Hi Dave,

Just getting caught up on all the great posts I haven't had time to keep up with. Man, this sure built up nice. Excellent work on the assembly and paint is looking great so far. Really interested to see how the AK weathering turns out. This is definitely inspiration for me to get back in the saddle on my own Sherman build which unintentionally went on hiatus for the summer!

:)

Planning anything special for a display base?

Keep up the good work...looking forward to the conclusion!

Cheers!

Hey Don,

Thanks a bunch for checking on the buld log. Much appreciated. I have never used the AK Interactive products before. Hopefully tihings will turn out and I won't muck it up.

As for the base. I am planning on building one up soon to display the tank.
If you notice in the actual picture I posted there is a sheet of corrugated metal on the slope of the hill beside the tank. I was planning to use a product from Reality iin Scale.

http://www.realityinscale.com/epages/61537336.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61537336/Products/ACC004

i asked them for pricing including shipping about a month ago but did not hear back from them. As I wasn't ready for it I did not pursue them but will have to ask again as the product looks pretty good to me. If you or anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to suggest an alternative.

Cheers,
Dave.

Dave,

I found the this product for sale in the US from Military Miniatures Warehouse.

Don't know anything about them but it might be easier for you to get it from there than directly from the Netherlands.

Hope this helps.

Don,

Good to see that this product is available in North America but I am just over the border in Canada and Military Miniatures Warehouse would charge me $30 for the benefit of ordering a simple $10.99 product from them. This tells me they are not interested in dealing with customers outside the U.S. hence the ridiculously high price they put on their website as a deterrent. European suppliers to this company shoud take note.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Cheers,
Dave.

the AK stuff works great.i had a few oh no moments but the white spirit took care of that.

Well Dave, that's the last time I recommend THEM to my Canadian brethren!

Seriously though, I did think they would be cheaper due to the closer proximity, but there must be something about the "international" shipping that makes it so expensive. Or, as you say, they just don't want the hassle. In any case, I hope you are able to find the components you want without having to pay an arm and a leg.

Best.

Thanks Don,

Much appreciated. I will try reality in scale again and see if I get a response.

Cheers,
Dave.

Okay folks,

Here we go again with another minor update.

I managed to get the stowage done on the kit and tried to replicate them as close as I could to those in my reference picture. I think they turned out okay but let me know what you think.

I also got some markings on as well. I used the Tasca decals for this step instead of the stencils as I have had pretty good luck with decals and I assumed the Tasca decals were as good as their kit. Also, The Tasca kit has the painted out National Star and it looks just like the one in my reference photo so in the end it was an easy choice for me. The quality of decals are excellent and they went on no problem. I sprayed some future on the area where I was going to lay down the decals then more future afterward then a matte varnish to finish them off. I had some issues with the matte varnish which I will comment on as well. Now on to the pics.

Looking good Dave. However, something about that painted-out star doesn't look quite right to my eye...it's almost too perfect. Seems like the edges should be "rougher" where the crew painted that out rather than looking like a perfectly painted dark star. It even appears to be a little rougher in your reference photo. The decal itself is close but I almost feel like a little enhancement around the edges with a brush would make it look even better.

The highlighting on the tracks looks great. Did you use metallic paint or graphite on them? And the stowage is spot on with your reference photo.

Overall this is really shaping up nicely!

Cheers.

Don't wanna be a PITA but the middle offside bogie - looks like the spring housing is facing the wrong way? I only noticed it cos I'm building the Dragon kit with the E8 suspension and I was comparing the two. Apart from that, it is outstanding. Stevie.

Don,

Thanks for checking in and posting your constructive comments. Much appreciated.

You raise an interesting point regarding the blacked out Star. Looking at the kit decal and the photo there is more variation in the marking on the actual tank. The photo even has some white areas which perhaps they missed when painting it over. I am going ot think about that a bit more as I start weathering it. At this point though I am thinking I will add some paint to the area to give it a more irregular shape..

Thanks again.

Dave.

Stevie, great catch I just noticed ths myself. No worries though I did a quick fix and Voila the error has been corrected. Here's some pics for illustration purposes.



Fixed




Stevie, would love to see pics of your E8. Are you dong a build log of it or posting pics somewhere?

All the best,
Dave.

Craig, thanks for checking in and posting your comments.

Hopefully things will go well with the AKI product. I plan on using very very little of the rust product as this tank had probably been only in the field a few weeks when the picture was taken in January 1945. The 4th armoured dvision had only received it's M4A3E8's the previous month.

David.

Dave, I'm not doing a build log or anything like that. Actually it may take me a while to finish - I'm doing 16 Shermans in various guises and various states of finish! One or two are finished, some just need tools added and some are barely started - I get fed up real easy! The Dragon kit with the E8 suspension is actually the 105mm model, but I'm gonna convert it and add a spare Dragon top/Italeri bottom 76mm turret late model with the oval loaders hatch. Currently the suspension is almost finished and will start on the one piece tracks soon. Stevie.

Don,

I used a prisma colour silver pencil to do the steel highlights on the tracks.
I got it from one of the local art stores up here in Canada's called Curry's Art store.

David,

Great little update, the figure and storage looks superb. just out of curiosity where did you get the figure from?

Brad.

Hey Brad,

Thanks for checking out the build. Much appreciated.

The figure is from Alpine Miniatures U.S. Tanker part: 35034.

Regards,
David.

Hi Guys,

Well it's been almost 2 months since my last update. My apologies for taking a while to provide an update. I got caught up with work, and family life then shot off in a bit of a different direction when I decided to do an M4A3(75)W which is also coming along.

See here:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/183032&page=1

My update today is not a big one but I was able to get the rear stowage on and fixed. The ID panel is made from the same bag material as the Canvas tarp. I painted the yellow ID side by first painting it with Vallejo Flourescent yellow then spraying it a mixture of Tamiya XF-3 Yellow and Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green, which is a colour often used by aircraft modellers to do to the yellow/green chromate for cockpits, wheel wells etc of aircraft. The reverse white side was sprayed with Tamiya white whilst the OD boarder was hand painted in Vallejo Panzer Aces Russian Uniform Green. I painted the K-ration and German artillery shell boxes like I paint a figure by layering on highly diluted acrylic paints. In this case I used various flesh type colours from Vallejo along with Vallejo brown, also highly diluted to give them a bit of grain. I then gave them a wash with Raw Umber oil as well as some Vallejo Sepia for an acrylic wash. Finally, I roughed up the Blacked out star on the turret, per Don's suggestion to make look more like the one my reference photo.

Any way hope you like it and please let me know what you think.

Dave.

I stared this kit on sunday and once I get home I'll start assembling the HVSS. I hope mine looks liek yours

Sean,

Thanks for having a look and taking the time to comment. It is much appreciated.

Perhaps you can post some pic's of your Sherman as well. Would love to see it.

Cheers,
Dave.

I actually just started my blog. Our vehicles look exactly the same at this point

The rope tie downs look a bit 'heavy' to me, at least compared to the picture.

Also, we can't see the front of the pile of stowage, but I would "guess" that the jerry can had a rope around it, securing it to the pile of stuff. Having it just lean there would end up in a lost can IMO.

Looking good Dave.

Hi Jesse, thanks for having another look at the build.

Regarding the tie down ropes I think one could go either way on this. I don't think they look too heavy given the amount of stuff they needed to tie down but I can see where one might think the rope over the oil can is too "heavy"

As for the other stowage, keep in mind this tank is in a static position and has probably been there a few days. If you look closely you will see that one of the Jerry Can's is for Water and the other for Gas along with the K-ration box. I think it is entirely conceivable that the crew of such a tank in a Static position would want unfettered access to water, food and fuel( the fuel being used to make a fire during the day), in order to make their harsh lives a bit easier.
I purchased a high quality jpeg of the photo and off to the left of the tank there is what I believe the remains of a fire the crew had lit for cooking. Also there are a few individual ration boxes strewn about in the snow, perhaps taken from that wooden K-ration box on rear deck?

Dave.

Ahh, sounds good. I had previously thought the Sherman was on the move, hence the comments.

If you're happy with the rope scale, that's all that matters.

Can't wait to see her weathered.

Thanks for the comments Jesse,

Weathering will be up soon. Gonna post some pics of the base for the vignette next.

Stay tuned.