Tamiya M4A3 Sherman 75mm "Breakthrough" 1/35

[Quax]

I was going to enter this in the GB but it sort of just fell together with almost no photos.

I'll hold my hands up now and say I know little or nothing about Shermans and this is the first one I've ever built so if you think I'm talking rubbish I probably am... (1)

The kit is a mishmash of parts with sprues dating from 1981, 1987 and 2002. The tank itself is mostly 1981 and is actually not a bad kit, there are some seams but very little flash. There is some texture to the plastic and lots of details moulded in such as cast numbers etc. The only real fit issue was at the back of the turret which needed some filler and scraping.

the sprues











there are more sprues but I didnt take the required photographs

there are two sets of wheels, one which need a seam removing and one which dont, I started with the seamy ones but after about 3 wheels realised the error of my ways (that and arthritic pain) and swapped for the other set. There are two versions of the tank available late and latelate. (see 1 above)

The instructions are Tamiya, make sense and dont seem to miss anything out however you do have a choice of cupola but its not obvious which cupola goes with which wheels so I followed the box picture (see 1 above)

Because they are vinyl tracks I've not fully assembled the kit and it looks thus:






you can see the seam at the back of the turret and my clumsy attempt to mask it off with a little stippled mr surfacer, it didnt quite work and I needed to cover a bigger area to blend it in but hey lives and learns

here it is with a brisk coat of Ultimate black primer (other primers are available but this idiot is yet to find another idiotproof one...)

Th good bits of this kit are the extra figures and about 3 tons of storage which I may or may not use but will follow in the next exciting episode

thanks for looking and,as ever, suppressing the laughter

Paul

[TheNordus]

Looking forward to more on this one. Got this one built in my stash but haven't painted it yet.

[Gary30]

Nice kit this, old but gold, yours is looking nice so far. (Same kit I have in my avatar pic)

[Quax]

Thanks Tommi much appreciated

Nice kit this, old but gold, yours is looking nice so far. (Same kit I have in my avatar pic)

I remember following your build at the time now, in that case I give up already!

Paul

[alextheblue]

Thanks Tommi much appreciated

Nice kit this, old but gold, yours is looking nice so far. (Same kit I have in my avatar pic)

I remember following your build at the time now, in that case I give up already!

Paul

Great subject Paul, you can't go wrong with a Sherm. Looking good and I'm looking forward to following along.

[Kevthemodeller]

I was going to enter this in the GB but it sort of just fell together with almost no photos.

Sherman's tend to do that Something the Germans found out their cost

I'm following along, this should be good

[Quax]

Many thanks guys
Trying a bit of modulation in a quick spray after work, this I s AK Real Color set 137







Obviously I ran out of time for the hull, if the wife's teas not ready when she gets home I have to drink wine as a penalty... but there's also.the faded olive in there to go on top so that should be tomorrow.

Thanks for looking
Paul

[onemac]

One of the few bits of armour I fancy building. Interested to see how this goes (so remember the pics )

[Gregwatters]

hello there good start so far looking forward to the rest of the build and to see the tank come together (not the beatles) erm....

[Tomcat64]

I've got this one lurking in the stash as well so will be following this with interest.

Nice work so far mate, like the shading you've done on the paintwork.

[Quax]

Thanks for all your motivational inputs! The kit itself is, considering it's age, rather good. The only real issue is the seam where you join the rear bottom of the turret but with more work than the cursory attempt I had it should be ok.












The tools have a bit of paint on as have the tracks they've also been joined together so we'll see how the plastic cement works...

Cheers
Paul

[Quax]

Well the tamiya extra thin worked well on these -tracks on




Paul

[alextheblue]

She's looking very nice Paul. Great colour and I really like the tonal variations!

I've only tried a couple of those AK Real Colours, but I've got to say, I really like them.

[CygnusX1]

Coming along with this very nicely. Very nice paint so far; haven't tried those AK paints yet, but have them on the shopping list.

I think WW2 era Shermans are pretty difficult subjects to paint.
What I mean by this is that they're Olive Drab. And that's it... it's all in the weathering with Shermans.

Looking good though, be interested to see how this turns out.

[Quax]

Coat of Alclad Il gloss was added then the decals. I left off the ones for the specific vehicle as it's not an attemp to recreate it. It's also a habit I've gotten into especially with German armour as there's always someone somewhere going " the left bolt should be dunkelgelb version 2 1944 not olivegrun 2014..." not on this site (although those Canadian sci fi guys are pretty intense.... ) anyway..





Cheers
Paul

[alextheblue]

Love it! This is just getting better and better. The decals bring it to life.

[Quax]

Thanks Alex your support has been gratefully received

Minor disaster this afternoon as when I used the alclad matte it all went a bit white, I think this is a humidity thing so I'll try respraying gloss then matte but only when normal English weather returns!





At least in the lower photo you can see where I tried and failed to cover the turret seam
Cheers
Paul

[Gary30]

At least in the lower photo you can see where I tried and failed to cover the turret seam
Cheers
Paul

I wouldn’t worry about it, the 1:1 turret has a weld seam there anyway, so embrace it rather than trying to make it completely disappear, I like the matte coat, tank looks great!

[Tomcat64]

That's coming along really well Paul

Hopefully you'll get the matte coat sorted out (or transformed into a weathering effect).

If you get chance give AK's Ultramatte a go - really like the results straight out of the bottle.

[Kevthemodeller]

Just looks dusty and sun bleached to me Paul, I wouldn't worry once you've added little bit more weathering it, will look great

If you are that bothered about it, perhaps a very light dark wash, might bring it back to what you was aiming for.

[digger303]

Looks real to me. I think the shermans had a casting seam or what looks like one in that area. So all good.

[CygnusX1]

[SNIP]At least in the lower photo you can see where I tried and failed to cover the turret seam [/SNIP]

Looks real to me. I think the shermans had a casting seam or what looks like one in that area.

Very nice work on that paint. I really like it.

Weld seams.
There was a weld seam there, but not all Sherman turrets are equal though, and the majority of the workmanship on Shermans was pretty good - this tails off the later the Sherman is in production run, and how late it was during WW2. Some of the turrets on E8's the weld seam can be seen from space as they were more worried about getting them out the door and onto the lines rather than making them look nice.
Examples:


practically nothing


medium weld seams

Disclaimer: I'm no Sherman expert (not by a long way) so I may be talking out my backside.

long/short - I don't think it matters so much in trying to get rid of that seam line, obviously you have to build what you're happy with though.

[Quax]

thanks for all your comments and thank you to Cygnus for the photos which were very useful, I know what you mean about being happy when you build and I think I'll try a bit harder next time. I just need to wait for some decent weather (ie rain) to have the excuse to go back to it

to all

Paul

[Quax]

Going to call this done now, it's given me the inspiration for the M10 in the GB and I'm going to steal all the lovely storage and ammo for that cause. The only real criticisms I have is some of the decals are a bit...meh and that the turret seam requires labour but Cygnus' s photos should ease that worry if like me you're a Sherman virgin. Thanks for all the support and help as usual







Cheers
Paul

[CygnusX1]

[SNIP]Going to call this done now [/SNIP]

Looks amazing; very nice subtle shading and weathering on the hull and plenty of dusty/muddy tracks.

What are you using to create the mud?