Sherman Crab chains in 15mm

Not a huge amount of progress modelling wise of late (mainly because of time away and then on my return playing Wargame: Airland Battle and Civilization V: Brave New World on the PC) but my trip to the club and the very nice things said about my painting and modelling work have got me rolling again. All be it to a slow start.

Here's a quick pic of where I'm at just now:

Sherman Crabs with alternative chain.

On Sunday I picked up a very very tacky bit of costume jewellery that had a suitable gold (coloured) chain. This was to use as the flail chains on my Sherman Crabs. I would add as well that I know of someone who added a great deal to the value of his models by chopping up some chain he found outside - only to discover it was actually a gold chain!

Top chain is the Battlefront one, the gold coloured one is the cheapo fake chain. The thinner chain is around 18 links per inch. I think I would have liked around 22 links per inch, although adding it to the model would no doubt have been much more difficult. 

Monday night was spent clipping the chain into lengths and then gluing the lengths to the drum on the tank. One of the most annoying jobs I've had so far. I think superglue gel would have been a much better substance for this. Normal superglue was too hard to control and made things stick in places and ways I didn't want. Gluing non rigid chain onto a rounded surface is no fun either. I tried to think of other ways to do this, but the best I could come up with was to use a file to file small lines in the drum where the chain was to attach.

I managed, after several hours, to get the chain the way I wanted it. This was the result:

Both Sherman Crabs.

Slightly out of focus close up.

I did run out of chain to do the inside of the drum, but picked some more up today. Hopefully another line of chain will be enough, and the spare can be used as stowage or details on other models. I might loop the chain around the top from the inside to give chain a little more bulk on the drum - but also as I figured that the chain whirls away from the tank so when it stopped chain would be still twirling around.

Anyway, that's progress so far. Next step will be sorting out the 4.2" mortars then everything can get primed.