Greetings all,

Some update pics on the progress on my M4A1s.

Mk II early









Mk II mid production







Mk II late - A Sqn 3/4 CLY









All three



Comments welcome.

Cheers

Al

Good looking trio. I like the MKII late with the high bustle turret, very cool .
On the MKII mid how did you do the cam scheme, airbrush- paintbrush, both. Again very nicely done trio.

Doug

Hi India11A,

The camo on the mid production was handed painted. Thanks and glad you like them so far.

Cheers

Al

Really good set of Shermans.
I particularky like the finish of the mk11 early. How did you do that?
Cheers
Tony

Excuse my ignorance, but what kits did you use?

Hi Tony and Pod,

Thanks for the feedback.

Tony , the early was given a base coat of buff and I mixed up some Mig brick dust with a touch of red and white to make it pinkish and gave it numeous washes and then a wash or two of dark umber to try and bring out the detail. It's had a light dusting of Mig light dust to bring it to this point.

Pod, The base kit is the Dragon M4A1 6048 kit. The early has a Formations DV hull and both the early and mid have the Tamiya M4 turret with the Dragon 75mm gun early and late gun mounts respectively. The late has a reworked turret from the Italeria M4 Sherman.

Cheers

Al

Hey Alan,
I've seen photos of hybrid hull M4 Sherman I's with high bustle turrets and oval loader's hatches but I've
never seen any photos of small hatch M4A1 Sherman II's with this configuration.
Have you any idea where I could find pictures or information on this?
Cheers.

jjumbo

Hi John,

Hadn't see one before until I saw this:

references from the IWM site



You must have missed the orignal post. There is a bigger clearer picture in British Tanks In Normandy page 44.

Cheers

Al

Al-- great job on the weathering and camo pattern. The Mk II early paint job is impressive. I understand the response you posted regarding the mix, but how much of each did you apply (I assume airbrush application) and how did you mix?
thanks
DJ

Hi DJ,

Ah, that's a bit of a technical question :-) :-) :-)

I'm not sure if I can answer you exactly. I mixed a small amount of Mig Brick Dist say what you would get if you dipped the long end of a tea spoon into the pot lol, lol. To that I added about two paintbrush drips of red and white which gave a nice soft pinkish colour. The whole mixture was very watery and I washed the buff numerous times building up the colout slowly each time. If it got a bit two bright I gave it a wash of dark umber with a little black and repeated the process over several days until the texture built up and established its self.

I had to make a couple of mixes over sereral days.

All done by hand, it was pretty much an experiment and I added numerous dark umber highlights as I built up the colour. Provided the base coat and any subsequent wahes have dried properly you can also rub a little brick dust into the larger surfaces. Towards the end I also used a little dark mud applied as a wash and then wiped off with a tissue to give some alternative deeper contrast on the hull and turret sides.

One big experiment really and I used the Mig Dust because it was the closest I had to pink and a drop of red and white gave me the colour I was after.

I just kept at it until I had what I felt looked right, but most of my painting is a big experiment :-) :-) :-)

I hope that helps a bit, and apologies I couldn't be more specific I just built the colour up over several days. Before the pics I added some light dust to the areas I felt it would accumulate on,.some I let settle naturally and some I rubbed in with a soft paintbrush.

Glad you like it, it took a few day to grow on me

Cheers

Al

ALAN,
Real nice trio. Love the 2 tone shermie!!. real nice shading and paint affects on all of them. keep up the great work.

Hi Todd,

Thanks for that. I'm hoping they all turn out well, the AFV tracks are tacking me some time though and I need to fit them before I can add the fenders and sand shields to the early. Then it's crews and stowage so a ways to go yet.

Cheers

Al

Al-- thanks for the info. Once again, a great job.
thanks
DJ

Hi DJ,

Your welcome, have fun.

Cheers

Al

Hi Al,
really show's what Shermania is I guess there's a few more to build for me now ... Are you sure the fire extinguishers on #2 were green ?
Seems to be an old discussion ...
Andreas

Hi Andreas,

I think that's why I got interested in Shermans, so many possibilities :-) :-) :-) :-)

Not 100% sure about the colour. I have seen them like that and also brass and OD. They won't stand out quite so much when they are weathered in, but I believe they were a slightly glossy green.

Perhaps someone will post a picture!!!

Cheers

Al