Adding a 1/72 Sherman kit to Hatton’s 4 mm Warwell wagon

All photos by the author, copyright SN 2019

Last year I was excited about Hatton’s Warwell because for some time I had intended to establish a WW2

theme as one of my layout events at Trevean Siding, but needed a railway-related model to centre it around.

I had time to use the web for research into military vehicles and the history behind the wagons – all designed

to carry US-made Sherman tanks from the distribution depots to the embarkation ports to prepare for D Day

in June, 1944.

I intended to position the wagon and tank in a static pose in the siding, as if on show to the visiting public. I

have noted a few points below about how I went through this process:

4 mm Warwell wagon: 50t with diamond frame (ref H4-WW-001, GWR) bought from Hatton’s

(thanks for your help Christine and Vicki!). I clipped off the two couplings beneath the bogies and

added all of the extra fixtures that come with it (brake pipes were left drooping since no loco

connection was needed) and weathered the model very slightly using washes and chalks.

This helped to highlight the excellent surface mouldings, take away the shiny plastic finish and

represent the model as a ‘recently restored prototype’, as if kindly lent by a local museum.

1/72 scale Sherman M4A2 tank: an excellent kit made by Heller, bought from Creative Models:

www.creativemodels.co.uk

I am no expert in military vehicles (my last 1/35th scale Tamiya model was built in the early 1970’s

during O levels…) so I did some research and came to some conclusions about how the tank should

be modelled specifically for the Warwell on my layout – ready for railway transit (probably straight

from the US factory, shipped across the Atlantic to UK docks) so no machine guns or delicate

aerials, its cannon in stowed position and no waterproofing yet.

http://www.creativemodels.co.uk/

Once primed [ABOVE], I sprayed the model with Tamiya T55 Olive Drab and left it to dry

overnight, along with the two tracks sprayed matt black [BELOW].

No specific division markings were visible in the researched photos, so I painted a few patches over

what I imagined were serial numbers or Division details/symbols, none of which would be visible

during the secret D Day build up.

Only two ‘US star’ decals were added [BELOW] (and these take a lot of effort so I used decal setting

solution and patience – I left them to dry overnight before a final varnish).

Also, due to my choice of a conversion to a Deep Wading vehicle, the key parts of Dan’s kit (brass

etchings) were folded and glued together and mounted on the model (along with the single piece resin

block) as per the instructions. The rear engine radiator behind the turret was covered over (using 2

layers of tissue and thin PVA) and painted to represent canvas [BELOW].

Again, this vehicle was modelled to represent a recently restored vehicle, on a present-day Preservation

railway, so there would be no serious war-torn effects.

A slight chalk weathering on the wheels and tracks added a little extra effect to bring out the links’

details. Some black powder was brushed on around the fuel caps:

Deep Wading conversion kit (C72104): (thanks for useful guidance on the conversion kit) Dan

Taylor Modelworks www.dantaylormodelworks.com

Paint: Tamiya Olive Drab T55 spray can, following great advice from AnticsOnline:

www.anticsonline.co.uk

http://www.dantaylormodelworks.com/http://www.anticsonline.co.uk/

One final detail was obvious for this scene – fixing 4 chains between the tank and the wagon, 2 sets crossed

at both ends, as it would appear from photos.

I used 4 of the Smith’s LP5A screw-link couplings (minus the hooks), super-glued to the last ring on short

lengths of fine chain. These were then carefully painted so as not to clog up any of the tiny 1 mm links:

I turned the tank on its side and glued each of the coupling’s loops to the lower front moulding, one at a time

to keep the correct alignment [below]

….. then repeated the process with the others, gluing them to the back mouldings [BELOW].

Because I used the Smith’s pieces, that did allow some free movement (swivelling) for final adjustments,

despite them being hard-glued. I would like to find more appropriate mouldings for this purpose in the

future, and perhaps they are a little over scale. Something like the finesse of the Hatton’s coupling chains

moulding would be ideal. … have a look at the Minitanks lashings set on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Minitanks-05110-Wheel-Block-Lashing/dp/B01LYAZLX6

Once the tank was glued to the wagon via its tracks and had dried, the chains were then gently drooped

across each other and snipped to the correct length, then I used a drop of superglue to attach them to the

corresponding Warwell wagon mouldings [BELOW].

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Minitanks-05110-Wheel-Block-Lashing/dp/B01LYAZLX6

Finescale chain: AM436002 (1mm x 1 metre) bought from www.expotools.com

Fittings for the chain ends: Smith’s LP5A screw-link couplings

As I said earlier, I am no expert in military modelling so I have lots to learn, but this is an excellent

opportunity to delve into this fascinating modelling world – especially now it’s linked to railways.

http://www.expotools.com/