IanC

Excellent job. The paintwork looks just right, especially the mottle and feathered edges on the nacelles.

My dad always used to say 'the ship left port'. Not repeatedly. Just when he needed to remember.

Thanks Keith. Yes, a new gun and turret will give them that option. Think the hull of the standard Mk V is essentially the same - and the MG is already there. But will they bother? I'm not sure.

Thanks Steve. It was a fun little build, despite some minor annoyances. Yes, Airfix seem to be a bit of confused about the hull MG. They show it being fitted in part 43 of the instructions but all subsequent stages correctly show the blanking armour plate in its place!

The new Airfix Sherman Vc in the markings of 3 Troop, A Squadron, Northants Yeomanry, Normandy 1944. It's a decent little kit although unfortunately not strictly compatible with their earlier, excellent 1/76 Cromwell. I found the link and length tracks a bit fiddly, and wish Airfix had allowed for some of the hatches to be displayed open. The only additions from me were a bit of extra stowage - the kit includes plenty of spare track if you want to add some welded to turret or hull sides, as was fairly commonplace. Just noticed, too, that I forgot to drill out the muzzle brake...

Nice result from a tricky kit. And of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Excellent. The vehicle was a real tiddler judging by the chair!

Servalan....

Indeed. It's just that I've not used Mike's Vallejo mix before, and if that's a reasonable match for the real thing then I'm happy enough to have found something else that looks roughly the same straight out of the bottle. As a starting point... In this case it only needs to look right under a thick layer of Normandy dust and dirt!

I've just finished building Airfix's new 1/72 Sherman Firefly, which of course means finding a suitable SCC.15. I've been experimenting with some paint mixes, the easiest of which is Mike Starmer's half and half mix of Vallejo Model Color 70.924 Russian Uniform Green and 70.888 Olive Grey. I compared this with swatches of various aircraft colours I have and found that Gunze Mr Hobby H 73 Dark Green is virtually identifical, at least to my eye. Another benefit is that the Gunze paint is harder wearing. This may of course be old news (or duff gen...) but has anyone else

I shall follow along with this one. I remember building this kit and using an etched set for the zimmerit. You're right about the awful tracks. I replaced mine with aftermarket rubber band ones that actually looked quite good. Can't remember the name though, or if they still exist.

Impressive work, especially on the figures. The whole scene is very naturalistic.

The shot of AN-V over Tunisia is most certainly a genuine colour photo. Taken on Kodachrome, as were nearly all official British colour images of the time. The early air to air shot of 19 Squadron Spits was taken on the much rarer Dufaycolor, privately obtained.

I'm building the standard version of this kit with the link and length tracks, which I'm finding a bit fiddly if I'm honest - but then I've always preferred decent rubber band tracks, especially on something like a Sherman. So, yes, it's a great idea to just have the simplified one-piece tracks in this starter set as it's a great little kit and certainly looks the part when put together.

I can only echo the previous comments. The weathering is spot on and reflects how the actual vehicle looks - lots of dust and dirt, in places rubbed off edges, and no unrealistic ruststreaks or chipping!