In which I frantically do a find/replace for "English" to "British".
The Sherman Firefly is one of those tanks from the Second World War that has a cult following, thanks in no small part to good ol’ English pride. The Commonwealth’s famed Tiger-killer was a years-long project attempting to fit the 17-pounder into a tank capable enough to fight while adding as little stress to the industrial power of the nation as possible. That is to say, if you design and build the best tank in the world but you have to halt your military output for a year to get them, is it worth it? Fitting the powerful 17-pounder into the ordinary Sherman was no easy task, but it was the easiest at the moment and resulted in quite a venerable tank.
Today we’ll be building the Sherman Vc Firefly by Dragon. This is admittedly quite an old kit, having been released in 1995, but I was able to pick it up for fairly cheap so this is what I’ll be working with. As well, I’m willing to bet the molding I have was at the tail end of the production cycle as a lot of the details aren’t as crisp as I’m used to seeing from Dragon, and some of the mold halves were pretty clearly misaligned. Further compounding things, a lot of the build footage has white-balance issues because the plastic is pretty bright. All that being said, it’s time to shut up and build.
Sources
1. Chieftain Firefly VC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBrOomoQJyc
2. Tank Chats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifxmd-uMU5Y&t=285s
3. Tank Fest Firefly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_AR--E6xTM
4. Sherman Tank Site: http://www.theshermantank.com/the-sherman-tank-variant-page-pages-for-each-type-of-sherman-tank/the-firefly-vc/
5. Sherman Minutia Site: http://the.shadock.free.fr//sherman_minutia/firefly_tank/index.html
6. Fletcher Firefly: Fletcher, David, and Tony Bryan. Sherman Firefly. Vol. 141, Osprey Publishing, 2012.
7. Tank sights: http://www.panzer-war.com/page37.html
8. English sights: http://www.wwiiequipment.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119:british-sighting-telescopes&catid=49:other-data&Itemid=61
9. Potential History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFJ_YqnlElY
10. Chrysler Multibank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYyh2NGPo3U
11. Multibank display: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sUbtEE8I-g
12. Chieftain 17pr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM74wlQongo
13. Pen tables: https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/385088-the-penetration-of-the-17-pdr-apds-ye-its-still-probably-wrong/
14. Weld beads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmtzsfW1hlM
15. Osprey Manual: Hernandez Cabos, Rodrigo and Prigent, John; M4 Sherman. Vol. 14, Osprey Publishing, 2001.
16. Bogey assembly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4-MkW4XMnI
17. Bogey comparisons: https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/misc/vvss/vvss.htm
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