Tamiya 1/48 M4A1 Sherman

[MightyDraw]

My second GB! This kit will be a little less involved than what I chose for my From Russia with Love GB entry. This may get spun in to a diorama which I have never attempted, figured I start medium sized.






Plus a little resin aftermarket;


I enjoy the documenting and building, glad Ive got some kits that fit this one. If I finish this up, and planned diorama perhaps I'll give my new Airfix Meteor F.8 a go!

[MightyDraw]

The most minute of progress. There is not much to report with these 1/48 Tamiya armor kits. I think they more or less fall together... Oh, there is one annoyance; they all have ejector pin marks on the inside of the track links! Which if you're like me and they bother you, you'll feel compelled to fill them.

[MightyDraw]

Its Labor Day weekend in the US so tonight (Sunday) I've been able to stay up and make some progress. I can't say I have a lot to offer here in terms of reviewing or any other useful info because this kit has proved so faultless (typical Tamiya, especially new Tamiya) When I get to the painting and small dio I think I'll do this thread may get more interesting for anyone checking in

[EricM]

These Tamiya 48th scale kits are fantastic fun and fit really well. Ive got 2 StuGs on the way from Japan along with metal barrels and tracks i ordered from ebay. looking forward to the dio.

[MightyDraw]

These Tamiya 48th scale kits are fantastic fun and fit really well. Ive got 2 StuGs on the way from Japan along with metal barrels and tracks i ordered from ebay. looking forward to the dio.

Sounds like fun I really like these kits too, I have more than I'll recount here from Tamiyas 1/48 armor series. I think 1/48 is a great scale for armor; 1/35 kits are great, but they use a good amount of real estate to store and display. 1/48 is also a great compromise between the too fiddly 1/72 armor and the 1/35. I wish more companies would get on the 1/48 armor bandwagon, or I'll settle for a Centurion from from Tamiya in 1/48 (It seems like a no brainer, such an important/historical tank)

[MightyDraw]

Lil' bit more progress. The tank itself is more or less built, tracks on. The top half of the hull and lower are not yet attached. I'll do that after I paint the suspension and tracks. The little gap between the end of the barrel and the main portion was the only really gap that required some tricky filling. Once its primed I'll see how good (or bad) I did.



Starting to work on the the hull stowage from Legend. This is going to take some work. I don't think I'll use everything provided in the set, but definitely this rear deck portion. The bottom just didn't meet the top deck in a convincing manner so I put a thin layer of miliput on the underside and molded that to the hull, took it off and used a little cutting while it was soft and some sanding now that its hardened to fill that void. Hopefully it doesn't make any awkward visual gaps that draw your eye.

[MightyDraw]

Made progress. Decided to assemble the kit in to two sub assemblies before moving on to paint. I have typically with armor painted and assembled the components as individually as possible but thought I'd give this method a go to try and achieve a more integrated and cohesive look some of my older armor I think lacks.

Could stop here and say its the little known Stealth Sherman built by the SSR (precursor to SHIELD)

The white base will become my ground vignette, I think a diorama is to ambitious for this build but I'd like to practice making a little terrain this should fit the bill. The base itself is intended for painting and is pre-gesso'd, It was from the local hobby lobby I believe it was $2.99. The gesso should make it easier to apply material over to form a little terrain (I hope)



Primed in badger primer



Beginning paint on the lower hull/suspension!

[MightyDraw]

Paint progress on the Sherman. These pictures skip ahead a little, I had been doing a little building on this project on week nights and I don't really think to document it those days!




Here I did a little modulation on the base olive drab, for the highlights mixed a little buff with the tamiya olive drab.


decals on and cleared.


Current state! Weathering underway, did an oil wash to add some faded modulation on the hull.


The stowage is painted, I added some string meant for mending your clothes to add more ropes and give that box at the rear a little support.

The lighting is a little bad on my table for photos, that will have to be its own project, a Photo Booth!

Edit; Couple more trying to capture it a little better.


Ultimate product placement

[MightyDraw]

Sunday night progress report. The tank it self is nearing completion.


Here it is with a little friend. I built the jeep to go in a little diorama I have planned.




Here it is on the base I've made. I guess its more of a vignette than a dio, but I wanted to practice making terrain before going bigger.



Vignette base. I had planned to document as I built this but since it was so experimental (for me) I was kind of making it up as I was going! The terrain itself is formed out of Durhams water putty, all the painting is acrylic and the texture is woodland scenics rocks/ground cover. I decided it was time to play with the resin I'd bought some time ago so made depressions to add puddles with the idea to depict an early spring with a dry dirt road, but the adjoining dirt was perhaps still somewhat wet and puddling. not 100% but getting close. I'll paint the base black.

Next up I need to finish weathering on the tank, add the machine gun and antenna.

[MightyDraw]

Here it is, 90% finished I'll say at this point. The Sherman itself I feel is done. The base I might rework. I've never made a diorama/vignette so this was an experiment. I recently bought a collapsable Photo Booth, these are my first attempts to use it. The photos are taken on my iPhone just to play with trying to light it. Once I'm 100% I'll make a completed thread

[Davethepitch]

Now I really like that.

[MightyDraw]

Now I really like that.

Thank you sir! I'll try and be finished, finished this weekend...Though thats always hard to be "finished"

[chops1sc]

Very nice! What did you use for the mud puddle on the vignette?

[MightyDraw]

Very nice! What did you use for the mud puddle on the vignette?

The puddles are a 2-part clear resin I got at Hobby Lobby. I just added some brown acrylic paint as I mixed it to get the brown tint.

[privatepete]

Very nice work indeed, like the mud puddle on the vignette very good, and the stowage is very well made ,great build.
Pete

[Kevthemodeller]

Very nice mate love that base

[MightyDraw]

Thank you gentlemen, I've been busy with work and haven't had time to truly finish it and photograph it again. Better get cracking!