Hi everyone, I thought I'd post a few pics of my current project. All you Shermaholics out there take it easy on me, this is my first Sherman in about 25 years. This is for a club build and it is very straight forward. Tamiya M4A3 with a TWS T-23 turret, Formations idlers, exhaust deflector, and sponson fillers, and Archer markings. I had to make myself not go detail crazy on this one,(seriously) I didn't even replace any grab handles. As is very evident from the pics I have not begun the weathering process yet, hopefully that will start this weekend. I did enjoy this build though, to the point that I have 2 more Sherman projects in the pipeline and I plan to get a little more ambitious with them. On deck is a Firefly Ic composite I've been collecting parts and kits for. OK on to the pics, let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Mike

Excellent stuff Mike..I like your paint work alot. Your a much better man than I. I have ams so bad, i dont think a 12 step program would help at this point. Keep up the great work.
Cheers,
Bryan

Terrific paint job so far Mike. I love the camo as a break from the all OD.

You did a nice job on the turret's texturing, I only wish you did the same on the transmission cover. I can't see from the photos if you did or not, but from the first pic, I would suspect no. (???)

Keep us posted on your progress.

Thay's a fine looking Shermie. I noticed you seem to have different tracks in each pic. Which set you going with?

That's a nice tank I like the paintjob very much.

Greetz Rob!

That's really coming along great!

Are you going to put any figures on it?

That looks like a really nice build and paint job, please show us the finished job.
If it were mine I wouldn't weather it too heavily so as not to cover that beaut cammo !

Great work on your M4A3(76) Sherman. You seem to have the same approach to aftermarket parts as I do.

Your camo scheme is awesome, and that Black/OD choice is perfect ! Gotta love Archer Dry Transfers

What did you use for your 76mm gun barrel ? Looks good.

Keep us posted with the pics !!

Cheers !!

Alpen

Mike
That is a fantastic Sherman I love the name :-) Will you add a figure that looks like Don Rickles? :-) As far as the markings did you put the transfers on the tank a letter/number at a time?

Or did you put them on decal paper then apply them like a decal? If it's one peice at a time how did you get them in straight and level?

Thanks for the compliments guys I really appreciate it. In answer to the questions:


Ken, actually the turret came that way, I didn't do a thing to it. As I mentioned, I really didn't do any detail work on this one. I am by no means a fast builder (I usually turn out around 2-4 kits a year) and since this is a club build I'm up against a dead-line, so I built and painted it, as it was. Since I have a couple more Shermans planned this one is kind of a warm-up for them.



Alan, I haven't decided yet, what do you think? I like the duckbills, but they are the older Tamiya tracks and will be a little tougher to paint.


No figures planned Bob, but as Chad said, a Don Rickles figure would look cool.


Dave that is pretty much what I was thinking also. I plan on dusting up the running gear and lower hull, maybe just a little mud down low, then a light mist of dust all over.


Robert, the barrel came with the TWS turret. I was told the CMD T-23 turret is nicer, but I was going low budget on this one and I'm happy with how the TWS turret looks.


Chad, the name came in a set of generic names Archer makes, so that was just a matter of lining up one whole strip on each side. The divisional markings are individual letters and numbers. I used a piece of low tack tape to keep them lined up on the front, on the rear I just used the lower edge of the hull.
Again, thanks for the kind words everyone, especially from those of you who are known Shermaholics.

Mike