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Time to declare my build for this first armour STGB. It has been a bit of a struggle to decide what to build and I've been torn between several different scales and manufacturers before going back to my original choice. I've re-decided on Eduard's reboxing of Tasca's M4A1 (Tasca kit number 35010). I've recently completed another 1/35 build which I thoroughly enjoyed so thought I'd stick in the same scale. So this is the kit box: ..........you can also see I've recently picked up the Haynes Owners Workshop Manual for £6 Good timing from the Works! I'm going to build the kit as “Goldie”: ...which landed at Normandy on June 9th and took part in the Battle of Bloody Gulch near Carentan, France, a week later. As I mentioned above the kit is a reboxing of Tasca's kit but includes some nice Photoetch from Eduard - although the version I'm building doesn’t use all of it: Looking forward to the weekend. Kind regards, Stix

Most recent build completed today, the loads of fun Meng Toon tank, Sherman M4A1. Build playlist here: kellys heroes oddball sherman tank 5 by mike michael michaels, on Flickr

Sherman Firefly Diorama; finished at last! Ever get one of those projects where you think you'll never end? Anyway, based on an incident from Ken Tout's book 'Tank!', (highly recommended), where three Germans who hadn't had rations for days surrendered on the promise of army biscuits; they must have been desperate. Bocage country, Normandy, July 1944. Not completely happy, but it was either this or my sanity.

I built this over the past weekend and painted it and weathered it since this past Saturday. It was a bit of a rush because I just wanted to build something that is fast. Also please take into consideration that I haven't painted/weathered a tank in about a half year/year. Due to my investment in the 1/16 KT. Its pretty rough but I plan on touching it up some more. Mark

Sherman Firefly project. Figures finished. The Germans are captives, and so looking a bit glum. The Brits are captors, and so looking a bit smug. Base colours, (uniforms, equipment and flesh), were done with the Vallejo model colour series, highlights and shading done with oils. By the way; I know that one of the prisoners has a stick grenade tucked into his boot, and I know this would be immediately confiscated by his captors, but it looked way to cool to remove so I'm leaving it.

Its important to let your models know whose boss, and nothing says 'obey me' like a head on a pole. ☺Nearly finished painting the faces for the Sherman Firefly project. Base colour was done with Vallejo flat flesh, highlights and shading done with oils. On now to do the bodies.

Calling the vehicle done on the 1st. Northants Yeomanry Firefly project. On to the figures now, and then the diorama.

Here is my recently completed Italeri 1/72 Sherman Jumbo, from their Quickbuild series. It has snow on it because it is for use in a Bastogne diorama I am starting work on... snow is krycell from Precision Ice & Snow. Good stuff. First time using it, too, bar tests . It is meant to be light snow, though I should have some more buildups. I haven't completely finished putting snow in the tracks and surrounds, and you can probably see some seams etc... and the .50 cal looks more like some sort of 20mm cannon, but it's a quickbuild for a reason, no? Photos were a bit rushed on my phone... honestly some are terrible pictures!! Need to clean the lens! Any feedback welcome, thanks for looking!

Pics of the latest WIP. It's the Firefly IC Hybrid model from Asuka. I'm planning to do a diorama inspired by a scene from Ken Tout's book 'Tank'.

Whilst looking for images of early Shermans in the British Army I stumbled across this image of a tank called "Sheik" dated 29 September 1943 according to the Imperial War Museum (which also hosts the image) this tank was operated by the Royal Scots Greys and is pictured in Italy. The camouflage scheme looks interesting, can anyone tell me what colours I am looking at? It almost looks like a homage to "Mr. Blobby". That looks like Mt. Etna in the background which would make this Sicily rather than mainland Italy? As mainland Italy was invaded on 3rd Sept, I'm guessing this is a posed photograph for publicity/propaganda purposes? Do any other images exist of "Sheik"? Looks very err "modellable" which model Sherman is she? Sherman III?

It will actually be a while before I start this project but this is the kit I have been planning to build for this GB since April 2015, when I signed up for it: As most will already know the M4 Sherman was the most numerous medium tank used by the United States and some of the other Western Allies in World War II. It was found to be generally reliable, relatively cheap to produce and available in great numbers. Thousands were distributed through the Lend-Lease program to the British Commonwealth and Soviet Union. It was named after the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. The actual M4A1(76)W, which is the Sherman Tank this Dragon kit is based on, had a Continental Wright R975 Whirlwind 9 cylinder radial gasoline engine which obviously makes it suitable for this GB. When I get chance I will take some photos of the contents of the box. Once I have completed my builds in the 'From Russia with Love' and 'Made in Britain II' GBs I will make a start on this one. Kind regards, Stix

Hi all, It's been a while since I was last here posting, although I have been lurking. Life got in the way as is often the case, but thought I'd try and reinvigorate my interest in the hobby stuff with the Italeri M4A3E8 Sherman "Fury". Now, I've been thinking of doing a Sherman for sometime, but as my other armour has all been Op Telic British stuff and more recently the fantastic Tamiya MkI Male kit, I had wanted to do a British Sherman Firefly. However, one day in my local store I saw this kit, and in the absence of anything British I bought it. No research, nothing. Man, do I regret that spur of the moment decision! The kit itself seems quite detailed out of the box, but my one was badly moulded with most of the sprue looking as though the moulds had come out of alignment leaving a lot of cleaning up to do. I don't usually mind this, but for a newish kit I was quite disappointed by all the circles on panels (release pins?) Just not a good example of a modern moulding, and this coupled with my lack of enthusiasm for the subject made the whole thing a bit of an ordeal. I have used it as a test of using plaster with powders mixed into a paste and then blown off a brush using my airbrush to create the mud effect. It's come out OK, and I learnt a lot about the technique, so not a complete loss. Anyway, enough babbling. Here's the 'finished' piece. Any advice, recommendations etc are always welcome. I know there's a few unpainted details, but I just got bored to be honest and wanted it off the bench, but any comments on techniques etc are most welcome. edit: Looking back over the pics I've also just realised I didn't attach the aerials or the MGs for the photo.

Hi all Scott here (cromwell) I know I have made several citiques and comments on a few models on this site. I thought it was high time I showed you what I have been up to. IMG_1148 by scott findlay, on Flickr The above picture should be of my M4 IC hybrid, the front is that of the Italeri M4A1, the body of a Tamiya M4 and the turret of a Tasca If the above picture appears I'll put up pictures of my M4 IB, Sherman I and my Sherman II hybrid being built M4 IB will be 9th Lancers as in the Osprey book when finished Sherman II will be 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queens Bays) when finished. As standard I add a few homemade additions i)The three nuts on the bottom of the suspension units ii) thin strip of plastic with holes where the dust sheilds are mounted iii) Mesh over the grouser openings on the rear deck iv) on the firefly turrets I've removed the six moulded tie down points on the side of the turret and replaced with wire rather than mr surfacer I've used liquid poly over the cast body and turret to get the cast effect, I also use the hairy stick approach to painting the vehicles to give more texture, this will come out when washed and weathered. I'll post some scratch built ammo boxes and my apporximated drawings tomorrow

Sherman Firefly Vc C. Squadron 20th NZ Armoured Regt. Italy, Spring 1945 Almost two years since I last finished/posted an AFV build... Well as this is written it's exactly five years since we moved here to NZ and by coincidence here's a Kiwi subject. Tasca's superb Sherman Firefly Vc with kit decals and a few extras - RB barrel, Verlinden stowage and Royal Models radio/storage bustle - The markings are for a vehicle from C Squadron 20th (NZ) Armoured Regt. in Italy right at the end of the war. From the outset I had in my mind exactly how I wanted it to look and (for once), got precisely what I was after. Not muddy just very, very dusty. I spent sometime researching articles and opinions on the late war British 'Drab' colour and most books/commentators seem to agree it was virtually the same as US Olive Drab but faded to a much greener hue than the American colour so that's what I aimed for - whether I achieved that is for others to say. On top of the self mixed Tamiya acrylic paint there's some dry-brushing with oils, chipping and scratches, an oil-dot wash to get the streaking and just two tones of Mig pigments to get the dusty look. Now that it's done I am very pleased with it, so much so that I've dug-out an Academy M18 Hellcat that I started around eight years ago to sit alongside it - similar gun y'see !! - you'll see that in a few weeks. As ever thanks for taking the time to look and/or comment and please feel free to make any criticism or ask any questions. AFN. Ian.

Is anyone familiar with Wee Friends 1/72 Sherman tank turrets? On their website, there are several listed and a few have no pictures. I've tried contacting them via email, but have not had any replies. I am curious as to the quality of these, they certainly do look good in the pictures: WVC 72008 75mm Sherman early production low bustle turret The two others that I am interested in are #WVC 72013 75mm Sherman Low Bustle, Reinforced Turret with pistol port and #WVC 72018 M4A1 Sherman Late "Cast in reinforced armour" Large Hatch Upper Hull. Both of these are for the Dragon kit, but there are no pictures of them. If anyone has these or can point me towards some pictures, I'd appreciate it. (I have tried to Google them, but without any success). Thanks!

Hello ladies and gents! A while back I started a build thread on this project but unfortunately never got around to finishing it as the project stalled over the holiday season (with a full house the workbench has to go into hibernation for the sake of extra space!) and various other delays. Needless to say the mojo was slowly sapped away! However she is now to the point were I am happy to consider her 'finished', just ignore the niggling seam line that decided to stick out like a sore thumb on the rear of the turret AFTER everything had been painted! So- without further ado, here it is: M51 'Isherman'/Super Sherman as depicted during the Six Day War (Southern Sinai Front). Model brush painted using Tamiya paints and finished with Flory Washes plus Vallejo Pigments for weathering. If you have any questions as to how I used those products feel free to comment below and I'll gladly answer them. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this finished product! Cheers, Poacher

Hi Everyone, So today I'm starting my project log for my Fury inspired diorama build. This will be my first build in over 20 years so please go easy with me . I started the Sherman a few weeks ago and as such I have no photos from the start of the build, all I have is from the stages before primer and top coat, however the Tiger 1 only arrived today so hopefully I can give a build log for that at least. Anyways without further delay, onto the build log. So the two kits that I am using for this are as follows: Italeri M4A3E8 Sherman "Fury" - Kit #6529 Rye Field Model Tiger 1 (Early Production) - Kit #RM-5003 Both nice kits, the Sherman went together a breeze minus a few mistakes that I made in the assembly process, which I am going to put down to 20 years away from the hobby and not fully reading the instructions. Here is some shots of my build before primer coat: And after primer coat: And then today I went out and purchased a good quality compressor and a new airbrush as my old one died on me some time ago, I have now given the Sherman its first coat of Olive Drab: This is shortly after painting but I am hoping the paint goes to a Matt finish, failing that I will have to look at some alternate paint for it. Anyway, that's it for today and I will post up again tomorrow as I start the Tiger 1 kit. Please let me know any thoughts you may have but as I said don't forget this is my first build in 20 years Chris

Hello and thanks for your interest. Here's my 1/72 Dragon Sherman M4A3, with stowage items from Blackdog, Quickboost and my spares box. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics, weathered with artists oils and pastel chalks. Photographed by Wolfgang Rabel, IGM Cras & Bikes. I forgot to add the antenna .... *DOH* At least you know where it's supposed to be! # Thanks for your interest. Cheers from Vienna!

Hi Does any one know what the new Sherman is being released by Tamiya as advertised at the Toy Show

Hello ladies and gents! As you can probably tell by my lack of posts I'm about as green as they come when it comes to composing build threads (or posting on the forum in general!) so apologies in advance for any strange formatting/elementary errors! That being said I'd like to share with you all my latest project. No aftermarket (for now!), just a plain and pure build of this beauty: Which is of course Tamiya's 1/35th offering of the lean yet mean M51 Sherman! also popularly called the Super Sherman or the Isherman (names that ironically the Israelis never used!). Introduced in 1965 the M-51 was basically a fusion of the reliable and (at the time) widely available Sherman chassis with a monstrous 105 mm Modèle F1 French tank gun - the same type that would be used on the AMX 30. Seeing action in both the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, the M-51 was by all accounts a pretty decent machine and even held its own against the more modern soviet supplied machines it faced in the latter conflict. The IDF kept the M-51 in front line and later reserve service until the late 70's/early 80's when they were either retired or sold to the Chilean Armed Forces who kept them in operational service until the late 1990s. Quite the run for a tank that was essentially designed in the 1940s! Right, obligatory historical blurb over- what about the kit itself??? It will come as no surprise to those that are familiar with Tamiya offerings that this kit is an absolute dream to build. The Tamiya hallmarks of good design, crisp and blemish free moulding and attention to detail are all prevalent in this kit which has, so far, almost fallen together on its own. For those of you out there for whom details are important be aware that OOB this kit might not be suitable for a later (post '67) M-51 mainly due to differences in the engine deck and the uniforms of the provided crew figures (or so I'm told). Anyway- to the build! Here is what everything looked like before I horribly mangled it with glue and tools started to put it all together: And here is what it looked like after I got stuck in Nothing to report from the lower hull assembly aside from reiterating how easy this thing is to build! there are a few minor sink holes on the lower plate but as most of it is going to be hidden behind wheels, tracks and bogies I doubt anyone would notice if you didn't get rid of them. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice a small line of filler where the upper rear wall meets the lower plate. Again- not really a essential issue to be addressed as it will be hidden once the upper hull is fitted but as I am always on the lookout for 'low risk' opportunities to practice filling and sanding gaps I had a go at them (along with the aforementioned sink holes). TA DA- lower hull all done! but before I go on I do have a helpful hint for those of you reading this who are planning on building your own: Before sticking the sides on I would recommend that you fit and glue part G2 (see where the pen is pointing below) onto the floor before you put the side panels on. This way you have something to align and support them on rather than trying to get them to stay upright on their own. Well- I reckon that's a good note to end on! I hope you have enjoyed these first few steps and I'll have part two up as soon as possible Cheers, Poacher

So I'm calling this finished, with the one exception of mud on the tracks, which I'll do at a later date as I'm not sure how to do so yet and I don't want to mess up a model I'm actually happy with! This is my second RFI in armour and I'm happy with how this has turned out. Paints used were Tamiya acrylics and Windsor and Newton Matt varnish. First few photos are before I recalled I needed to put the antenna on! I've done a lot of hairspray chipping to the entire tank which is new to me too. I chipped away at the suspension,wheels and other parts which worked well.

So I'm on to my next build which is the M4 Sherman by Tamiya. Apologies for the lack of pictures from the beginning I kind of started it then thought about the wip following a conversation with a very nice friendly member on here so, the box art The upper hull all primed and ready for a coat of brown. You heard me right, brown. The method behind the madness is I'm doing a brown base coat which is coated in hairspray then used as a chipping layer. Such as this done on the lower hull.

While my P-40 reaches the stage of decalling and weathering, I thought I'd start something else off while I wait for parts to dry etc. Although I was planning originally to build a Zvezda Pe-2, following some armour builds here (especially PlaStix's IS-2 dual build) made me turn to my small armour stash. I feel that there ought to be a representative in the GB of the 4,000-odd Shermans that went to the Red Army, so I pulled out the Dragon 1/35 M4A2(76) kit. The box holds plenty of sprues, a small sheet of photo-etch, a metal barrel, a tiny decal sheet, and a dead spider. Couldn't say when I last built a vehicle. I guess it'll be a learning experience, just hope it's interesting, and I get a reasonable outcome before the end of the GB.

My finished Tamiya 1/35 M4A3 Sherman 105 howitzer. Only a metal barrel was added, otherwise is OOB. Kit was painted in Black and White as explained by Jose Luis Lopez in his Book Black and White Technique. Finished details with Ammo products.

My first post on this forum! Hello from Puerto Rico in the Caribbean! For my first post I will start showing my latest work, and old favorite from Tamiya, M4A3 105 mm Howitzer just for the fun of it. Lot of stuff can be done to correct here and there, adding PE, changing wheels for AFV, and hull from Italeri, etc..but forget it, this is a build to have fun, so is going out of the box, except for the metal barrel of course. Here was my start during the spare time in the week. The kit is done in a few hours. The next day, after sanding the lines in the turret and make some texture on it using the Tamiya thin glue (melting the plastic surface and making texture using a brush with stiff bristles.) Primer was applied using a can from Walmart. Also the figure was base painted using vallejo colors.