A merry Xmas !!!

British Sherman 1942

 

M4A3E8, paint part II

Today i did some detail painting added the allied stars using the airbrush and templates.

M4A3E8, paint part I

Grey prier coat

The M4A3E8 got its primer coat, this was done using Vallejo surface primer and the airbrush.

Pre shading

Using Vallejo Air black and white colors i tried to shadow and highlight the different parts of the model creating different shades from black to white.

First basecoat

Next i applied a couple of layers Vallejo Air OD which was heavyly thinned to allow the preshading to show through.

 

M4A3E8, build part IV

Completed assembling the Sherman, everything kinda dropped into place and little work was needed, except for the turret which had, in my opinion, a little to much visible seems. I corrected this by dotting it with a putty/ glue mix and givenit a light sanding afterwards.

Because i don't know what the setting of this model i will be and if i want to use figures or not I made all the hatches workable so i can open or close them when needed. I drilled out the hinches and used copper wire to connect the hatches to them.

All the hinches worked with me except the drivers hatch, for this hatch i wrecked the hinch by drilling at the wrong point. I tried to fix this by painting 3D paint over it. 3D paint is perfect paint for giving some texture to parts.

At last i used green stuff to simulate welding beads where some parts, like the PE parts, where missing these beads.

M4A3E8, build part III

Completed assembling of the lower hull, added the bogies and started work on the T23 turret.

 

M4A3E8, build part II

Parts of one bogie

The next step of the build are the bogies, there are six of them and every bogie consists of 19 parts. I only lost one tiny part !

5 bogies done, one to go

When you correctly and carefull glue the bogie parts they are fully functional.

.

Lower and upper hull

Glueing the lower and upper hull together, there is not a single gap between the parts, love the Tasca kits :). Tamiya masking tape is perfect to fixate parts while the glue sets.

 

M4A3E8, build part I

Building the T66 Tracks

Cleanup of 300 pieces plastic is a boring job, this is done first while the motivation is still there. The result is two tracks of 76 links.

Lower hull, drive sprockets, idler wheels and transmission housing

The lower hull and transmission housing is made of multiple arts that should be build in one session to ensure everything fits together and is straight.

Lower and upper hull dry fitted

The lower hull, transmission housing and upper hull are dry fitted to ensure everything fits and there are no gaps.

M4A3E8

A cleaned up bench was asking for a new project. This project will be the M4A3E8 Sherman from Tasca (#35-020) that i picked up from "der sockelshop" in Germany.

 

M4A1, Operation Husky, 99% done

This is the first model i made with a little base. In this case i tried to display a tank that has just entered the Sicily beach during operation Husky in 1943.

The model can use a little bit more weathering, hence the 99% :)

 

M4A1, operation Husky, weathering and base

Been busy applying different coats of AK-Interactive dust effects to give the sherman a dusty look. Since this will be a tank that just landed on the beach i choose to keep the dust wash light.

Using plaster bandage and paper-maché i started work on the base that should depict a piece of beach.

Added dune gras made from a old brush and covered the papier-maché with bird-sand (the stuff you buy at the pet store to cover the bottom of bird cages with). The sand is glued to the base using white glue.

 

I think it needs a last coat of sand before painting.

Placed the serman on the base to get an idea how the result would look like.