Tamiya 1/35 M4A3 Sherman

[Waspie]

Nice work Arnold. I can't use a hairy stick to save my life. Tried it on my armour and had to cover up my appalling strokes with a AB!!!

[Lee Drennen]

AJ looking great

[A_J_Rimmer]

Hi Gents,

Apologies for going rather quiet, workload combined with this blooming foot thing has killed my mojo for pretty much everything over the last few weeks. Work on the Sherman has progressed, the painting is done and I had it all decalled. Strangely though, I put a second coat of Mircosol on the decals to help them bed in a bit, and all the decals on the hull lifted and shattered... Very odd, I've not had that happen before and I've been using the same gloss and decalling techniques for a couple of years now. I've ordered a AM set from ebay for some replacement stars, and I'll give it another go - I might use some Tamiya Decal adhesive on any of the kit ones I use.

Here's where I am now...



Whilst I'm waiting for the new decals, I've been playing with what weathering materials I have to hand. I want to have a reasonably mudded wheel/track areas but a cleanish upper hull. So far I've given everything a coat of Citadels Earthshade, and then hit it with a drybrushing of Humbrol's Dark earth pigments. I was then going to go back and clean some of it off with cotton buds - do a bit of drybrushing of the base colour and some metallics, and then maybe a another drybrush of some lighter pigments.



I'm thinking I should have dry-brushed some of the base colour back on before I started pratting about with pigments, but hey-ho, this is all relatively new to me. I also have some acrylic medium which I may mix up with some dark earth paint and build up some 'mud' in the corners.

For the top sides, I was thinking of either a general grunge wash of Flory's Grime wash, or maybe a pin wash of something else. I perhaps should mention that I have an Autistic lad in the house, so I try to avoid oil and enamels paints and washes if possible.

Cheers All!

[PaulTRose]

opening one of those things is a lot of effort

If at first you dont succeed, get a bigger hammer lol

Im liking where this going as im doing an m4 too

[A_J_Rimmer]

If at first you dont succeed, get a bigger hammer lol

Im liking where this going as im doing an m4 too

Thanks Paul!

[PaulTRose]

Oh and another source for wire is jewelry making....try somewhere like hobbycraft.....comes in different thicknesses and colours.... great for wiring engines etc on 1/24 cars

[A_J_Rimmer]

Oh and another source for wire is jewelry making....try somewhere like hobbycraft.....comes in different thicknesses and colours.... also comes in colours....great for wiring engines etc on 1/24 cars

Thanks Paul! I don't think I've seen a Hobbycraft since moving to Wales, but we do have some independent shops.

[Tim Marlow]

Fly tying shops are great for that sort of thing as well, especially different gauge lead type wires and strips.

[PaulTRose]

Thanks Paul! I don't think I've seen a Hobbycraft since moving to Wales, but we do have some independent shops.

Just looked.....think closest to you would be on the wirrel!

[Guest]

If at first you dont succeed, get a bigger hammer lol

True If you don’t care that the insides break, because all you want is the wire, then just smash it or cut it open with a saw. But the coolest way to open an electric toothbrush that has a cap on the bottom, is the way I described

[A_J_Rimmer]

So having overcome a saggy track issue, along with replacing the decal that fell to bits - this is where I am now.





I need to weather the top of the hull, paint and attach the stoawage, and paint the crew... So not too much then :smiling: The crew should be fun as I've not painted these types of figures before.

Overall though I'm pretty pleased with it - even if I did make one slight error with one of the tracks.

Cheers!

[Lee Drennen]

Very nice clean build AJ.

[Guest]

Looking pretty good. Since these are soft-plastic tracks, you can just take it off again, probably best done by pulling off the drive sprocket or idler wheel with the track around it, and then put it back on the right way round.

You also forgot to paint the track-adjusting wrench on the engine deck and the tanker’s bar, that’s the long crowbar along the right edge of the hull, outboard of the pickaxe handle. The square cross-section bit at the back is the socket it fits into, and so is part of the tank, but at the front end the square bit is part of the tool. All but the tip of it would be bare steel (the tip is held in another little socket).

[adt70hk]

Looking very good. A nice clean build.

ATB.

Andrew

[scottie3158]

Arnold all looking most splendid mate.