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M4A2 Sherman ... somewhere in the Pacific


Etienne

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Hello,

 

week end update before going back to work :mellow:

 

Detail painting partially done ... base color for tow cable, tools and MGs then clear coat and decals !

 

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While waiting for the paint and clear coat to cure completely, I began the "sister tank" ... in my stash was a Tasca M4A2, not the kind I wanted, cast hood, wrong turret not used in the Pacific, but I had the opportunity to get a TMD Fisher upper hull really cheap, so I decided to transform the Tasca kit to get a mid-production M4A2 very similar to the Dragon I'm building.

 

So specific resin Fisher upper hull with welded hood ... and modifications of the turret : I deleted the thickened cheek to replace it with an armor plate ... then added a pistol port, as the kit's turret had none :huh:

 

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The two Sherman's for comparison ...

 

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Cheers, E

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49 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Just catching up E, nice work.

Thanks Ozzy, will probably post some news tomorrow ... I was waiting for the tracks, they arrived today :P

 

E

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Hello gents,

 

not much work around the Dragon M4A2, just a few filters before weathering ... I was waiting for the Bronco T54E1 tracks I had ordered, fortunately they just arrived yesterday so I began to assemble a few links ;) The whole process wil take some time and need to build a jig to do that ...

 

Anyway, the tracks are going nicely on the sprocket and will undoubtly look better than the DS ... some will say that Sherman use live tracks and there's no sag, yes indeed but they don't look like a rubber band rubbing the sponson's underside either so I ditched the DS tracks :mellow:

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Waiting for the tracks, I worked on the Asuka/TMD M4A2 ... the bogies' assembly requires much work, and even if accuracy is very good, I find them a little bit overengineered, but nice ;)

 

I added some foundry marks on the turret, gun mantlet and FDA (not visible, but who cares ...)

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For comparison, the two models ... not so much difference at the end !

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Cheers, E

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1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

Good luck with those tracks, they will try the patients of a saint.

A couple of hours probably, took me just one to put together more than 1/3 of the end connectors on the pins ;)

 

I'm waiting for a Modelkasten and a Panda set of T54E1 tracks ... will do a review of the different sets to compare accuracy, build difficulty, etc...

 

Cheers, E

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13 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Good luck with those tracks, they will try the patients of a saint.

Yep I'll second that, mind numbing, over engineered compicated build up:tmi:, panda or fruil for me next, any way nice work on the sister tank etienne it looks to be going well

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9 hours ago, Hewy said:

Yep I'll second that, mind numbing, over engineered compicated build up:tmi:, panda or fruil for me next, any way nice work on the sister tank etienne it looks to be going well

 

Yeah ... I am myself probably over-engineered and complicated, my significant other says that sometimes :lol: so I can deal with that, I hope !!

 

Anyway, I have two sets of Bronco tracks, and I WILL assemble them, by will or by force ;)

 

Cheers, E

Edited by Etienne
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I'm back on French soil again, and I'm catching up on the builds. You have been busy Etienne. Two Shermans and I can't even finish one!! Great work on both of them. I take it that the casting markings are Archer dry transfers?

 

John.

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1 hour ago, Bullbasket said:

I'm back on French soil again, and I'm catching up on the builds. You have been busy Etienne. Two Shermans and I can't even finish one!! Great work on both of them. I take it that the casting markings are Archer dry transfers?

 

John.

Hi John,

 

yes indeed, Archer foundry markings ... very nice and easy to use, but very small ;) ... however the most time consuming part of the job was not applying the decals but finding good photographic references of M4A2 and M4A3 :huh:

 

The second Sherman is on hold for the time being as I need to build the wading stakes ... priority to the other one that is on the way to receive it's tracks !!

 

I didn't time myself assembling the Bronco tracks, but I think it took me around 6-7 hours to complete the two sides ... long but not so difficult and the result is quite nice I think ... they have been painted and weathered this afternoon but photos will come later.

 

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Cheers, E
 

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Hello,

 

so the tracks are now primed, painted, weathered and dusted ... and the Sherman finally received its shoes !!

 

First steps of the overall weathering are done ... undercarriage dusting, pinwash and filters ... the final step with oils and pigments will be for later, next we I guess ;)

 

Still have to work on the details, tail lights painting, tools straps also ...

 

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Cheers, E

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Hi,

 

playing with photos, I ended up with a before / after dot filters comparison that clearly shows the tone down of the base coat... I use different enamel products, filters and washes, like some use oils.

 

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E

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Hello,

 

I'm afraid the 1st Sherman won't be finished in time ... I worked with oils today, and have to wait till it dries to continue the weathering.

 

Here is the result with oils, I used them to add some color variety and also to darken the shadows and enhance the contrasts ... like a pin wash but in a different way, 1st time I try this method which is inspired by M.Rinaldi's OPR

 

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Cheers, E

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Hello,

 

thank you all for your comments ... no weathering today, so I worked on the 2ne Sherman and added the hull's armor plates and some welds, here and there ;)

 

Armor plates are cut from styrene sheet, not perfectly square and applied slighlty askew to reproduce the "theater made" job you can see on photos ... welds are made with milliput, great product for that work. 

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Cheers, E

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Hello,

 

much work around the 2nd Sherman ... field made wading stacks are installed, just need the tools to be installed and strapped ;)

 

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The kit's tools were cleaned, as I'll use brackets made of PE sprue leftovers ... much better, I think. Just dry fitted for the moment ...


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Cheers, E

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