Tamiya Sherman - Battle of the Bulge

[Stokesy44]

Having been an aircraft man and only recently got into armour, I figured it was about time I built something that didn't have black crosses on it!

First thing I noticed was just how small the Sherman is. Compared to the Panthers and Tigers I've made over the last year, this thing is substantially smaller. I know about the size differences, of course, but when its right in front of you with that dinky 75mm gun, it really makes you think!

Fancied a bit of a diorama so I'm planning on using the kit figures and stowage and making a simple snow covered base. Anyway, the kit.



Its quite a mixed bag, some of the parts are from the 80's, some are much newer. Overall, its nicely moulded and as its a Tamiya kit it virtually makes itself.




The soldiers are nicely done so I'm looking forward to those once the tank's done



Nice and crisp


Straight forward running gear



Nice and clean hull - change of colour due to the sun going down, affects my camera apparently - weird but true



So, its been all good fun so far. Started work on the turret now so there'll be some more pics soon.

[TheTroyster]

Hey, I have this same kit over there on one of those shelves, so Ill be watching this one.

Great talk on the Sherman tank and how it stacked up to others on Youtube
title is; Myths of American Armor. TankFest Northwest 2015

[Stokesy44]

Got the turret finished. All nice and tidy. Even managed to drill out the end of the 0.50 calibre machine gun so I'm well chuffed! Next up is the primer but my airbrush needs a little TLC before I use it so that may have to wait.





The kit comes with some nice stowage items so the I've started loading up.


Put the commander together and did the first coat by hand. Looks quite cool and there are even some tiny binoculars to go in his hands!


Now to clean the airbrush... Oh joy!

[Sturm]

Ohhh a Sherman, ill be watching closely.

[TheTroyster]

That machine gun turned out great! Looks like this went together nicely.

[burnie43]

This is a nice kit to build
looking forward to the completed pic
thanks for sharing
Mark

[MarkVerploeg]

Looks like a pretty nice kit
There is a little bit more detail on the Dragon kit i made recently but not much as it only had a few more casting numbers on it
And you are right about the size but the Sherman was a medium tank while the Tiger was a heavy and the Panther was on the edge of being a medium
I think the line was drawn at 45 tons and only the Panther ausf.G goes over that by about 50 to 100 kg
But Panthers where big if you compare them to other tanks from the same era
But the build looks good so far
Have fun slapping some paint on it

[Nige99]

You should drill out the .30 cal machine gun barrels to!! it all looks great so far.

[Stokesy44]

You should drill out the .30 cal machine gun barrels to!! it all looks great so far.

I thought about that. They're glued on the hull/turret now so will be quite difficult. Still. In for a penny......

[Stokesy44]

Its been a spraying day. Primer followed by Klear followed by dark green followed by some scraping with a brush to rip the paint back to the primer a little. Finished off with more Klear so we're ready for the decals. Also had some fun with the figures too.

First up as the primer sealed with a coat of Klear



Then the matt dark green,





Wetted and brushed to bring out some of the primer, then more Klear again for the decals. May have to down it down a bit to 'green' it back up. Not sure yet.




Put the figures together and primed. Looking forward to painting them, should be fun.

[Nige99]

Cracking colour green, looks spot on.

[Stokesy44]

More progress today. The decals went on nicely.


Nige99 said I needed to drill out the ends of the 2 .30 calibre machine guns so once he set the challenge, I had to front up.



I decided that I had indeed pulled too much of the green off when I brushed back to the primer. To remedy it I lightly sprayed more of the green until I was happy then I went to work on dirtying down the decals using heavily thinned dark earth sprayed very sparely. On the turret and the hull I sprayed from the base up so the higher you go the less dirt you see. The front of the tank got the same treatment too. I also sprayed the running gear with the same mix just to dirty it down.




Then more Klear to seal the decals and a sludge wash to get into all the seams and details. Gave it a good wipe down and the hull has somehow taken on the tank-like look. Slightly metallic but not new looking at all. A COMPLETE FLUKE on my part!!



Some close-ups of Brad in the commander's hatch (yes I know its not an Easy 8 so don't start, ok!!).




Lots of work to do on the hull yet. More weathering and detail but next up are the tracks. The kit also comes with some nice stowage so that will be a giggle too.

[Mylightweight]

Looking good, I must get me a Sherman to build

[Stokesy44]

Glued the tracks on yesterday. Went on fine with a bit of CA strategically placed to lock the tracks how I wanted them. Weathered them today using a brown chalk pastel wash. Thickly applied then brushed away. Also dirtied up the base of the hull and the bottom edges of the sides.






She's about finished now. Time to work on the stowage.


I also got on with the figures for the diorama I'm planning. I had forgotten how much fun it can be to work with figures.

Nice and clean


Dirtied down


All 3 together - running to the sound of fire!


That's it for now, I'm sizing up the diorama base and looking at what's gonna go where.

[demarcation]

Beautiful work mate, looks very realistic!!

[OliveDrab]

The Sherman looks great, figures too!

[digger303]

I like the tracks, very nicely done...just right amount of color, dried mud and dusty rubber treads.....realistic

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful work mate, looks very realistic!!

The Sherman looks great, figures too!

I like the tracks, very nicely done...just right amount of color, dried mud and dusty rubber treads.....realistic

Thanks guys. I have really enjoyed making the Sherman. The stowage is coming together now too. Just need to glue it all and paint it. Need some rope too or it will all fall off when Brad takes it into battle!!





The photos aren't just for the post. I need them for reference to put the stowage back once its all painted and weathered.

[Scalemodelmedic]

Hey good work so far, did the kit come with any periscope guards? You've not got any on at the moment and they add a nice detail to the hull

[Stokesy44]

Hey good work so far, did the kit come with any periscope guards? You've not got any on at the moment and they add a nice detail to the hull

Nope. The kit doesn't have them. It does have an actual periscope for the commander's hatch which gets attached to the underside of the hatch but I haven't put it on yet.

Truth is, I'm not enough of an expert to realise they were missing but thanks for pointing that out

[Scalemodelmedic]

Hmm bit of a double edged sword here cos kit ones can be a bit thick but pe ones are flat section which is wrong... Probably the right thing to leave them off for now. I've scratch built my own in the past it was fiddly and wouldn't wish it on anyone!!

[Stokesy44]

Its going to be a relatively simple diorama. Snow covered farm track ground using DAS clay, a sign post for Bastogne (if I can figure out how to make one) and the figures positioned as follows:





I think I need to repaint the infantrymen's faces as they look a bit 'day of the dead' in their current colour!

Painted the stowage to finish off, primed and painted with Vallejo and Tamiya then finished off with a black enamel wash for dirt and details.





I'm stalling on the diorama to be honest. 2 reasons. 1, I don't know what I'm doing and, 2, I've got some great kits in the stash and coming for Christmas that I really want to start!

[Nige99]

Now come on you got to do a dio to go with this excellent build.

[Canulus]

Nice one

I built the same kit about 2 years ago and my result was kinda similar:

[Stokesy44]

Finally got back in the saddle yesterday. I seriously considered wimping out of doing the diorama but since I had committed to it publically I didn't want you guys to think me a coward.

The set up is a simple snow covered farm track as Patten's armoured units strive to reach Bastogne. The base is a picture frame and I have a diagonal track running across it with a Bastogne sign post for added colour.





This is my first time with DAS clay and I must say I loved using it. I started with the central section of the track which is raised and untouched by the tanks. Then I built up the sections either side of the track. Finally I laid the two line sections where the tanks had flattened the ground. I added track marks with some spare track segments. I think I'm going to show the rutted sections as frozen rather than mud. I'll add dirt and discoloration to the snow once it has been painted.






The soldiers are running round the side of the tank, two of them on the snowy verge and one on the track in front of where the tank will have halted.



It all needs to dry now so I'll leave it for a couple of days. Then some primer before I see if the snow needs smoothing out at all with an additional layer of very wet clay. Good fun so far. Nice to go the 'homemade' route too.

[gustavlekstal]

wow great work most enjoyable build

[InitialProduction1]

Very nice, look forward to the next part of the build.

[Mylightweight]

It looks like your first time with DAS was better than mine, I ended up with loads of cracks in the surface.

Looking really nice, what are the dimensions (inside edges of picture frame) of the scenic area?

[Stokesy44]

It looks like your first time with DAS was better than mine, I ended up with loads of cracks in the surface.

Looking really nice, what are the dimensions (inside edges of picture frame) of the scenic area?

Hello there,

Its beginning to get just a few little cracks now as it dries but I plan to do a thin wipe with very wet clay to smooth everything out. Dimensions wise, inside the frame, its 9 3/4 by 7 3/4.

[Topcat]

Superb!

[Tiger213]

Anything from Ardennes I like

Great work on the load and figures.