M4 Sherman (Early Production) Tamiya 1/35

[alextheblue]

Having just finished the Holy Toledo! It's a Panzer II SIG, it inspired me to get on and actually finish a couple of builds that were finished, but not finished, if you know what I mean!!

This was the usual Tamiya quality and it went together without any issues. It is completely OOB and whilst there are few issues that I wanted to correct, my building skills are still severely lacking to enable me to scratch build the required bits.

I wanted the final finish to appear dusty with dried mud on the running gear and bottom of the fenders etc. After dabbling with a couple of different products I chose the mud wash from Ultimate Products as it dried the exact colour I was hoping for. I was quite pleased with the final effect, but was dismayed to see the final photos made the Sherman look far too clean - and after all that work, fiddling and tweaking!












Thanks for taking a look!

[HWGuderian23]

Looking very nice Alex ! I like the stowage you've added there ... very well done, sir !

P.S.: The dust effects are subtle but also entirely sufficient in my opinion!

[ScaleModelling1105]

Great Sherman Alex. I definitely do not agree with you when you say your skills are lacking. Great build and the weathering on that is awesome.

[Hanger2]

Nice Sherman, you are showing good skills in your modelling, but think about the small things like what is stopping the boxes falling off the rear of the tank, use some white of fawn cotton and run it through the loops either side of the rear, over the boxes them along the side of them. Use a brownish wash to colour the cotton to make it look like rope, this will make your good job look more detailed.

Hope you don't mind me saying that, it is not a criticism, just a helping hand.

Geoff

[Hanger2]

This is what I mean Alex, if you look at the ropes holding the rear stowage on my Sherman.



Geoff

[alextheblue]

Looking very nice Alex ! I like the stowage you've added there ... very well done, sir !

P.S.: The dust effects are subtle but also entirely sufficient in my opinion!

Thanks Markus, appreciate the kind words!

[alextheblue]

Great Sherman Alex. I definitely do not agree with you when you say your skills are lacking. Great build and the weathering on that is awesome.

Tanks Will, you're making me blush now!

How's the paint collection going -hope you got lots of good stuff for Christmas!

[alextheblue]

Nice Sherman, you are showing good skills in your modelling, but think about the small things like what is stopping the boxes falling off the rear of the tank, use some white of fawn cotton and run it through the loops either side of the rear, over the boxes them along the side of them. Use a brownish wash to colour the cotton to make it look like rope, this will make your good job look more detailed.

Hope you don't mind me saying that, it is not a criticism, just a helping hand.

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, I always appreciate advice and especially from someone such as yourself. The lack of fastening for the stowage was one of the things that bothered me about this model, but I didn't know how best to fix it. I originally "finished" the tank in August and it sat waiting for some weathering until I built up the courage. I thought about making some ropes or a net of some sort, but I struggled to find reference photos that would help with where the fixing points would be. In the end I decided to use it as some practice for weathering and turned a blind eye to the physics defying stowage!

Thanks again for the advice and I love the WWI dio - cant stop going back for another look!

[Coen]

Wonderful work here Alex. Your experiment with the weathering came out well.
One of the good thing about a clay based wash is you can always wash it off and add it again if you don't like it
I like it!
You keep making progress like this and we'll all have to have reinforced hinges installed on our jaws.
You can buy lead strips from UMM-USA or maybe one of the European companies. They come in different widths and make really great straps.
You can buy it in sheets as well... great for traps and blankets. As Geoff said, the thread is great for rope, gauze for bandages makes good camo nets.
These are just a few things to experiment with.

[alextheblue]

Wonderful work here Alex. Your experiment with the weathering came out well.
One of the good thing about a clay based wash is you can always wash it off and add it again if you don't like it
I like it!
You keep making progress like this and we'll all have to have reinforced hinges installed on our jaws.
You can buy lead strips from UMM-USA or maybe one of the European companies. They come in different widths and make really great straps.
You can buy it in sheets as well... great for traps and blankets. As Geoff said, the thread is great for rope, gauze for bandages makes good camo nets.
These are just a few things to experiment with.

Thanks for the kind comments Michael, really appreciate you taking the time and I'm definitely going to check out those lead strips.

I was a bit shocked when the wash first dried, but was relieved when I realised how easily it came off. The "dust" on the upper parts of the fenders and hull and especially on top of the armour plates is actually sprayed on Tamiya buff - was quite pleased how this helped tie in the whole loo. Just need to brush up on the photography skills and get a better setting. Thanks again!

[Paul]

Wonderful work here Alex. Your experiment with the weathering came out well.
One of the good thing about a clay based wash is you can always wash it off and add it again if you don't like it
I like it!
You keep making progress like this and we'll all have to have reinforced hinges installed on our jaws.
You can buy lead strips from UMM-USA or maybe one of the European companies. They come in different widths and make really great straps.
You can buy it in sheets as well... great for traps and blankets. As Geoff said, the thread is great for rope, gauze for bandages makes good camo nets.
These are just a few things to experiment with.

Thanks for the kind comments Michael, really appreciate you taking the time and I'm definitely going to check out those lead strips.

I was a bit shocked when the wash first dried, but was relieved when I realised how easily it came off. The "dust" on the upper parts of the fenders and hull and especially on top of the armour plates is actually sprayed on Tamiya buff - was quite pleased how this helped tie in the whole loo. Just need to brush up on the photography skills and get a better setting. Thanks again!

What were you shocked about the wash mate?

[alextheblue]

Nothing about the wash itself mate, just thought I'd put too much on at first, but as soon as I started to take it back I realised it was supposed to dry like that. Really pleased with the wash and loved the final finish it gives - even with my clumsy efforts!

[Paul]

Nothing about the wash itself mate, just thought I'd put too much on at first, but as soon as I started to take it back I realised it was supposed to dry like that. Really pleased with the wash and loved the final finish it gives - even with my clumsy efforts!

Ah good thought something had gone wrong buddy

[alextheblue]

Heck no Paul, love all the Ultimate Products range!

[Gav0909]

Looks excellent Alex. The dust effects look spot on, gathered in the places you would expect dust to build up. I think this is the sort of look (but even lighter) I am going to aim for on some of my future tank builds. I prefer a used, but dusty look to tanks rather than them plastered in mud. Mainly because I can't pull off a convincing heavy mud look!

Not to sound like a rivet counter, but did the early production Shermans really have that cheek armour plate on the turret? I thought that it was just late model Shermans like the Easy Eight and Jumbo that had turret cheek armour sometimes. And it wasn't until a bit into the war that they realised that Shermans caught fire easily and so added the applique armour on the sides (the extra squares of plate) to try and help protect the ammo storage. Not suggesting at all you need to change it, I am just curious.

[alextheblue]

^^ Thanks Gav, I'm definitely with you on the mud, that's going to take me more practice.

With regards to the armour, I'm sure your right on this one. I originally built this back in August and hadn't been into the hobby for too long. I didn't pay too much attention to accuracy, it was more about how I thought it looked. Now I've been on the forum for a little while I'm starting to pay more attention to the accuracy and actually do a bit of research now (but not too much, it eats into the modelling time!!).