1/72 Diguised Firefly
Dated: May 2, 2009
Hi there,
Three pics of an Armourfast vehicle I recently completed (while waiting for transfers to finish other projects):
Is it Sherman....
Is it a Plane.....
No its a Firefly!
Firefly's quickly became priority targets for German tank gunners as they knew the 17 pounder had a decent chance of taking out a German tank. To counter this Problem the British did many things, such as painting a wavy blue line along the first half of the barrel, fitting a false muzzle brake halfway down the length and so on.
One idea was to fit a false 75mm gun barrel and mantlet on the back of the turret! Some 48 kits were made and 24 kits actually fitted (although I've never seen a pick). It is not known if the idea was succesful however crews were rather against the idea of going into action with the main gun facing behind - especailly in forests!
The false gun would be mixed with a lot of camoflage and hence this model. Tigers and Panthers will now have nightmares about hairy Fireflies wondering in the woods with double barrels....
Regards John
France