Hate to tell you this but you painted it the wrong color.. shermans are olive drab not german gray..

Looking good, keep at it but do not let that sherman sit too long they get lonely and will make friends with odd things around the bench and then your stuff will start to go missing and worse.

Thank you and no worries, on it mingling. I plan on getting back to it, tomorrow.

Nice to take a break, Matt. One thing though -- no one would ever let their tow cables get rusty. They were always oiled (never painted). This was to prevent rust and corrosion. Also any shredding or weakening could be seen and the cable replaced.

To say that lives would be at stake would be an understatement.

Easy fix.

I'll be putting this one back, on the shelf; and continuing my Sherman, today.

Good work so far. I wouldnt worry too much about the rust. It would take a decade of bad storage before rust could weaken a cable this diameter. I dont know about german ww2 cables, but we used old rusted cables to pull russian Ts and nothing ever snapped. To be honest I cant imagine how one could avoid surface rust at all. One good rainy day and all the lubrication is gone anyway.