SPA Modeler

LyleW wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:35 am Carlos, i laugh heartily at the foolishness of this statement “...I’ll have all the time ...”! Uh, no you won’t. Today for instance... found out yesterday we would have the youngest grandson. This morning, had to make a grocery run, so I added a Hobby Lobby stop, got home and put away stuff, fixed lunch and then found out we have to go get the three oldest grands. Their mom is still having issues from female surgery and is headed to the ER.

You will love retirement, but wonder how you had time to do anything.

Lyle, after nearly six years of official retirement, interrupted by a year and a half of a “part time” job, your words are most correct. I don’t know how I built as much as I did back when I was working…

Well, I’m gonna resurrect this dormant thread since today I went back to a couple of rebuild projects I have going…

The main thing I did was some airbrushing on this M5A1 that I built back in the mid 80’s. Awhile back I decided to add some sandbag armor to the glacis as well as backdate the turret from the late to early type…






As built in my barracks room back about 40 years ago…





turret changed, added sandbags to glacis area and primed…





I later popped open the loaders turret hatch in between then and now, glued it into open position, and added a few more sandbags onto the fender area… I’m gonna add a radio to the turret bustle since that was what goes there, and it’s quite visible through the open hatches in reality.






and today I gave it a fresh coat of the appropriate shade of OD… I needed to paint a new part for my Dodge WC project in OD, so why waste paint?





I want to give this one some black camo bands like was worn for Operation Cobra during the Normandy breakout, since this does have the hedgerow plow…

Thanks Bruce! I enjoy revamping old builds and making them look better than when I first built them.

That is looking very nice. I wish I had some of my old builds, but those are all long gone.

Gary Brantley wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2026 9:39 am That's a great idea and a wonderful updating of the older models, Carlos!

Brandons_Iron wrote: ↑Sun Mar 01, 2026 9:08 am That is looking very nice. I wish I had some of my old builds, but those are all long gone.

I’ll show my oldest one currently in overhaul here. I originally built this Sherman when it was a new release by Testors in the late 70’s. It was in decent enough shape so I saved it when I went through my old builds about 10 years later and kept it as is. Later on a I came across this photo of a modified M4A1 and having some of what I needed at the time in my spares bin, I decided to do the rebuild.



Around that time at a local hobby shop, I found the extra armor plate needed for the glacis. I had an unbuilt turret in my spare parts and made it into the modified configuration as seen in the photo, with the TC and loader hatches swapped as shown. A very unique situation that I’ve never seen on any other photo of a 76mm early T23 turret. For many years this is where the project sat stalled



Sometime in 2024 I decided to knuckle down and finish it up properly… first I removed the disintegrating old decals



Then I started adding some of the detail fittings that I had previously ignored and left off… and since no US Sherman looks proper without an engine deck full of stowage, Value Gear came to my rescue on that point. I also replaced the anemic TC’s .50 cal. that the kit came with, using a nice more robust Academy Ma Deuce from my spares armory.





Last year I got around to starting painting on it first a nice base coat of OD.





Then since the photo showed evidence of the occasionally seen two tone camo scheme, I added the black bands. I had not photographed those at the time of application, but finally did the other day





It’s almost ready for detail painting now… I also have obtained a set of replacement T48 rubber chevron with “duckbill” extended end connector tracks to replace the rubber block T51 tracks that the kit came with. So those are the next items to be dealt with on the Sherman eventually.

Really nice work Stik!

Oh my… that’s incredible restoration work. Looking forward for more.

Thanks! I’ll get this one to the finish line sometime in the not too distant future. Stay tuned for further updates here.

Another wonderful redo in progress! Bravo!