Camo Netting on Sherman Firefly Mk Ic (Hybrid).....

[Chris Preston]

'Afternoon All,

Two questions for those more knowledgeable than myself - I'm currently working on a large scale model of a Sherman Firefly Mk Ic (Hybrid), from the 28th CAR (British Columbia Reg't). One photo I have of the tank being modelled dates from April 1945, in Germany, showing a Firefly from A Sqn, BCR, 4th Arm'd Bge, 4th Cdn Arm'd Div.

My Questions are:

1. Is there a pattern for the cloth strips hanging from the netting (for British/Canadian camouflage netting), and it's colour?

2. Did the netting cover the entire turret, top as well as the sides, or was it just secured around the sides of the turret.

I can't provide the photo here, but can do so by private e-mail.

Many Thanks for the assist.

Chris Preston
Victoria, BC
Canada

[Chris Preston]

All -

Further to my last, here's the link to the photo in question:

https://www.backtonormandy.org/media...s/m/126042.jpg.

Cheers,

Chris Preston

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Chris, your link doesn't work for me. Typically there were two types of cam nets. On with a very small weave (3/4" +/-) and was coloured green and brown. Not much room for scrim. The other type is a tied twine with about 2" squares. Into these were weaved burlap strips (like sandbag material) of green and brown, often in right angle patterns. I could say more if I see your pic.

[maple_leaf_eh]

type in www ahead of back....

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by maple_leaf_eh

type in www ahead of back....

That worked.

The net is not one of the typical Canadian ones. American perhaps?

Alternatively, I wonder if it's a net at all. Its has hexagon segments so is it possibly a wire mesh semi-permanently draped over the turret with scraps of (no doubt brown, green or khaki) inserted?

[Jordan Baker]

Looks like a "chicken wire" type of mesh with burlap then pine tree branches

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Bruce Parker

Chris, your link doesn't work for me.

That’s because he linked directly to the photo, but the site doesn’t allow that —it wants you to view the photo on the site itself.

And damn, that site is a good example of non-user-friendly design … WTF sticks sets of a hundred photos in a lightbox that looks like it’s a new page, and that you can only scroll through by holding your mouse pointer over the bar of pictures at the bottom?! After looking through a few of those pages to try and find Chris’s photo, in hopes of providing a working link to, I gave up

Anyway, the netting doesn’t look like normal camouflage net to me either — you can clearly see hexagonal shapes, but too large to be standard chicken wire. I get the impression it’s wire over a piece of cloth (hessian or something?) and with some more bits of cloth and branches stuck/tied on. No idea how it’s attached to the tank, but since the spare track armour must have been welded on, maybe the welder also attached the wire onto the turret?

[Tim Bell]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

That’s because he linked directly to the photo, but the site doesn’t allow that

I had the same error about cannot hotlink with this url

https://www.backtonormandy.org/media...s/m/126042.jpg

I deleted the https:// prefix and hit return and the image opened.

Tim

[Chris Preston]

'Morning All,

Many Thanks for your replies.

When I enlarged the photo (don't know why I didn't think of this first), I can make out an hexagonal pattern underneath the foliage and hessian material. Now I have to figure out what I can use to replicate this in 1/16th scale.

Thanks everyone.

Cheers,

Chris Preston
Victoria, BC

[Tim Bell]

Originally Posted by Chris Preston

'Morning All,

Many Thanks for your replies.

When I enlarged the photo (don't know why I didn't think of this first), I can make out an hexagonal pattern underneath the foliage and hessian material. Now I have to figure out what I can use to replicate this in 1/16th scale.

Thanks everyone.

Cheers,

Chris Preston
Victoria, BC

Scratch built, or from an off the shelf kit? Do you have photos?

Tim

[Jakko Westerbeke]

The only Sherman kits in 1:16 scale that I know of, all have HVSS and all-welded hulls, so the only way to make a model of the tank in the photo would be to scratchbuild pretty much everything. You could use much of the hull and turret from the Tamiya M4 (105 mm) HVSS kit, but that would be about it. Unless there’s a kit I’m not aware of?

[Chris Preston]

'Morning Tim and Jakko,

This build is using Tamiya's 16th scale M4 (105) Sherman as the starting point.

The intention was to use as many kit parts (suitably modified) as possible, starting with the lower hull. As the kit suspension uses HVSS suspension units, with wider tracks, sprockets and idlers, etc, all the running gear was replaced with Mato VVSS units with Mato Sprockets, Idlers and Idler mountings, and new tracks with duckbills. In hind-site, it would have been easier to start with a complete new Mato metal lower hull with running gear already mounted, and ready to receive Mato gear boxes.

The Upper hull uses the rear portion of the kit hull mated to an after-market cast resin front hull (matching the real Hybrid hull) from Nick Aguilar, with weld marks and Applique Armour from sheet plastic added. The Turret is also a Nick Aguilar resin product for the Sherman Firefly, with a Tamiya turned metal 17 Pdr Barrel purchased many years ago.

I also am using lots of 3-D printed aftermarket accessories to finish the build off, including a correct early pattern Commander's Hatch, British Antennae mounts, and other small details.

All my photos are stored on my computer, but if you contact me privately with your e-mails I can send you some photos of work to date.

Cheers,

Chris,
In Victoria, BC

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Nice — I wasn’t aware of those conversion sets. Not quite as much work as I thought, at least

[Chris Preston]

Hi Jakko,

It's do-able, but not for the faint-hearted. If you'd like photos, PM with your e-mail address, and I'll send some to you.

Cheers,

Chris

[Jakko Westerbeke]

You could post pictures of it on one of the military modelling forums, like Missing-Lynx?