Yet another Sherman: early M4A1 (75)

[Steven000]

Nice progress Jakko, really like the look of those sandbags! :thumb2:

[Guest]

Thanks, though they are almost surprisingly easy to do (which makes me think that people who buy resin sandbag sets for tanks have never even thought about how to make them themselves).

Earlier today, I adjusted the track I had built to fit it to this model:

[ATTACH]409838[/ATTACH]

First, I removed the curved bit that goes over the idler wheel, and then took out six links, two at the top and four at the bottom from the remaining lengths. After some minor adjustments to the track’s shape, I glued first the top run to the sprocket wheel and the return rollers, then glued the bottom run to the sprocket and the roadwheels. Finally, by trial and error, I made some more adjustments to the section that sits around the idler wheel and adjusted the wheel’s position to match before glueing both into place. The Asuka Shermans have a separate idler axle, so it can be adjusted like on the real tank for proper track tension, making this pretty easy.

Now all that’s left to do is build the track for the other side …

[Guest]

There was more work on the turret than I thought. It was, of course, not too smart of me to build it before working out the details it should/could/might have had, so I ended up having to remove some bits from what I thought was the finished turret …

[ATTACH]410080[/ATTACH][ATTACH]410081[/ATTACH]

To be precise, I pulled off the vane sight and filled its locating slot, as well as cutting off the vane from the hatch lid, because these were only introduced in 1943 and this tank, to me anyway, looks sort of autumn 1942 production or so. For the same reason, the socket for the searchlight had to go, just to the left of the ventilator on the turret roof. I also removed the three little round pads, because I thought these were a feature of later turrets too. It turns out the presence or absence of these is determined by the manufacturer of the turret shell, not turret production date, but I had cut them off already As I also still needed to add casting marks, I had to find plausible ones for a turret without those pads. Eventually, I solved that by mostly copying them from a turret drawing in Son of Sherman.

The marks themselves are Archer 3D transfers, which are fiddly to work with but look good once painted. I put down some Tamiya Smoke first, mainly because I wanted some gloss paint underneath to let the decals stick better, and this was the first I had at hand. It needs a second coat over them to secure them in place, as I found last time I used these, that they come loose easily.

I also built the second track:

[ATTACH]410082[/ATTACH]

This was done as four lengths: flat top and bottom runs that I let dry before proceeding, then a length for around the drive sprocket that I glued to the other two (and the sprocket) as I put it onto the model, and finally, a length around the idler, so I could adjust that to get proper track tension. These tracks are fiddly to work with and just about impossible to do unless you work like this, because you simply cannot build a whole track without glue and put it onto the model Also, I had to take about 15 to 20 links (I’m not quite sure) from my second set of these tracks in order to have enough for even one tank …

Anyway, I’d say the model is finished now and ready for painting :

[ATTACH]410083[/ATTACH]

And here it is with its younger brother to sort of illustrate how the real Sherman evolved in about two years’ time:

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[Tim Marlow]

Looking fine Jakko. Great work on the sandbags.

[Guest]

Thanks As I was spraying models today, this one also got a coat:

[ATTACH]410367[/ATTACH][ATTACH]410368[/ATTACH]

The M4A3E2 from my other thread got Gunze-Sangyo olive drab neat, while on this one, I mixed Tamiya dark yellow into it to represent older paint that has faded more than what I intend to look like new paint on the other tank. As with that one, I gave it highlights with an even lighter version and sprayed the undercarriage Tamiya flat earth.

Here’s a comparison of the two models, to show the difference in colour:

[ATTACH]410369[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

After painting the sandbags with Tamiya khaki, I added a wash over both the sandbags and the olive drab parts of the tank to shade them. I found a bottle of Games Workshop Devlan Mud among my paints, which I had forgotten I had, and decided to try it for this. Though the paint stinks like stagnant water (I thought mine had gone off, but a little online research turned up that this is a well-known trait of this particular paint), it works very well for this purpose. After that was dry, I followed it up with some drybrushing using two shades of Revell acrylic paint, yellow olive and light olive, for highlights on the tank itself. I also drybrushed the sandbags with Revell dark earth and a sand colour.

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To enhance the muddy underside of the hull and suspension, I mixed some Tamiya flat earth (that I had also used for spraying the tank) with acrylic structure gel that has a coarse, sand-like texture and dabbed and smeared it onto the hull and suspension with a largish brush:

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The next step is to apply the markings and winter camouflage as well as painting detail bits like the tow cable and tools, followed by more mud and dirt

[Guest]

Since I’m finishing two Shermans at once, here is the M4A1 with some, but not all, detail painting finished, and all its markings:

[ATTACH]410556[/ATTACH]

I made the registration number from Archer dry transfers, but because it’s not visible in the photo of the real tank, it’s entirely made-up. However, it a realistic number for a relatively early M4A1 from PSC. The bumper code 756Δ A-38 is tank 38 of A Company, 756 Tank Battalion, again fictitious as no bumper codes can be read in the photo. However, I spent a good while doing research this afternoon: the photo of the real tank was taken in Birschwihr, Alsace, on 1 February 1945. That town was captured by 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division of the US Army, and the only tank battalion attached to that division at the time was the 756th.

What’s more, this battalion had served in Italy until August 1944, when it had been involved in the Dragoon landings in southern France. This bit is important (if you want to be historically plausible) because units in Italy had older types of Sherman, meaning it is rather more likely that this tank came from there than that it had landed in Normandy.

(Incidentally, you will read in many places that A and B Companies of this battalion “were converted to DD tanks” — that is, the swimming Shermans — for these landings. It turns out that both companies had exactly four DD tanks at the time … not even enough for a full platoon of five!)

Here is the engine deck with the tools:

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These are rather more chipped than those on the M4A3E2 to show them having seen a lot more use. Again, they’re not quite finished yet,

[adt70hk]

Great work and great research as always Jakko.

ATB.

Andrew

[Guest]

Thanks

As the tank I’m replicating has crude winter camouflage, I went and applied that too:

[ATTACH]410599[/ATTACH][ATTACH]410600[/ATTACH]

On the left side I tried to replicate the photo, on the right it’s completely made up but in the same style. It’s simply white paint applied with an old, worn-out, flat brush of maybe 3 mm wide, aiming to paint in much the same way the real thing was probably done: just smear it on. I think the paint doesn’t cover well enough, though, so I may have to go over it again. I’ll probably do the weathering first, though, as that’s likely to tone down the white as well, so it may need retouching anyway.

[Graeme C.]

Looks a suitably random, in the field painted snow camouflage Jakko, the mud on the running gear looks good too.

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
The paint work looks good.

[grumpa]

It takes a bit of courage to replicate some of those whacky camo schemes, but they are authentic.
Now "muck it up" really good, don't be afraid to lay it on (weathering wise) it was a dirty business
they were involved in, don't spare the mustard!

Jim.

[Guest]

Looks a suitably random, in the field painted snow camouflage

Thanks, seems like I achieved my goal

the mud on the running gear looks good too.

To be honest, that needs a lot more work, but the basic are there.

The paint work looks good.

Thanks. I especially like the look of the sandbags, even though those were about the easiest of the whole thing to get to look like that.

It takes a bit of courage to replicate some of those whacky camo schemes, but they are authentic.

I’m not at all afraid to paint things like this, but I understand a lot of modellers would be wary of doing a camouflage scheme in this way. They all seem to want highly artistically worn-away whitewash on (German) tanks …

Now "muck it up" really good, don't be afraid to lay it on (weathering wise) it was a dirty business
they were involved in, don't spare the mustard!

I wasn’t planning to This is why I sprayed the whole underside an earth colour instead of olive drab, to have a good basis for making it look like the tank has been driving through mud for days.

[Guest]

I think I’m mostly there with the dirt

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I first put a wash of the same flat earth I sprayed the suspension with, over the rest of the tank. This I followed by by a wash of Tamiya NATO Brown (a red-brown colour, but lighter than their red-brown) over the already dirt-coloured bits. This created areas that look like wet mud, as that’s darker than dried mud. After that, I used a Tamiya weathering stick (light earth colour) to add some random blobs all over the suspension and lower hull, and drybrushed most of this area with a couple of light dirt/pale tan colours to add highlights.

On the engine deck, I put in fuel spills with Tamiya smoke, and also brushed Humbrol polished steel onto the metal parts of the tools:

[ATTACH]410868[/ATTACH]

The fuel spills are too shiny right now, so I think I’ll add some matt varnish over them later.

[Guest]

Stowage on the rear deck:

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I couldn’t make out what was there in the photo of the real thing, so I just took some stuff from my spares boxes that looked good. The tied-up tarp-things (it’s a single piece of two tarps) are from Verlinden, I think, the two boxes from an Academy set (Tank Supplies Set 2) and the jerrycan is from the M4A3E2 kit.

Rather than paint the whole lot in drab colours, I decided to paint the larger of the two tarps as if the tank crew cut a piece from the tarp of some commercial lorry or similar. The letters are Letraset dry transfers I’ve had for probably 30 years, and though it doesn’t spell out anything specific, the idea is that they look like they could be the end of a name or business description or something. Of course, they didn’t stick down all that well so I had to fill in some gaps with white paint and stuck them down properly with some matt varnish.

The M1A1 submachine gun on the commander’s hatch is from Dragon. I chose one with the 30-round magazine, because by 1945 these would have been common, instead of the 20-round magazines that were used before.

I’m still painting up a figure to go into the hatch.