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Tamiya M26 Dragon Wagon and M4 Sherman

All the large resin components for the interior detail sets had been removed from the carriers and test fitted . The first area was the radial engine. After gluing the engine together I then added the wiring for the spark plugs. I know that you would not see this but I wanted to try and replicate this the best I could. The radial was put together and left outside the compartment. This was so it could be painted separately. Hydraulic piping was included around the engine bay. Although due to the lack of proper reference material I could only allow for what I had in the reference shots. Moving onto the fighting compartment interior there was a lot of test fitting on the lower hull to ensure it all fitted correctly. There had been some items I left out because I wanted to paint them separately before glueing into position. After I was happy with the layout of the lower hull I continued onto the turret basket. This is a challenge .The one main area of concern for this section is to constantly dry fit the turret basket and turret to the lower part of the hull. There was some constant sanding of the resin base to get this to sit correctly.

With the limited knowledge I had on the interior of the turret I commenced with super glueing fine wire to the Verlinden resin intercom boxes. The co ax 30 cal was glued in place with the ammo box glued to the lower part of the turret with evergreen card used for the ammo box holder. This is a tricky area because when the upper and lower turret parts are together I made sure that they would not foul on anything.

With most of the components glued together in the upper and lower hulls I then began airbrushing Humbrol panzer gray No 67 as the base colour for all the interior components. I decided against black because if I was highlighting with white it would be too much of a contrast variation. The next highlighting colour was Humbrol white enamel followed by a coat of Testors Dullcote.

This is where all the smaller items that had been painted in sub sections were glued into position . I then gave another coat of Testors Dullcote to remove any glue shiny spots. Allow a couple of hours for the Dullcote to dry before commencing with a wash to give the interior a dirty look. The wash was a mixture of white spirit, burnt umber and black oil paint and applied with a fine “o” paint brush I then proceeded around the hull with a highlight colour of Humbrol metalcote to simulate worn sections inside the hull. The next stage was a HB pencil and cut sections of Verlinden dry transfers on the bins inside the lower hull. The Americans marked all the interior components on where everything should be inside their armoured vehicles.

It was at this stage I glued the upper and lower hulls together and moved to the outside of the Sherman. A Jordi Rubio barrel and Aber etch tool clamps, front fenders, headlight guards ,50 cal mount had been added along with scratchbuilt bullet deflector and headlight holders. Due to the limited access to brass casting letters a friend gave me some railway plastic letters and numbers for the turret castings for the top of the turret. I used a Verlinden arial mount, cut the lower half of the arial and drilled out the upper and lower halves of the arial. Verlinden spring was cut to the desired length and superglued into position. I wanted this so I could bend the arial like the real thing .The things we do to accurately present something.