This is the first Allied tank, Ive built since I was probably in grade school !!! It is a 1/35 scale Tamiya brand Sherman early production. It is painted with Model Masters enamels.For the weathering I used oil paint. Its built mostly stock out of the box, except for some of the storage on the back. Hope you enjoy!!! Any comments or suggestions would be thankful. Jeff

amazing job, are all those scratches and smuges dry brushed? just one thing i noticed, if those 50 cal shells were fired before the tank stopped, they should have roled into the crevices and not stayed on a round surface
great job though

presto

Pretty good first effort with a sherman. There are a number of minor tweaks this one could use. And then, as you move on to other Shermans, you'll catch more and more of them, and then try to tweak even more.....beware the disease....it caught me a few years ago....I've now built about 10 and have 17 more on my shelf.

Tweaks:

1. You have a decent gap between the transmission housing and the bolted strip along the top. In reality, that bolted strip was part of the trans housing, so that gap should be filled.

2. A tank with applique on the sides and the turret should PROBABLY also have the applique in front of the driver and co-driver positions.

3. Could use an antenna.

4. Could use a tow cable (it's pretty ubiquitous on Shermans).

5. If this tank is "on the move", then your driver is driving "blind", as the periscopes are molded shut. Something to fix.

6. Tamiya molds the spent shell port on the turret side as a separate part. That seam all around the edge should be faired in with some putty.

Other tweaks would take you to the next level. Weld seams on the glacis are in the wrong place (Tamiya used an M4A4 front to make these, which are incorrect) and would need to be filled, and all of the weld seams need to be slightly raised rather than recessed. You could use steps on the front trans housing, along with the rods that would hold the tow cable. The suspension has the incorrect upraised return roller arms and should be replaced with the horizontal arms (either swap out with an Academy kit or get a resin fixer set, as from Formations). The shape of the drivers hoods is a bit "off" and could use some sanding to get right (again, that pesky M4A4 used as a guide). Straps for the tools would be nice. Removing the molded on strip on the lower parts of the upper hull and replacing with etch or stryrene plastic with the appropriate sandshield attachment strips is always a nice touch. And others would argue for photoetch lightguards and such, though I rarely use them myself.

This sounds like a lot, and is more a shot against the kit itself than your build. Your build is quite good, as is the paint and finishing. Keep it up, do some searches on the forums for other tweaks, and your next Sherman will be even better!

Rob

Thanks Preston and Robert for the good comments and the tips!!!! Preston the scratches are dryed brushed on with the splattered mud,,,the suggestion on the spent shells ,makes since!!!! And Robert the antenna got knocked off when I was dusting the shelf it was on.. And the tow cable I just forgot to put one on!!!! Robert youve got alot of Knowledge on the Sherman that I hope to be able to use in the future!!!!!! Thanks for the comments and your reply!!!!! Jeff

Looks very good, the one thing that gets me on the tamiya kits is the thick brush guards, Eduard makes a Zoom set of just photo etch guards worth looking for the next one.

Happy to help Jeff. Oh, and guess how I've learned...........I've made all the same errors or didn't tweak the kits in the same ways you have.....AND MORE! Keep them coming and you'll keep improving. I recently finished my 9th and 10th Shermans, the 9th and 10th that I really tried hard on, and they are definitely my two best. The key is learning the good and bad parts of each kit and going from there....some kits don't require as much, or they just require something different. I suppose in the end what you've got there is a model that looks like a Sherman. It's just a few tweaks away from being a show stopper. Keep them coming!

Rob

I think you did a great job Keep them coming,thanks Bob