlet is also different but I think it will work the same way.

I need to redo my 1/6 Sherman's recoil. I wondered if the Spyker one is decent?

I can't believe how many winter projects you have had on the go this winter. From my count

Panther F
KV-2
SU-152

and now this big model   

Jarlath wrote:

I need to redo my 1/6 Sherman's recoil. I wondered if the Spyker one is decent?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSw3agR5Ooo

It only works with the 75mm short barrel. I have the 105mm only, so I am trying to find the 75mm and the mantlet. I think I might have find someone to sell it to me from their spare bin.

Abteilung 506 wrote:

I can't believe how many winter projects you have had on the go this winter. From my count

Panther F
KV-2
SU-152

and now this big model   

Yeah...... And also stuff that are coming in the mail. Too many ideas. The one you listed are to replaced the ones I sold to Zach.

Cool. My 3 Tiger projects are stopped dead in their tracks while I wait for various stuff to arrive. The piece I really want to arrive is from East Coast Armory but I know it can be painfully slow from him and then one day they arrive. CBSA isn't exactly going much faster than glacial speed on the 2 packages that are here in Canada

I am thinking of doing a M8 Grey Hound when Andy has it ready. Already got all the bits for a 1/16 SdKfz 251 with RC bits coming from 35RCTank and something special from Carson@DKLM......

Need to sell more tanks.

Checked out that 35RCTank site. That working Famo will be great to see on the field

What FAMO at 35RCTank ? 

Have you seen my Asiatam FAMO ?

Their 1/16 Trumpeter  251 kit conversion. My mistake not a Famo. Yes I have seen your big Famo at the hall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prIcraVSk4w&list=PL47C0F8EE00C0C3DE

Abteilung 506 wrote:

Their 1/16 Trumpeter  251 kit conversion. My mistake not a Famo. Yes I have seen your big Famo at the hall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prIcraVSk4w&list=PL47C0F8EE00C0C3DE

Yes that's the one I have coming. All their releases are limited they blast it to past customer first and it is always gone right away so I jump on it. Bought the Trumpeter kit off eBay.

Do you have to strengthen the Trumpeter kit to take the extra strain or unlike non rc tank models is it rigid enough already. One thing I've been thinking about when I re-did these Tigers is that with the high price and scarce availability of certain non operational parts (especially Tamiya) and all the shipping charges and wait times from multiple sources it might be much cheaper (and certainly easier to source) to buy some of these static kits from the likes of Andy's ,Trumpeter ,Das Werk etc and cannibalize them for their various hull details. For example in some cases even if you could find a Tamiya sprue that you need for maybe one or 2 trim parts with shipping and potential duty charges you are looking at almost the price of some of Andy's ones

No idea but when I kit bash I do that all the time. I did that with Big Mike's Pz IV, Heng Long Upper with the Tamiya turret skirts. Andy's Sherman kit would be great for supplementing Heng Long Sherman builds. Also used the Trumpeter T34/76 Early turret and put it on a Taigen T34 lower.

Mike are you going to get one of these? I wish I had the skills and knowledge to build these things but I need to stop buying stuff anyway  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbss1i7Lz9g&t=27s

Abteilung 506 wrote:

Mike are you going to get one of these? I wish I had the skills and knowledge to build these things but I need to stop buying stuff anyway  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbss1i7Lz9g&t=27s

Kettenkrad looks cool stationary, but weird moving...it really needs a scale operator to carry it off.

Oh and sure Martin, you’re gonna stop buying rc stuff ~wink~

Well I do have my eye on a Stug................ . My problem is there isn't a single tank I could bring myself to sell and not sure there would even be a market for them. I haven't developed the non sentimental detachment to their tanks the club veterans have which allows them to always be building new tanks

All your tanks would be very marketable!!!

I don't know. RC tanking is a very niche hobby. Those tanks have been built mostly for our field plus I have no need to be selling them off for like $500. I'm thinking with 15 and soon to be 16 battlers I might build field runners that just keep the stock electronics to keep the price down if I want to amuse myself with a new tank. That little HL Panzer III was a revelation to me in the fun dept.

Oh ya, they have more value than that; at that point just keep them in your collection.

Abteilung 506 wrote:

I don't know. RC tanking is a very niche hobby. Those tanks have been built mostly for our field plus I have no need to be selling them off for like $500. I'm thinking with 15 and soon to be 16 battlers I might build field runners that just keep the stock electronics to keep the price down if I want to amuse myself with a new tank. That little HL Panzer III was a revelation to me in the fun dept.

I know that Dean and I had discussed creating a few "Rentals" for when we do Aquino. During our down time, have people rent and battle. Keeping the field active and gaining audience participation.
One of the reasons I have so many tanks... I really only have 3-4 battlers that I use.

Quick update. Have to switch to work on the body, needed the 75mm barrel and mantlet and a fellow 1/6 tanker came to the rescue and it is on its merry way. Mean while it is the stiffening kit from Spyker and probably the motors as well until the 75 mm shows up. Have to get a new drill/driver as my baby 4V Ryobi didn't cut it for 1/6 apparently. Got an 8v from Amazon and was worry I need a 12v but might be too heavy. 8V seems okay.