This is Tamiya's M4A1 early Sherman in 1/35 scale. I just painted the main hull and turret. The lower hull tracks, boggies and wheels have already been weathered. I do all my painting by hand brushing, so that is why the lower hull gets finished first.
Now to let the paint cure so I can clear gloss coat prep for decaling. Any tips or comments are more than welcome!







Regards,

Garry

Nice work, Garry.

One thing though ... that's an M4 (A-nothing). And it likely would have lost those sand shields long before the Ardennes offensive.

M4A nothing? Never heard of that one before. :-) Lol, but I like it! The A1 thing was out of habbit, since I was going to build the Italeri M4A1 kit untill I found that I was missing parts.
I will remove the sand shields and resurfice the hull where they attached. Thanks for catching that for me Bob!

Cheers,

Garry

If you could find some fine mesh screen to put in the openings of those inlets forward of the taillight guards that would bump it up a Notch.BAM. (++) (++)

Hmm, well I just happen to have some screen left over from a M109 build. Should work fine. Thanks for that tip Carl !

Garry

Howdy Garry,

So far your M4A 'nothing' is looking pretty darn good. As Hollowpoint so kindly pointed out, the sandskirts would have either been removed by personnel by now, or otherwise shed from the sides of the tank through physical contact.
I suppose you could leave a couple of pieces still attached if you were going for a more 'tattered' look, but then of course you'd really have to change over to scratching up a metal replacement to get the dented & dinged appearance of the pieces that were left attached after the tanks long journey to the forests of Belgium.
If you decide to remove them completely, which I think you already have, remember to glue a long strip of flat stock along the edge of the sponson to represent the sandskirts old mounting strip. A small item that most people miss.
Also, another thing to remember. That rear idler wheel is not to be painted 'rubber' black like all of the bogey wheels....it was not made of rubber, but instead metal. So it should rightly appear shiny, but worn down and slighty darkened, or a wee bit of rust added.
hth.

Tread.

Keep us all posted.

Hey bare with me here guys, Im still a swabby just getting into Armor! I think I just now got it! Sand shields, since Tread mentioned removing the sand shields from the side of the tank(slapping my forehead!.) . When Hollowpoint mentioned removing the sand shields, I thought he ment the armor plates in front of the driver hatches since this is the first time I have seen them. So I removed them! Now I get it, that the sand shields are realy the (I call them)fender skirts. Sheesh! I should have asked before I broke out the crowbar!
Now I have this question. Do I remove the skirts only, or do I remove the fenders also ?

Daized and confused,

Garry

Garry
the fenders on your M4 should look similar to those on this M4A1



HTH
Pete

Thanks for the pic Peter! I now have the fenders and the shields all pulled off, sanded and repainted. Also have her all decaled! Now I'll have a little PC time while its all setting up and curing.

Cheers,

Garry

Howdy Garry,

I'm quite sure that one of the more 'learned' Shermanaholics around here can elaborate more eloquently than I on the subject, but the applique armour that you thought were the "sand shields" were actually sheets of additional armour to aid in addressing a known weakness in the (then) front armour of the Sherman. Namely the almost flat, vertical face of the driver and co-driver positions (look directly behind the armour plates you accidently removed). Later Sherm's had that area reshaped to add a more protective, and ballistically sound angle to the front of both those positions.

I looked long and hard for a good picture of the strip I talked about. The only one I could quickly find (about 20 minutes) was this picture of DRAGONSLAIN's excellently built Sherm.......


If you look closely at the outer edge of the sponson, just above the road wheel bogies, you will see a thin strip with holes at intervals running down the side of the tank.
I just know Hollowpoint provided me a nice in-progress picture of that strip but I could not find it for the life of me.....
Hope he doesn't get mad I didn't include it, because going thru his Gallery I found a picture of what he might do to me for not posting it.......


either not make him angry, or hope to God he's not wearing his glasses when he takes a shot at me! :-) :-)

hth.

Tread

Tread you better dig in! And you better strap on some of that applique armor ! :-)
Thanks for digging up some refs for me bud. I will see if I cant find some plastic to cut some strips from for them sponson edges.

oops! I heard Bob lock and load!
find a hole quik Gordon!


Garry

You better watch out there, Tread. I was practicing yesterday with my deer rifle -- my old, trusty 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser. The last three-round group I shot can be covered with a dime Deer gun season opens Dec. 1 here in Kansas ... if it's brown, it's down.

That XM8 is a pretty sweet weapon. The guy I interviewed about the XM8 program was on Mail Call the last couple weeks, showing off the XM8 and other weapon systems to Gunny R. Lee Ermey.

Back on topic -- I guess I don't have any clear digital pics of the strip, but if you look closely at most Shermans, you can see it. The Tamiya kit has a slightly raised rib to represent this strip -- I use the rivets on the kit sand shield parts as a guide for drilling holes in a strip of Evergreen styrene. Sometimes I glue the strip to the tank before drilling the holes so the strip doesn't warp.

The strip has been added to the sponsons. I borrowed a slat off my chain link fence in the back yard, cut the strips off and drilled them. LOL! Hey it works!
Here is a pic with strip attached, how does it look?



Garry