Hey folks. I'm currently working on Academy's M51 sherman. I toned down the horrible casting effect on the hull with some tamiya cement and vallejo white putty. Painted the tank with a mix of Tamiya Buff and Dark Yellow. Mostly done with the paint. A biiit of chipping was done with vallejo khaki (just to replicate scratches and abrasions on the paint job). I'm considering applying some sort of dust coat on the running gear. I'm trying to avoid overweathering this one. Would highly appreciate any constructive feedback. I entered this in the IDF campaign and I think I'm nearly done with it if I don't do anymore weathering

This really looks great.Like I have said in many other comments before,this just shows how great one of these older kits can come out with just a little extra work.

looks great to me.

Looking good!! I would dust the track a bit on the outer surfaces, they look too clean as they are. The same goes for the canisters. Dont over do it, just a gentle brush with some dusty pigment will do the job. very very light.

Also check for photos of the exhaust, usually there is dark soot around it

I think you have got the balance just right, and agreeing with Nikos, I think the tracks could do with a light dusting, and in those types of area/terrain, any movement kicks up an insane amount of dust and it literally gets into every nook and cranny... Especially in corners and in between bits of kit. But ... It's looking great mate.

Weathering is a choice of what stage in the tank’s life you want to depict so how much or non it’s entirely up to you. I’ve never understood why people criticized weathering.

I think it looks great already as it is

I'm amused by your mention of weathering as I picked up 2 of these kits at the princely sum of $10 each just so I could try some "more aggressive" weathering techniques.

Nigel I thought you did a great job on the jerrycans - I'm not a fan of those molded-on jerrycan brackets but you seem to have handled them nicely.

Even the band tracks aren't bad at all though that might be the one thing that would elevate the model most effectively. Great for a quick build though.

The ground that these moved across would polish the grouser parts, and any other surface rubbing against something, of those tracks to a higly polished sheen.
The tracks would also be dusty.

The canvas dust shroud/cover behind the mantlet.
It looks as if the canvas has been smeared with mud (or putty that hasn't been smoothed out properly).

Look at the center guides of the track on this one:



Shiny grousers:

Now if one could fix that huge Academy muzzle brake. The one sure way to tell it's an Academy build...

Jim

I have a couple of these Academy M51 kits so like a year or two after their M51 hit stores, I called Tamiya USA and asked if I could purchase two turret sprues and two sets of tracks. They sent me everything shipped really cheap, It think I paid like $14-16 total. It was laughable how inexpensive it was compared to say ordering resin replacement parts.

With the Tamiya turrets and tracks I think they will build up really nice considering I bought both of them at modeling swap meet for $15 a piece.

The one thing I will have to scratch build will be the sand shield brackets which are visibly oversized on the Academy kit. I’ve actually done the sand shield bracket modification an a previous Academy M51 build, it’s so easy it’s ridiculous using strip styrene L bracket strips. I know the Academy kits have a few other issue but I can live with most everything else. The thing that got me when I built my first one was that crazy huge MB but also the sand shield brackets and the turret itself looked off like it’s too small for the hull, the turret sides were not angled properly, the mantlet cover looks strange, but honestly I can’t place the exact problem with the turret it just looks a bit wrong to me.

I believe the Academy kit builds into one of the final versions of the Israeli M51 so they are I think a tad different version than the Tamiya version, I’m not 100% on that tho

After writing the above post regarding the Academy M51 turret issues, I actually pulled one of the Academy kits and one of the turret sprues just to compare the two turret mouldings.

The academy is really not a T23 turret at all, it’s more like an approximation. The turret is flat on the roof from front to back and a T23 turrets have an angled drop towards the front where the mantlet is. The sides are almost straight up and lack the proper contours of the T23 turret as the Academy people shaped the front of their turret almost perfectly round like the original sherman turret, the overall lenth of the Academy turret looks ok, the bustle counter weight area looks ok, but it’s too narrow, it’s just not a good turret, the dust cover on the mantlet looks bizzare, the mantlet itself is not shaped correctly, the gun barrel is too thick and a tad bit shorter than the Tamiya and it doesn’t taper down towards the front, then the MB is almost 30-40% larger than the Tamiya.

Now I might start one of these two just to see how the Academy kit looks built up with the Tamiya turret and tracks.

I believe the Academy hull looks pretty good and it’s a quick easy build combined with a user friendly rubber band track I can get a nice tight fit around the idler and sprocket it should look legit, maybe not as nice as Tamiya M51 but still nice considering the pair of Academy M51 will have cost me less than a Tamiya kit by itself