Hello all,

Welcome to my Sherman roller coaster! I haven't built a armor model in many, many years...the Sherman has always been a favorite of mine.

I am aware of some of the problems with the Tam kit...I didn't bother with most of them...no sponsons, no filled in rear wheels etc. IT won't be the 100% accurate "end all" Sherman build just fun, and a canvas to test some painting and weathering skills.

Ryan

Looks good to me. Looking forward to the paint.

Thanks Bowman,

I have painted this thing (3) times...sigh The 1st time the paint was way to rough, wrong PSI, thining ratios etc.

I stripped it with my freind Easy Off, my second try is shown below...I really like how Australian modeler Steve Palffy paints his armor kits...a "earth" preshade then camo color.



Then Futured, in preperation for decals and weathering..





Hard to see in the pics, but the earth shade does show thru here and there.

Ryan

As I wrote above..I have painted this a few times, I even ruined (2) of the decal options c-below.

The First decaling session I tore a star and went to option B " Caballero" in happier times, before getting nocked out. The session went great and the kit decals really settled down.







The nose star really settled down great....





Rest of the story to follow.
Ryan

Looking good Ryan, great progress! Like your thinking...building for fun and experiments. Keep at it, be sure to show some weathering pics.

Cheers -
Tim

Hey Ryan
A nice simple kit to build, and as you can appreciate with some additions it can turn into something special...
You have added some lovely cast surfaces to the turret and transmission housing, which shows up well with the paint applied.
Love all the background stash too
Brad

Thanks Brad,

I have other Shermans in the works with the extra detailing...takin' it a step at a time. Here is a wide angle of my Sherman workshop...




And the other contestants...a Italeri a1 and Dragon a2 along with the star of our show....



Ryan

Nice build so far.

And who cares if you like it ,then a done deal.

Thanks Jeff,

Here is where it gets really tragic...for what reason I haven't figured out yet I decided to flat coat the unit before I washed it...BIG mistake. The flat coat made the wash bleed all over everything and it was hard to clean up and control. Worse the "Dot Technique", over the TOO FLAT coat ,left ghost marks of where I had applied each dot...making it look the M4 had acne.

I had to get out the turpintine to "scrub" the left over dots away. The turps then reacted with the flat coat and really left it a white chalky mess. I saved the turret with a lacquer coat of semi-gloss coat as seen below...I was quite pleased with the rescue operation on the turret. It turned out great...ready for additional weathering and pigments.







Long story short the Hull wasn't recoverable, it turned out worse than the turret and just was a mess....being a perfectionist I decided the only course of action was to strip it again and start over...sigh!

Lesson learned though...don't flat coat too early. I have set aside time today to re-paint.

Ryan

The turret is superb. Too bad about the hull, hope the next attempt works out.

Thanks Bowman,

Fingers crossed!

This is for the Luft 46' crowd.....UN 46"



Here is the M4 primed to take a looksie at some seams and joints post Easy Off. When I stripped it again the Easy Off ATE some of the texture I had applied to the cast parts..ugh!

Some of the seams were also affected, so I went back and re-textured and filled and loose ends. Since I used up all of the decal optins but one, I'm going with "Classy Peg" wrong way facing wolf's head and all.

So the odometer is back to zero and I am ready to try again...we will see.

Thanks for reading.
Ryan

Dont worry, we have all had the same thing happen to us. Some more often than others

Nice work on the Shermans!

That Turret did come out good.

Don't you just hate Mistakes,I make them all the time

Thanks Jeff,

I just finished the dark brown pre-shade...it took forever, but I'm pleased wit the results. The streaks represent dirt and wear and tear. The trick will be to NOT wash out the effect too much with the OD paint job.




And the turret...





Ryan

very nice pre shading!!! wow! looking forward to the next coat of OD

Thanks Preston,

Here is the OD applied...I had some wash out, so I had to go back with Smoke to re-shade after the base coat. Then it was a back and forth between the Smoke and OD to get it right.

I'm wondering how effective the pre-shade really was..I may do it diffrently next time. The white primer made things more difficult to cover also. On to the pics.






The nose may need a little more streaking?? The light washes the affect out alittle.



And the turret...






Future and Decals next....

Ryan

well.. that didnt turn out so bad. looks good. the preshading showed up good on the sides, but i cant really see it anywhere else? may just be the light or the camera or something. but hey looks good ryan. i would say do some pin washes to get more of the effect
best,
presto

Not bad Preston not bad at all.

Have to keep an eye on it.

The kit looks pretty darn good also.

One suggestion I would try some Kneadatite putty to hide the hard edge plastic tarps and stuff.

Real easy to use.

http://www.bananaking.net/cento/workshop/conv_green.htm

Gday Ryan The brown pre shading is sure an interesting effect! Seems a lot was lost in the OD application though unfortunately. Do you not have any other M4A3 markings? I may have some laying around if you're interested...
Brad

Thanks Guys..

The OD really washed out the pre-shade, but not all of the way...the effect is very subtle and looks better in person. I have got the decals on and am ready to wash. I 'm sure I'll have to go back and post shade areas to make them stand out even more, but I won't know until I flat it out after the wash.

The brown pre-shade at least gave me more practice with my airbrush. I think next time I should darken the brown a bit or go to black.

Jeff..... thanks for the tarp tip...I actually changed my stowage look to avoid those rough
edges.

Bradley...Thanks for the decal offer, I'll just use what I have, at best this is just a technique builder and not a serious build. I may take you up on that offer in the future.

On to the pics...




Ryan

i really like your OOB approach that looks really good and i also wish i could keep my desk as clean as yours very nice looking i look forward to the rest

Ryan,

Damn man, thats looking great! Even though you had to strip and start over, think of the great practice and you got to try a new technique on an model without the stress of "its gota win the show"....reality is you may want to consider this for a local show as the basics is what makes the grade to get you in the running, not fancy details.

Very nice...cant wait to see it in person tomorrow night at the club meeting. Maybe you would want to do the demo with me using your sherman too? Too bad our club build for next month isnt shermans....

Andy

Don't forget you are the President of the club.....you could make a executive order! Give us a Sherman Stimulis package.

Really, thanks for the compliments.

Thank you too David...I'm from Indiana myself:)

fantastic and wonderful, "fantasterful" LOL it looks great ,what colors did you use??