Well its been a while since I posted any pictures of this project. The base kit is Tamiya's old frontline breakthrough kit, improved with scratch and spares box parts. I did decide to use the fruil T-48 set because it was on very cheap secondhand, but missing the curved links and some wire.

here it is before painting and missing tools, details and running gear:




Here it is at the moment, still missing final weathering on the stowage, tow cable and a flat coat. I know the scratches aren't perfect and are a bit harsh but I'll tone them down later.








The tank will be placed on a small dio at the Battle of Aachen. The building is foamboard coated in plaster. the cobbled street is made from cork covered in plaster. The interior is still a work in progress, pending the purchase of more plastic sheet and balsa.
The building exterior is painted with Tamiya dark yellow and buff, and weathered with oils.
The rubble is plaster mixed with scrap wood and cork bricks. Once again painted with Tamiya acrylics and weathered with oil washes and pastels.









Thanks for looking, any comments and criticisms welcome.

Love the beat up look of the Sherm. Looks like it drove all the way from Normandy!

hey anirudh

this is a great model love the building n the sherman
the weathering is very good

1 thing on the street lamp thers are few unpainted spots that are noticable on the light decor best bet to just get some more black n paint the lil bits they stand out abit and were the first thing i noticed. maybe add some rust to the lamp round bottom etc and drybrush the same colour uve used for the dirt onto the lamp to simulate the debri falling and dust clouds being blown round the area. if u watch some explosion on youtube of bomb disposals in iraq you allways notice the cloud of smoke gets bigger and engulfs the surroundings this would happen for any situation

tony

So these are your dioramas Anirudh, that one is pretty convincing! For starters i certainly like that you did the building on your own -just love the grass on the roof, and the odd yellowy colour of the walls which i think make quite realistic
"Constructive comments"? well, the rust on the tank is a bit too much perhaps, but especially, i f you could add some bits of that yellow wall plaster on your rubble, that would be a fine "joint" between the elements,and also, maybe not make such a strong border between the road (nice one too) and the rubble just like somebody cleaned it with a broom you see -why not putting some wooden elements across the road for instance? last thing, the bullet holes on the wall are maybe a bit too even, but well, it might be my eyes too!
All in all, I think that you made some great choices on your base, that dio of yours certainly drove me to write a 10 mn long rant which means I really like it

Looks nice so far.

One serious goof on the Sherman though......the applique armor should not be present on the hull sides. The A3 version of the Sherman did not get them, since they had the "wet" stowage for the ammo. Not sure if you could go back and yank them off. It surprised me to see them there, since you took the time on weld seams and such.

The diorama base is superb. I really like the moss on the roof. As for the Shermie, it is nicely done, although the rust streaks seem a little over zealous.

Ditto on the armor plates- they look cool but are inaccurate.

The tracks look a bit loose too. Sherman tracks are really tight with no sag. thats an easy fix.

Armor glass windows and tank periscopes don't appear sky blue in real life--they appear gloss black or very deep, glossy gray (the light is being transmitted inside, not reflected out). On very modern vehicles, tank optics have translucent colored coatings to block laser beams from damaging the crew's eyes, but this occurred only in the last thirty years or so.
The light colored sheets usually seen on the tanks' rear decks were aerial recognition panels in fluorescent red or orange (which could be changed from day to day), which prevented attacks by Allied aircraft.
As mentioned, the applique armor was an error on Tamiya's part (which would be a real bear to try to fix at this point), and US tanks used live track which did not sag at all under normal tension.
Nice work on the buildings and base, though.

Thanks for the responses guys.
@Joseph, glad you like the tank.

@anthony, I didn't see the unpainted inside of the lampost till after the photo, so I've painted that area

@Claude Your right about the rust, that will be toned down a bit, but I'm waiting to go get some oil paints. The rubble on the street will be added when I decide on the position of the Sherman.

@Rob. Yeah I know the applique armour is a major goof, but I only realised this after following the instructions, and didn't want to risk damage to the sides.. So this obviously isn't 100% accurate.

@Scott, like I said the weathering isn't finalised, I wasn't really sure how to tone done the rust, without diluting the colour and spreading it around too much, so I'll have to apply a flat coat before doing anymore work. I'm glad you like the Dio base, It was really a process of trial and error.

@Jon. Your right, the tracks are too loose, so i'll probably remove a link from either run to tighten it up.

@Gerald. Thanks for pointing out the problem with the periscopes, I'm guessing I followed a dodgy tutorial I found somewhere. Like I said, I'l remove a link from either side of the track so it sits tighter. the flag is actually an unpainted tarp, its darker now having been painted.

Thanks for the comments, I'll have to address the problems before posting any new pics.

Generally I like the build very very much, with the exceptions noted however, are you sure that 6th Armored was at Aachen? My references show 2nd and 3rd were involved in the drive to the Roer. I believe that the 6th at that time was a 3rd Army outfit, located considerably farther south.

John