Hey,

These are my second and third models that I've build. I picked these up at a local second-hand market for 5€ a piece.

I'd like to improve my modeling skills, but I am not sure where I should start. I was hoping that you could give feedback and critic and point out the areas of improvements with these models. Here is the pictures:












(Sorry about the crappy quality of the last one. Ran out of battery and had to use cellphone camera)

Feel free to be brutally honest if you like

Hei Veli Tervetuloa Armorama
These were among the first kits I ever built and I must have built 12 different versions using that Airfix Sherman.

Well built models. if I could suggest one thing it would be to use different weathering effects on different parts of the tank. For instance the tracks, suspension and lower hull might be more heavily weathered than the turret.

To Improve- If you want to stick to that scale I recommend visiting the Braille scale forum here on Armorama and also on Missing lynx for tips. I know that some modelers can do wonders with small scale models

I agree with Pat. You should make the suspension and undercarriage a little dirtier. I am assuming that these are 1/72 scale. Where are the tools? I believe that the sherman has rubber boots on the tracks. Also, your tracks(on the tiger) and road wheels could use a dose of rust pigment; as can the exhaust on the tiger. The sherman looks too glossy. Use some flat clear from a rattle can or any hobby line, if you have an airbrush. Practice makes perfect.

Pat: Thanks for the warm welcome I've been training on the 1/72 scale for now since the price of the kits are about one tenth of the price of 1/35 kits. Making mistakes does not feel as bad if the kit aint that expensive Later on I do intend to move on to building the 1/35 kits (already have one assembled, but dont want to ruin with paint because of lack of practice).

Thanks for the link. I'll check the forums out and I've been using missing lynx site already as a source of reference material.

Matt: You are correct about the scale. Both of the models are built straight from the box and the tiger one didn't have any with it. On the sherman I was a bit afraid of painting the tools since I'd prolly end up making a mess. I was going to paint em later but I actually forgot

Both of the models are painted with acrylic colors by brush. I don't have an airbrush and I don't dare to invest in one at this point of the hobby. Both of the models have been applied with Vallejo Matt Varnish, but I've been having some problems with it sadly. It doesn't seem to make the surface that matt and altough I've been adding it with thin layers, it has already started to pile up in some places, leaving with spots there (like on those hatches on the front hull). I haven't found a way to fix this yet.

I'll need to get me some pigments and play around with the suspension for both of the vehicles. Thanks for the tips Just what I was looking for.

These 1/76th scale models are good kits to start with. Designed almost fifty years ago, they are what they are, and it's probably pointless to try to correct the maker's design goofs. But they are ideal to learn assembly and painting skills (hey, I built them, too back in the 1960's, when dinosaurs walked the Earth).
Couple of quick thoughts. Cleaning up molding seams on kit parts is a simple but important way to improve a kit's final appearance. These are the fine raised lines left on the part where the two halves of the mold met. You just scrape gently with the edge of an X-acto knife. Sometimes larger parts need to be rubbed down with fine sandpaper. Molding seams on round items like machine gun and cannon barrels can really jump out if you don't take care of them. Similarly, the seams where two parts are glued together should also be eliminated with scraping and sanding (unless there was a visible joint there on the real vehicle).
The Sherman tracks should rubber blocks with steel end connectors. There were all-steel Sherman tracks as well, but those had raised steel cleats (usually chevron-shaped, but some types were straight). But the smooth type, as depicted in the kit, were just dusty, gray rubber.
The dark yellow on the Tiger is far too bright and saturated, especially for a small scale. The smaller the scale, the less saturated the paint should be. The Tiger should also have a camouflage pattern, ordinarily. The dark yellow paint was broken up with bands or spots of olive green and/or red brown, with the pattern decided at unit level. The kit depicts a fairly late vehicle, when Allied air forces had air supremacy, and German armor had to hide to survive.

I bought some matt varnish in a spray can from a local gas station. Turned out that it didn't exactly have a matt finish. Long story short:


Perhaps that would look like matt compared to other car paints (you can see some grainyness on it) but surely not on a scale model. I guess I can use the rest of the can as a gloss varnish. Oh and yes, I shaked the can for 5 mins

Gerald, thanks for the feedback! I painted the tracks according to the boxart:

As you pointed out, the tracks of this shape were made from rubber and I've now fixed that by painting them with rubberish color. I'll post some pictures once I've gotten rid of the glossiness of the hull.

About the Tiger, according to the box instructions, no specific camo pattern was used on the TIgers deployed in Afrika. I also seem to recall some pictures from there with tanks having no camo pattern. I am not too sure about the historic aspect, I just trusted the box instructions