Belton Y. Cooper’s 1998 memoir Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II is full f stories that make ‘Fury’ look like Disney...

Anyway, this is a fantastic addition the iModeller at the Movies GB. Has all the hallmarks of a Gardner classic. With Morne climbing on board, we’ve reached an unbelievable 90 members, and some stellar build projects.

I appreciate all the work I know you’ll put into this Louis, you are a real heavy hitter on this site and your support means a lot.

Here’s my ‘Fury’ contribution. No idea who the fat old guy is in front of the tank though.

Thanks gentlemen for the thoughts and feedback for this build. I would really be grateful if you could send me any pictures of the "Fury" Sherman that you may have squirreled away. I will try my best to make this model one look as close to the real "Fury" as I can.

So any pictures or personal observations you may have, please don't hesitate to send them my way if you don't mind, just as my good friend David Mills has...

Thanks Dave ! @davem
Your photos are exactly the type that I have been looking for.

Morne, @mornem
I sincerely appreciate the kind words. Please continue to keep Sandy and I in your prayers. Hopefully she can beat this terrible disease just as your mother has. I'll return the favor and add you and your mom into my prayers too... Thank you !

Jeff B. @mikegolf
It's always good to hear from you. I remember talking with you about your ordeal with cancer. It's a horrible disease. You were very fortunate in many ways as you mentioned in your posting. You are living proof that it can be done. God bless you man ! I am hoping that the treatments continue to improve, and an even better thing would be to cure this disease once and for all. They have made some progress for sure...

As far as naming your tank... this is something a tanker would like to do, but we were not allowed to have names on our vehicles in my unit. So we often called the tank a name instead of actually painting something on it. For a while, I mentally thought of my tank as "Sue"... for at the time I really cared for this young lady with the same name. She was the "one that got away", but it was my fault. We all have one of those, (at least I do).

Now when we got our brand new M1A-1's, we were allowed to name them. "M" Company got theirs first. Since they were "Mike" Company, all of their tanks were names with a name starting with the letter "M". There were tanks called "Minotaur" and "Man-o-War", names like that.

I was in "L" Troop, so our tanks were to be named something starting with the letter "L"... My crew had mentioned to me about naming our tank "Lucifer", Loucifer or even Louisifer since my name was Louis... I didn't find this very amusing, and so it was shelved for a name.

Robert @roofrat
Thanks my friend... we are definitely venturing into new territory, with this model build, and with the cancer treatments.

Stephen, @stephen-w-towle

Thanks for the kind thoughts and continued prayer for Sandy. We sincerely appreciate this.

I have to agree with you that most tankers would have likely became "Infantry" when their tank became disabled and took the high road given a similar situation. They probably would have destroyed it in place, leaving nothing valuable behind. The only way I can see this actually happening is if they were ordered to hold the position "at all costs"... then it very well may have occurred. Orders are orders, and this very well could have happened if the tank crew knew if they abandoned their post, their fellow soldiers lives behind them would be at risk.

Soldiers will "Risk a lot to save a lot. Risk a little to save a little...Risk nothing to save nothing."...

We had this saying when I worked in the Fire Services, and it is also true for the military.

David ... @dirtylittlefokker

the pictures you just posted are priceless ! Many thanks ... I have read the book "Death Traps" by Belton Cooper. I loaned it out and it was never returned... bummer. It was a very honest and scary first hand account on how the numerous knocked out / damaged Sherman tanks were recovered, repaired, and when possible returned to front line service. The horrors he saw inside these mangled wrecks... very sad. One particular part I remember from the book was how they would repaint the interiors of the tanks with a fresh coat of white paint, yet still the smell of death would linger on... horrible stuff. If anyone reading this has even the slightest interest in WW2 American armor, this book is a worthy addition to your collection. It gets 5 stars from me...

Today I had some outside chores to take care of in our yard. While doing this yard work, I had an idea ... about how I was going to replicate the 3 logs that are strapped to each side of the tank.

While trimming back / pruning our crape myrtle bushes, I came up with this idea to use some smaller straight branches from the shrubs... So I cut off this handful of small diameter branches that are reasonably straight.

What better way to replicate wood, than using actual wood ?

The plan is to trim these down to size and try to cut the ends off angles as the ones on the side of "Fury" are... Now I need to locate some small diameter rope... maybe something similar to what is commonly used for model ship building, like the old sailing vessels.

Thanks again everyone for the comments, and please stay tuned for another update soon. I'm going to be cutting some plastic parts from the trees here in a few...

In typical "Iron Werks" fashion, I'll be building two Sherman's at once. One will be the Korean War version for Jamie Carreon's "Nose Art" GB and will have a huge red Cat Face on the front slope. I wanted to build one like this using the older Dragon DML kit back when we had the "Year of the Cat" GB happening... but I ran out of time.

The set of AFV club tracks arrived today in the mail...

Here's a peek as to what is inside the box. Two plastic bags containing the parts...

The assembly instructions are on the back of the box.

It is a very simple affair to put these together. First off, you snap on a center guide... then snap the track block to another one.

Then you add the end connectors. The instructions show it being done 4 at a time. Personally I have found it easier to just do one at a time. That way you only have to line up one set of tracks.

Here's the painting guide. The rubber coated sections of the track are painted "tire black" and the rest is painted "steel".

Here's a close up of one bag containing the parts.

I removed one of the plastic trees to show the details molded into the track parts.

This close up shows the rubber cleat side of the track and the end connectors. This is the side of the track that makes contact with the ground on the real tank.

This next picture shows the back side of the track where the road wheels ride on the track. They also show the center guides on the far left side of the picture.

The back side of the track block has some ejector marks cast into them. Hopefully they will not be too hard to take care of. Most often this section of the track is hardly noticeable anyway...

as usual,
Comments are encouraged...

This is a mother lode. An ‘A’ lister iModeler thread. Cream rising to the top.

Just love these posts that are part Work in Progress, part instruction, some stream of consciousness, and just good ole boys around the bench.

Really l8ke the ‘logs’ Louis. Excellent fit.

This may get me motivated to do my ‘Oddball vs. the Tiger’ dio - another to add to a growing collection of WiPs.

Brilliant stuff, Louis. Excellent entertainment.

Another incredible WIP, this has now motivated me to go ahead and build a Sherman, When D-L first brought this movie GB, the first movie that came to mind was Kelly's Heroes and the Shermans used in the movie. Shelved it and moved on with the Final Countdown build first, then the Firebird in Smokey and the Bandit. Figured I would have a full plate with those. Now with your Sherman thread, you know what the heck lets go ahead do the Sherman and maybe a couple of more vehicles used in the movie, maybe a Tiger even.

And give Sandy a big hug for me. It will be all good, tough journey but you two kids will overcome, God Bless.

Hello David, @dirtylittlefokker
Your comments are much appreciated my friend... Sometimes the best things happen when we least expect them to. Inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. The logs idea came to me when I was trimming back some shrubs in the yard... I was just daydreaming away, thinking about the logs on the side of Fury and then it hit me.

I really enjoy these WIP's threads. Just ordinary guys shooting the breeze...

In case you're interested, I posted up some pictures of "Oddball's" Tiger over on Chuck Villanueva's Kelly's Hero's build journal... I'll "borrow" one or two (or three) pictures back to tempt you.

You don't have an old T-34 kit laying around do you ?

You could take a turret from a Tiger (or even scratch one since the sides are flat) and make up a "hybrid" of your own... That's how the real one was. A T-34 hull modified to look like a Tiger... of sorts. Kind of... 🙂

You might even have a few parts left over from your last Tiger dio... DML often included multiple front mantles, and even turret stowage boxes in some of their Tiger kits. There's even the possibility of a spare Commander's cupola in the box.

I just noticed that the turret numbers are all different on these... You might have to watch the movie again to find out which one is correct... Hmm.

Food for thought AND some inspiration.

Take care !

Hello Chuck ! @uscusn

It pleases me knowing that this journal has inspired you to build up a Sherman... I have been watching your build journal with much interest... I'm sure if you decide to build up a Tiger that you would knock it out of the park.

Kelly's Hero's is one of my favorite "War" movies and I'll watch it anytime it comes on TV...

My little Sandy's been a real trooper so far. Thanks for the kind words, and please continue to keep her in your prayers.

Thanks buddy... 🙂