Grant CDL in 1:35

[scottie3158]

Jakko,

Nice bit of the old scratch there mate.

[Jim R]

That's a very neat result Jakko. Laminating the card to get the needed thickness is a good idea. Over size and then sanding back is a tip worth noting. I fear I would have cut to size, sanded to neaten, ended up with something too small, sworn, binned it and started again!! :rolling:

[Guest]

With laminating, you always end up with plastic that doesn’t quite fit together flush — see the “before” photo If you make it slightly larger still, you can even saw it to size, but I didn’t here.

[JR]

Great information as expected from you, and some neat drawings.

[Mini Me]

Keep it coming Jakko.........shaping up nicely.

[Guest]

Thanks I now need to work out the sizes of the missing stowage boxes. Luckily I have a good photo of a Grant CDL from the right to work from.

[Mini Me]

Yes, if it weren't for photo refs. I couldn't get anything built....most of the time it's all I have to go on. I'm sure you'll make a fine job of it. :thumb2:

[Guest]

My problem with photo references is almost the opposite I want to build something simply and relatively quickly, and then I find photos showing things that clearly need adding or correcting …

[Mini Me]

Very True.........when you are done adding all those little bits and bobs you have a truly unique as well as accurate model of the real deal......at least that's what I strive for. The best part for me though, is when some rivet counter comes up and says that isn't accurate because all they looked at was the box art and the instruction sheet!

[Guest]

I like building models to replicate photos as closely as possible, but I also like building things straight from the box, and everything in between. What always irks me a little, though, is when a kit looks like it’s basically good, but then you find that it’s got some very obvious omissions or mistakes — like this one. I freely admit that photos of Grant CDLs* are hard to come by, but even on the best-known ones that you come across everywhere in relation to the real thing, you can see bins and the air intake cover that aren’t in the kit at all.

* Side note: research turned up that it seems most Grant CDLs were actually built on Lee hulls The USA supplied a whole bunch of suplus M3 medium tank, which is to say the version the British called the Lee, specifically for conversion to CDL. But afterward, they were known as Grant CDLs for some reason.

[Guest]

Here is the mostly complete engine deck:

[ATTACH]472923[/ATTACH]

Minus the stowage bins I’ve been talking about, of course, that Takom forgot:

[ATTACH]472922[/ATTACH] (photo via John Tapsell)

All three are visible in that photo: an angled one on the front mudguard (it should also have a lid, missing here), a triangular one at the rear of the superstructure and a rectangular one behind.

The three bins Takom does supply are at the left rear of the superstructure, which is missing two tabs that hold it to the tank (the bits of white strip I added) and the two oddly-shaped ones on the rear corners. From these, it’s obvious that the sides of the overhanging part of the engine deck are too short: there was a gap between the two sides of the brackets holding the bins to the hull, so I filled it with a little plastic strip. The kit’s fire extinguishers were replaced by some leftover from Asuka Sherman kits, because they’re a little bit better in appearance.

Now let’s get geeky … notice the fuel filler cap covers. Takom supplies them like this:

[ATTACH]472924[/ATTACH]

If you look closely at my model, though, you can see I cut the pins short. This is because the long, curved pins are a feature of the M4 Sherman, not the M3 Lee/Grant, which almost invariably had short pins. Cutting the parts off just before the bend solves this nicely. (These pins hold the lids closed: pulling them out allows the lids to hinge open. The pins were retained by short chains, but I don’t think my modelling skills are up to adding those, given that I have nothing suitably to represent them with )

[Guest]

Now for those stowage bins Takom didn’t have the heart to include … Always fun, scratchbuilding stuff that slopes in all directions Armed with some photographs, my model and a ruler, I first drew plans of the bins:

[ATTACH]473469[/ATTACH]

The rear right bin will serve nicely as an example of how to build something like this. After copying the drawing to some 0.5 mm plastic card, remembering to take off the card’s thickness, I cut out the parts and put them together:

[ATTACH]473471[/ATTACH]

I made the two side panels to the full 30 mm length, but reduced their height by 0.5 mm to account for the top plate. The front and rear plates were similarly lowered by 0.5 mm but also made 1 mm narrower, because of the thickness of the two sides.

Getting them square is made easier by glueing square rod in the corners, as you can see in the photo.

I didn’t bother cutting the top plate to size — in fact, it’s smarter to not do that. By sticking on plate that is clearly too large:

[ATTACH]473470[/ATTACH]

… you can trim it to size with knife and file when the glue is dry. This way, you don’t have to get its size exactly right, so it’s far simpler to build. And after trimming it, you can’t tell the difference:

[ATTACH]473472[/ATTACH]

Next, I sanded all sides of the box to get rid of the file marks. After that, I glued 0.5 × 0.25 mm strip around the top to form the edges of the lid of the box:

[ATTACH]473473[/ATTACH]

This uses the same technique: cut strips that are a bit too long and glue them so they overhang one edge, then trim the remainder off once the glue has dried. This, though, leaves a groove around the top of the box, which I needed to fill with putty:

[ATTACH]473474[/ATTACH]

That was then sanded smooth again, after which I could add the hinges and catches that keep the lid closed:

[ATTACH]473476[/ATTACH][ATTACH]473477[/ATTACH]

The hinges are just little bits of 0.1 mm plastic card with a stretched sprue bit at the top, while the catches are 0.5 × 0.5 mm strip with a bit of thin copper wire (from an electrical cable) bent into a rectangle glued around it.

And on the model:

[ATTACH]473478[/ATTACH]

The bin that Takom does provide, by the way, has catches that look like this:

[ATTACH]473475[/ATTACH]

These represent eyes attached to the box, over which a hinged flap goes to secure the bin. However, photos of the CDL in India show the kind of catch that goes over a hook on the edge of the lid and is then snapped down, which my effort tries to replicate. So, I cut off the catches on the kit bin and replaced them too:

[ATTACH]473479[/ATTACH]

[langy71]

Some serious scratchery going on with this build Jakko, excellent work dude.. :thumb2:

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Some lovely detail work. I guess details on kits is dependent on which particular vehicle they can use as reference. Given that 3 museums may have 3 different versions of the same vehicle including omissions, field mods etc.

[Jim R]

Excellent additions Jakko. Not too difficult to get an accurate correction with your straightforward methods.
I suppose kit makers work from museum exhibits rather than photos and as Scottie says they often do have omissions and inaccuracies.