IDF M1 Super Sherman (HVSS).

[Bullbasket]

20 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

A super detailed work as always, I really like how you have "fastened" the bucket ...

Cheers John 

Thanks Francis. When you say "bucket" I assume that you mean the small oil drum on the front left track guard. Originally, I thought that they were just tied in place. It wasn't until I saw a close up of one that I realised  that the Israelis welded hooks to the track guard. You learn something new every day.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

The Turret.

For this build, once again I've used the excellent 76mm T23 turret from Asuka. The main gun is from RB Models and most of the add on's are from Tamiya's M51. Before I added the gun, I wanted to fit the canvas dust cover to the mantlet, which was a feature of the Super Shermans, but not the VVSS M1 Shermans. I used the one from the M51 kit, but it needed trimming down as the mantlet on the M51 is deeper. It fitted fine along the back, so I trimmed a couple of mm's from all around the front of the cover, before gluing it in place. Some filler was needed and then I added the rod that runs around the front edge, followed by the small retaining brackets which I cut from thin card and added the small bolt heads as well. Once it had all hardened, I tidied it up with a round file and wet and dry paper.

From what I've read, all M1 Super Shermans carried a second aerial on the front LHS of the turret, mounted on a small bracket. Again, I made this from thin card and stretched sprue for the cable, and luckily, Tamiya include two aerial bases in the M51 kit.

 

 

The rest of the turret I built as sub assemblies before bringing them all together. As I stated a while back, I changed my mind as to which tank I would finish it as. The one that I've chosen is in the Sabingamartin book on the Super Sherman, with a profile on the last page. What attracted me to it is the fact that it's the only one in the book which shows it carrying a searchlight mounted on the mantlet. The mounting bracket was made from card and I used the searchlight from the Dragon kit of the M50. Not sure if it's the correct one, but dimensionally, it's very similar. A lot of the time, these were covered with a canvas jacket, and I made this from tissue soaked in dilute PVA glue.

A lot of the photos show the AA .50 calibre MG in a canvas jacket. For this I used a spare one from Tamiya and assembled it along with an ammo box on the side. There was no need to detail it and once done, I covered it in tissue soaked in dilute PVA glue. 

 

 

Commander's cupola with a few details added, and the Loader's hatch. I shaved off the two assistance springs and the grab handle and replaced both with wire ones. The springs look a bit rough but it won't show as the hatch will be in the open position and they will be difficult to see.

 

 

I finished off the turret with all of the small additions; the original aerial base at the rear on the RHS, the clips to store the AA .50 calibre MG and the spare barrel on the two L brackets, welded to the rear of the turret, the spotlamp and chain, the commander's sight and periscope, the two lifting eyes and finally, the loader's periscope. I drilled out the periscope base in the turret roof and then used a 3D printed one from Shapeways.

The turret with all of the sub assemblies added.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

John.

[Kris B]

Just thinking that you could save that MG and make something similar shape from plastic - it is all covered anyway. But if you do not need that one is fine. I am keep looking. 

[Ozzy]

Nice scratch building John, I've got a resin covered .50 cal it looks to bulky for my liking. Prefer your lower profile more.

[Bullbasket]

13 hours ago, Kris B said:

Just thinking that you could save that MG and make something similar shape from plastic - it is all covered anyway. But if you do not need that one is fine. I am keep looking. 

Hi Kris. The MG that I used was one that Tamiya produced many years ago with poor detail on it, so it was no loss.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Nice scratch building John, I've got a resin covered .50 cal it looks to bulky for my liking. Prefer your lower profile more.

Hi Ozzy. Many thanks. Actually, it should look a bit bulkier than I depicted it. Only way that I can think to describe how it should look is like the stomach of a pregnant cat....sagging down a bit. Still, it does the job.

 

John.

[FrancisGL]

Great job with turret scratch!...

Cheers John 

[Bullbasket]

12 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Great job with turret scratch!...

Cheers John 

Many thanks Francis.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Before moving onto the painting, I added some stowage. The Israelis loaded their tanks up with quite a bit, usually arranged around the side rear of the hull, the fold down stowage tray and sometimes across the two L shaped brackets at the rear of the turret. I had to remove the tarp that I'd laid over the turret rear as it looked B awful. It will be replaced later.

Painting.

A grey primer coat from a Halfords rattle can was the first step, followed by a coat of Mig's IDF Green. The olive drab used by the IDF is a difficult colour to mix and thankfully, to my mind, this one from Mig seems to be just right.

Using acrylics, I painted all of the pioneer tools and the stowage, along with the bow machine gun and the tarpaulin around the main gun mantlet and the .50 calibre mg.

Next, I mixed up some earth pigment with some Johnsons Kleer and applied this to the lower hull. I added some beach sand to this and dragged it down the sides to give a streaking effect. Once this had dried, I attached the suspension units after first painting all of the tyres (24 in total plus 8 more on the return rollers).

 

 

The next bit was to gloss varnish the model and, here I had a problem. There has been some discussion in one of the threads (damned if I can find it) about the use of Winsor and Newton acrylic gloss and matt varnish and what it can be thinned with. I couldn't find the W&N varnish but did manage to pick up some made by Daler Rowney. There is a lot on the bottles pertaining to the safety aspects, but absolutely sweet FA with regards to what it can be thinned with, so my question is, if this is the same make up as the W&N product, what can I use to thin it with?

Right, back to the job in hand. After discovering that D&L's product DOESN'T mix with distilled water, I applied it with a brush. Have to say that once dry, it left a lovely gloss, smooth finish. The markings for this particular tank are among some of the simplest, but conversely, took the longest to apply. The “4” on the turret side, which denotes the 4th platoon, came from an old set of US markings from Microsale. I had to cut the forward triangle off and then apply both parts separately to give a stencil effect. The “U” which denotes the “Sameh” company, came from the same set. Both are as near to the correct sizes as I could get.

 

 

The tank registration numbers came from a Star decals sheet for the M50 and had to be made up individually. Fortunately, Star provide all of the components including the black strip for the numbers to go on, and the Hebrew character “Tzadic” at the end of the number. The registration number was applied in three positions; either side of the hull front, and on the left rear of the hull. It's possible that it was also applied to the turret mantlet, but there's no photographic evidence to support this. 

 

The final picture shows the stowage which was made from Milliput wrapped in tissue and bandage.

 

As always, thanks for looking.

 

[BlackMax12]

Looking really good John.

 

Is that a rolled up camo net on the left rear? Looks like it's made from some gauze and looks great.

 

Take care,

 

Lloyd

Edited June 1, 2018 by BlackMax12

[Ripaman]

that does look good John lots of good stuff to try and copy when I start mine (hope you don't mind) 

 

Regards

Richard

[Bullbasket]

10 hours ago, BlackMax12 said:

Looking really good John.

 

Is that a rolled up camo net on the left rear? Looks like it's made from some gauze and looks great.

 

Thanks Lloyd. I believe the forward one is a camnet. The Israelis stowed them in a coiled up fashion that resembled a Cumberland Sausage. The rearmost one is just some stowage wrapped in hessian. I made it from Milliput, wrapped in bandage. 

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

5 hours ago, Ripaman said:

that does look good John lots of good stuff to try and copy when I start mine (hope you don't mind) 

 

Regards

Richard

Thanks Richard. Be my guest, copy away.

 

John.

[Kris B]

Nice, maybe some drybrush on the mantlet canvas? 

[Bullbasket]

17 hours ago, Kris B said:

Nice, maybe some drybrush on the mantlet canvas? 

Thanks Kris. I never drybrush on a gloss surface. I'll do that once the matte coat is on.

 

John.

[Hewy]

Gorgeous close up detailing john, stands up very well indeed in the photographs 

[Bullbasket]

Many thanks Glynn. On the home straight now.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Final jobs to do before moving on to painting a couple of crew members to fill the two hatches, were some weathering, adding the headlights, and painting, weathering and adding the tracks. I'd originally drilled out the headlights with the intentions of gluing some reflective material into the recess and then gluing a lens over the top, but in the end, I opted for some lenses from Little Cars instead. The sharp eyed amongst you will see that when I took the photos, they hadn't been added yet.

 

Weathering took me several hours to do, as these tanks got covered in thick layers of dust in the Negev Desert. I mainly used Carr's Weathering powders, which were originally aimed at the model railway market, but they are brilliant for AFV's as well, having a slightly oily texture which allows them to adhere better and if applied to a matt surface, they tend to stain it slightly. The ones that I used came from the Mellow Yellows set, and these were applied with an old brush all over the turret and hull, and streaked down the sides. I also added some coal black in shadow areas and where any liquid would have run down the sides. The coal black was also applied to the MG cover to accentuate the folds, and around the straps securing the stowage in place on the rear shelf.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, Panda Tracks don't do the HVSS T-80 tracks, so I was stuck with using the rubber band items that came with the Tamiya M-51 kit. Detail wise, they are reasonable, but they are a RRPITA to get paint to adhere to them. I sprayed them with Halfords grey primer first, before coating the metal parts with a mixture of Tamiya black and red brown, and the rubber pads were painted with Valejo dark grey. Once they were dry, I threaded them around the wheels, sprockets and return rollers and glued them with MEK, finishing them off with a dusting of Carr's powders and rubbing a silver water colour pencil over the steel chevrons.

 

 

 

 

OK, I'm calling this done now. I'll put it into RFI once it's on a suitable base and the two crew figures are painted.

Thanks for looking.

 

John.

[Etienne]

Hi John,

 

the upper hull and turret are really nice ... but if you allow me a little bit of criticism, the undercarriage seem a little bit "flat", is it made on purpose ? If not, a subtle pin wash could make the many details pop up nicely, isn't it ? 

 

Cheers, E

Edited June 7, 2018 by Etienne

[Bullbasket]

31 minutes ago, Etienne said:

Hi John,

 

the upper hull and turret are really nice ... but if you allow be a little bit of criticism, the undercarriage seem a little bit "flat", is it made on purpose ? If not, a subtle pin wash could make the many details pop up nicely, isn't it ? 

 

Cheers, E

Hi Etienne. Thanks very much. Yes, you're right. Believe it or not, but there is some weathering on the suspension units, but it's not showing up very much in the photos. It's the same with the upper hull and turret. I stopped because I didn't want to overdo it, but when I saw the the results in the photos, it all looks a bit bland. I think that the lighting that I'm using puts too much glare onto the model and gives it a washed out appearance. Hopefully I'll have it sorted by the time I get to put it in RFI.

 

John.

[Kris B]

Looks good, personally I'll use some dark wash on the running gear to accent all those nuts and bolts. 

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, Kris B said:

Looks good, personally I'll use some dark wash on the running gear to accent all those nuts and bolts. 

Thanks Chris. After reading Etienne's comments, I decided to revisit the weathering as it did look a little on the pale side. I got some work done last night, and when I've finished, I'll post a couple of photo.

 

John.

[Nick C]

Hi John - great build and a lovely result on the RFI. Can I ask what you used for the wooden tools handles? I always end up with something that looks too 'brown' and varnished, Your's are spot on!

 

Cheers

 

Nick

[Bullbasket]

10 hours ago, Nick Charnock said:

Hi John - great build and a lovely result on the RFI. Can I ask what you used for the wooden tools handles? I always end up with something that looks too 'brown' and varnished, Your's are spot on!

 

Cheers

 

Nick

Hi Nick. Fairly simple really. First I paint the wooden parts with an acrylic paint, usually a light cream (I don't know the exact one as I'm away from home at the moment). Once this has dried I apply oil paint, burnt umber. I use something like a number 2 brush and once it's on I wipe the brush on a cloth and then wipe it over the wooden parts again as it's only supposed to be smeared on. You can also use yellow ochre as well if you want the wooden parts to have a more pine look to them.

HTH's.

 

John.

[Nick C]

15 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Hi Nick. Fairly simple really. First I paint the wooden parts with an acrylic paint, usually a light cream (I don't know the exact one as I'm away from home at the moment). Once this has dried I apply oil paint, burnt umber. I use something like a number 2 brush and once it's on I wipe the brush on a cloth and then wipe it over the wooden parts again as it's only supposed to be smeared on. You can also use yellow ochre as well if you want the wooden parts to have a more pine look to them.

HTH's.

 

John.

Thanks John, I'll try that om the Warrior I've got on the go.

 

Cheers

 

Nick