M4A1 early sherman operation Husky

On the Euro Scale Modeling 2012 event i bought a nice Tasca M4A1 direct vision kit (#35024) which will be my new project.

Inspired by the Sicily (operation husky) M4A1 early sherman in the 'Modelling the US Army M4 (75mm) Sherman Medium Tank' book by Steven J. Zaloga this will be sherman in yellow/od camo pattern with the 5AITC wading trunk.

 

M18, done

Today i declare the Academy M18 Hellcat kit done. There are plenty of things that can be improved or added but it's time for a new project.

Some pictures:

Although plenty of things went wrong such as visible decals, wrong location of the allied star on the front and vinyl tracks that would not hold paint during weathering i still like the overall look of the kit and i learned a lot.

Next step: cleaning and re- organizing my work bench for the next project.

M18, mud, mud and more mud

A quick update: added mud to the lower part of the hull and running gear.

For this i used the AK-Interactive earth/ mud washes mixed together with plaster and applied from light to dark.

 

M18, painting part IV

Added some dust washes and chipping to the hull using my favorite Vallejo paint color "cammo black/brown" and enamel based washes from AK-Interactive.

M18, painting part III

After a vacation and some other interests i picked up this project again and continued painting and detailing. Somehow this project isn't going as smooth as i like it to go and i need to keep telling myself to first finish this one before starting a new one.

Added the decals, although i used the same steps i always do with decals (glossy finish, set, sol and a glossy finish to seal the decals) you can see the decal outlines. Bummer !

The allied stars are sprayed on using a stencil and the airbrush.

Some detail painting on the turret, the gun mantle canvas can use some additional high-lighting.

The turret .50 cal gun. Sorry for the blurry picture, mobile phone cameras are not that good for detail shots.

 

M18, painting part II

After a week of absense i continued working on the M18. It already has its base color and now it is time to do some detail painting.

 

I painted the tools (still need more practice on painting wooden tools) and some turret details. At this moment the first coat of gloss varnish is drying. I am using "Pledge Extra Protection" for wood floor surfaces (Future, Parket Plus or whatever it's called in your country) as a gloss varnish.