[Amccombs3]

There were times I thought I’d never be able to say this, but — I finished my Eternal Sherman model today. True to form, the last few details gave me some troubles. I might as well have made the split hatch functional, because the hinge details were ridiculously fiddly either way. And the Browning .50 caliber was a fitting end to the adventure, with the tiniest parts of the entire project, an absurdly flimsy mount, and several extra random parts (124h, j, n, and o) that GPM threw into the kit with no known usage. That last bit left me scatching my head. In theory, the .50 is removable, but I’m pretty sure the mount would break if I tried.

To sum up: I knew this would be a long-term project, and it certainly was that. I started it on Jan. 20, 2017, so it took nearly three calendar years to complete. But I suspended work on it several times during that period, so I estimate that It would add up to about 15 months of steady work if I had not taken any breaks. That’s still a long-term project by most definitions. The suspensions were due to discouragement or being completely baffled about how to proceed.

The kit offers numerous options for articulating parts. Ones that work on my build: the turret turns, the 75 mm gun elevates, and the left front hatch opens. As I mentioned at the time, the right front hatch was supposed to open, but something went wrong during assembly. The split hatch, loader’s hatch, engine hatch, and pistol port could also have been built to open, but I chose not to. Most periscopes could be built either open or closed, and I made some of each.

Things I’m especially pleased about: the tools carried on the back, and figuring out the bogies, with MUCH help (thanks again, Kevin Stephens and Greg Perry). I’ve talked enough already about the things that didn’t go so well.

My goal in writing this thread was to provide a fairly complete build report, with all the highs and lows. This is a popular kit and others may find a few hints when they build it in the future. I will freely admit that others have produced better examples than mine, but I definitely advanced my skills on this project. I’m looking forward to showing it “when next we meet again.” On to the next model!