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IDF Sherman M1.


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Last update for the next three weeks. A coat of my normal primer, Halfords grey, was followed by a couple of coats of a paint that I hadn't used before, namely Mig's IDF Green. It was an unknown quantity for me, but once it was on and dry, I was fairly pleased with the result. I painted the tracks with a very thin solution of Tamiya flat black and flat earth and prior to installing them, I sprayed the lower hull and running gear with a thinned coat of flat earth and desert yellow. The tyres were roughly painted with the same solution as the tracks. This was followed by a coat of Tamiya's Clear Coat gloss ready for the decals. There are two colour profiles and a few B&W photos in the SabingaMartin Publications book, Lioness and Lion of the Line, Vol.12 of an M1 with unusual markings. The tank in question belonged to the 1st Company, 52nd Battalion of the 7th Brigade and featured distinctive crossed bones on the side of the hull. The turret is marked by stencil applied white markings which look like 2X. The stylised X is actually the Hebrew letter "Alef" which is 2A. The unusual aspect is the fact that somebody added extra markings 3 Alef (3A) to the turret using very thin sand coloured paint by hand, which ran down the side of the turret. The significance of these additional markings is unknown to me.

The decals are very thin and delicate and I would advise anyone using them to cut the crossed bones in half before applying them.

 

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My usual impatience and habit of not checking things before proceeding caused me to put the crossed bones on the opposite sides to how they should be. Too late! 

 

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There are some bad moulding marks on the rear of the Tamiya turret which I'd omitted to do something about, and turned out to be quite prominent. It was too late to do anything about it at this stage, so I had to fudge it and the way that I did it was to add a piece of PVA soaked tissue on the left side to represent a small tarp, and a smaller similar on the right to represent a towel (well they did wash!!) Also on the right hand L shaped bracket, I hung a bucket, which incidentally, is in the photo.

 

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The decals have been sealed with Tamiya Clear Cote ready for the washes that will be the next job.

TTFN.

 

John.

  

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9 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Buckets FTW!  :yahoo:

 

The other stuff is great too.....But it has a bucket! 

 

The photos of this tank in the Lioness and Lion book show a bucket hanging in this position (apparently it's unusual). But it helped in this case to hide the moulding blemish.

 

John.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, it's nearly seven weeks since I posted anything on this build, so I thought it about time to get something moving. After the gloss varnish and decals and more gloss, it was time to get down to the weathering.  I applied a dark wash and after leaving it for 15 minutes, removed most of it with a flat brush, moistened with thinners (that stunk the room out again. I must get some odourless thinners!!) The next day, the whole model was coated with Valejo's matt acrylic varnish, which whilst giving a nice matt finish, clogged the airbrush with gunge. Must try and get another brand. Any suggestions?

I concentrated on the turret first as this would take the least time. The tank that I was wanting to depict appears in the photos in an extremely muddy and dust covered condition, so anyone thinking that I've gone OTT....I haven't. I can't show the photo as it might open a whole can of copyright worms, but if anyone has a copy of Lioness and Lion of the line, Vol.12, there are several photos of this tank and a couple of colour profiles near the back of the book.

I used a combination of Migs European Dust and Gulf War Sand, plus several of Carr's weathering powders. I painted the tarpaulins hanging on the back of the turret along with the one covering the .50 cal. mg.

 

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Rather than spray it, I rubbed the muzzle with Carr's Coal Black powder.

 

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Don't  worry Sarge, the bucket will be back as soon as it's painted and weathered!!

 

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Now to do something similar with the hull.

 

John.

 

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Stunning mate!!

 

Re your Acrylic varnish problem...... Stop thinking 'Model' and start thinking 'Artist'.... I've been using W&N Galleria artist Acrylic varnish, both gloss and matt, for years, for a 0.3 needle brush you can spray it straight out the bottle, but I do like to thin mine, add flow aid and then build up in several coats, it tends to stay matt-er, longer..... I've now also invested in their Matt Medium which I mix 50/50 with the varnish and thin to suit the airbrush, this is then dead flat, and stays like it

 

 

ATB

 

Sean

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Thanks Sean. That sounds like a way to go. I've used several different acrylic varnishes and have never been completely happy with any of the matt ones, even though other people have said that they haven't had a problem.....just me then!

Thanks again Sean. I'll pick some up when I'm back in Blighty next.

Regards,

 

John. 

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The used finish that you are getting really good IHMO, you can see a radical change of the two states, a pretty toy, to something much more serious and real.
The only thing that does not like me, and is not a criticism, because apart from being historically true, it is magnificently represented, it is the "disaster" of the marks in the turret with the rain, that to someone little "aware" in the theme, it would seem like a mistake ... lol.

I also use the varnish varnish Vallejo, and it is true that you need thinner to "thin it out", using a needle of 0.3 mm, and a somewhat higher pressure than I use for the paint, but once the mixture starts to work , the result is quite good.
It is matte, as I like it, and covers all the "stains at different levels," the washes, etc., which has the paint.

Cheers John :D

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13 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

The used finish that you are getting really good IHMO, you can see a radical change of the two states, a pretty toy, to something much more serious and real.
The only thing that does not like me, and is not a criticism, because apart from being historically true, it is magnificently represented, it is the "disaster" of the marks in the turret with the rain, that to someone little "aware" in the theme, it would seem like a mistake ... lol.

I also use the varnish varnish Vallejo, and it is true that you need thinner to "thin it out", using a needle of 0.3 mm, and a somewhat higher pressure than I use for the paint, but once the mixture starts to work , the result is quite good.
It is matte, as I like it, and covers all the "stains at different levels," the washes, etc., which has the paint.

Cheers John :D

 

Thanks Francis, much appreciated. Apparently, (and it's not stated why in the book) somebody painted the "3X" each side of the turret using a sand coloured paint that had been thinned down too much. Hence the paint running down the sides.

The tank in question was taking part in exercises in the Negev and got stuck in some thick mud and appears to have thrown a track. Probably why there is so much mud on the sides of the hull, particularly at the rear.

I think that one of the problems with my Vallejo matt varnish is that it has sat for a long while and separated out. I think that I need to give it a thorough stirring and then strain it to remove the lumps of gunge.

 

John.

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10 hours ago, crushkill said:

This is a true work of art, and inspiring too! I feel like I should be building rather than browsing the forums

 

Thanks very much for your comments.

 

John.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Managed to get some work done on this finally, but now I'm calling it finished (well, almost). There are still a couple of minor things to add such as the aerial. I won't be putting it into RFI for a while as I want to mount it on a display base first, plus I want to add a couple of crew figures. I'll probably end up using the ones in the kit which are fine, but I need to replace the heads with some from Hornet.

I've dirtied it up quite a bit, especially at the rear as the photos that I have of this tank show it on exercise in the Negev where it got stuck in mud, hence the dirt all over the hull rear after it tried to extricate itself (unsuccessfully). I've used mainly MIG's Gulf War Sand, mixed with thinners, and applied this paste to the lower hull and on the running gear and tracks. I also used Carr's black pigment to produce shadow effects on the upper hull in places where it's normally done with preshading.

 

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I carried out a little detail painting as well. The wooden handles of the pioneer tools were first coated with cream acrylic and then wiped them with ochre oil paint. I used black grey for the metal heads and then painted the straps with Humbrol leather. The tow rope was painted silver and then given a MIG Dark Wash. The bucket and the oil drum were painted with a different shade of green to make them stand out a bit from the hull colour.

 

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I wasn't entirely happy with the colour of the tarp covering the turret MG, so I repainted it a canvas colour. Final items were the cam net on the left side of the hull, the spare track links, the rope securing the cam net and the oil drum and the insulator on the aerial which I painted leather colour and then gloss varnish.

 

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Another thing that I added were a couple of 3mm headlamp lenses, curtesy of Little Cars.

 

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Thanks for looking.

 

John.

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54 minutes ago, FrancisGL said:

Looks fantastic, the dusted / matt finish is very real for me...:popcorn:, cheers John :D

Thanks Francis. I hope that I didn't overdo it.

 

John.

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3 minutes ago, Gremlin56 said:

The weathering and the mat coat make a world of difference here John, a very nice looking build :yes:

Thanks very much. With a tank that was as dirty as this one was, it's hard to know when you've done enough, and not go over the top.

 

John.

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41 minutes ago, vindicareassassin said:

She's come together really rather well I think :idea:

 

Thanks Sean. It's taken a while, but I finally got there.

 

John.

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42 minutes ago, Etienne said:

Very nice indeed B)

 

The more I see Shermans, the more I think about building one :o

 

E

 

Thanks Etienne. Try it. But be careful. They're addictive. I've built at least 15, and I've got loads more to do!!

 

Regards,

 

John.

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