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M4A3E8 'FACE OFF' **FINISHED! PHOTOS P.3**


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PLEASE VISIT PAGE 3 FOR THE 'FINAL' FINAL PHOTOS.

 

 

TAMIYA 1/35th M4A3E8 'EASY EIGHT'

(lastest tooling)

With scratchbuilt armour upgrade.

 

STGB entry: 'FACE OFF'

 

I had intended making this OOB, but @Sgt.Squarehead supplied some rather interesting photos of WWII Shermans, one of which took my fancy.

 

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This was an 'Easy Eight' with added frontal and turret 'cheek' armour.

The added frontal armour consisted of almost an entire glacis, removed from a presumably 'knocked out' Sherman and bolted/welded on top of the Easy Eight's own glacis.

This vehicle was present in the Bastogne region in January 45, and showed signs of having previously been whitewashed.

 

I'd never done  a 'conversion' before, but quite liked the idea. This vehicle would be an ideal start then as I thought it would be a fairly easy to replicate, simply slicing the glacis from the kit, and slipping plasticard underneath. However, carefull inspection of the photos showed that the 'donor' glacis wasn't a simple 'cut and paste' job. It had necessarily been cut inwards of its full width and the lifting rings, headlights and horn had all been repositioned slightly. Indeed, the driver's headlight had been removed (or possibly had been severely damaged by enemy fire or some accident) Anyway, only the mangled brush guard remained. So, I couldn't just slice the glacis from the kit and use that. I 'd have to do some mods to it. And then I thought that was way too much work, and risky, so best to scratch the new glacis instead, using plasticard. The cheek armour would be fairly straightforward.

 

I was not intending to do a precise copy of this Sherman then, but something based loosely on it.

 

And I really fancied showing this Sherman with full, but worn, winter camo. I've been meaning to do a winter diorama for ages now, and this seemed the perfect opportunity. I'd previously scratchbuilt a ruined building - which WAS going to appear in my 'Ever Evolving Diorama' - and thought this would be ideal for the winter dio. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and didn't even start the diorama. I DID use it as a backdrop for some of the Gallery entries though.

 

So here it is, with worn winter camo. Be aware that this is not finished. I intend to add stowage to the turret rails, replace the tow cable and replace the figures. It will aslo be getting more mud/grass and snow when placed in the diorama.

 

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This was a much harder build than I thought it would be, with many trials and errors along the way, but I am reasonably happy with the added armour. It's a shame I never had time to add all of the stowage, or get the figures to the higher standard that I now aspire to, but I am very pleased with the worn winter camo and mud/grass effects.

 

Thanks to all those who inspired me throughout the GB.

 

Now don't forget to vote!

I've already cast my vote, and no, it wasn't for my own model! There's some crackers in there and in my eyes, 3 masterpieces! It's a shame we only get one vote each.

 

TFL

Badder

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I have not seen any of your models here, but here you have left us a nice representation of the Easy8, very careful equipment details (although you say you still lack), and the extreme weathering to which you have submitted the kit.

The photos with the background of buildings and some terrain give the model more depth.

It seems that the winter camo is no longer resisted, although we can always improve, this has been very good in my modest opinion.

Maybe, when you add it to a dio, you like to add a few gobs of snow in some parts of the hull and the tower ...:cold:

Cheers Badder :yes:

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Just now, FrancisGL said:

I have not seen any of your models here, but here you have left us a nice representation of the Easy8, very careful equipment details (although you say you still lack), and the extreme weathering to which you have submitted the kit.

The photos with the background of buildings and some terrain give the model more depth.

It seems that the winter camo is no longer resisted, although we can always improve, this has been very good in my modest opinion.

Maybe, when you add it to a dio, you like to add a few gobs of snow in some parts of the hull and the tower ...:cold:

Cheers Badder :yes:

Hi Francis, and thanks!

Yes old bean, there will be more mud, grass and snow to add to the Easy Eight when the time comes. I'm just adding some more stowage to the rear deck (tarps) and anything suitable I might find in my spares. I've had no luck with making a replacement for the tow cable yet. Believe it or not I thought the chest freezer might be a handy tool for one process... but that proved not to be the case. Other experiments will follow.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Just now, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Beautiful work Badder 👍 I wholeheartedly agree with your statement. 

Thanks Dennis,

This is my 3rd attempt at weathered winter camo, only the 2nd 'surviving' attempt, and I think the better of those two. I think it helps that the M4A3E8 has a lot of 'stuff' going on, meaning that there are very few large areas of plain undetailed armour. A more 'slab-sided' AFV (including some Shermans) would be harder to get looking right, I think.

 

I had used Tamiya White Acrylic over chipping fluid before, contrary to the instructions to only use enamels, so I was reasonably confident it woud behave, but I suppose it was still a bit of a gamble. I'm relieved it worked out. I have Tamiya's 8 ton semi-track with the flakvierling AA guns mounted on the rear bed, and that'll be getting a winter camo as well. I'm wondering if I might place both vehicles in the same diorama... wonders if they are contemporary and of the same theatre of operation?

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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On 02/04/2018 at 11:10 PM, Kris B said:

You did  honestly a very good job. Like the worn winter camo and muddy weathering. What's next? 

Hi Kris,

Thanks for your kind words.

 

The Sherman isn't quite finished. Some stowage, a replacement tow cable and some more work on the figures (if I decide to keep them)

 

I intend to place this Sherman in a winter diorama. But I have my 'Ever Evolving Diorama' to think about. And I've got some lovely kits in the stash that I'm just DYING to do....

 

ALL TAMIYA,

 

Tiger 1 initial production (with PE)

Tiger 1 late production (with PE)

Tiger 11 production turret (with PE)

 

StuG IV

 

Churchill MkVII (with PE)

Cromwell (with PE)

Universal Carrier (forced reconnaisance) (with PE)

 

8 tonne Semi-track with flakvierling. (with PE)

8 tonne Semi-track with gun crew (seated)

Pak 36/37 88mm flak with bogies and gun crew.

 

 

So, enough to last me until the grave!

 

 

I suspect I'll do the Sherman diorama first though. Best to finish the Sherman for a start otherwise it will just sit on a shelf until hell freezes over. And if I place it in a diorama I can use one of the buildings I scratched for my Ever Evolving Diorama, which will not now be used. That's the building I used in the backdrop in the photos above. Killing two birds with one stone.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

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Well, for a bit there I couldn't figure where the b/w pictures stopped and the model pictures started so had to go back and look again.  Pretty darned

impressive, love the way you have beat the crap out of the tracks, that caked on whatever looks the part for sure.  Sure like the contrast between the white stars

on the hull and the black stars on the turret, never saw that before and it really looks good.  Don't know how effective that slab of armour on the glacis would

be but it looks like it might make a good snow plow for the deep stuff.

 

There's something about a white wash job that's really appealing and you did a great job.  Just the right amount of wear and dirt so it looks like white

wash added on rather than a tank painted blinding white.

 

Glad to see you back.

 

Take care,

 

Lloyd

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Just now, BlackMax12 said:

Well, for a bit there I couldn't figure where the b/w pictures stopped and the model pictures started so had to go back and look again.  Pretty darned

impressive, love the way you have beat the crap out of the tracks, that caked on whatever looks the part for sure.  Sure like the contrast between the white stars

on the hull and the black stars on the turret, never saw that before and it really looks good.  Don't know how effective that slab of armour on the glacis would

be but it looks like it might make a good snow plow for the deep stuff.

 

There's something about a white wash job that's really appealing and you did a great job.  Just the right amount of wear and dirt so it looks like white

wash added on rather than a tank painted blinding white.

 

Glad to see you back.

 

Take care,

 

Lloyd

Thanks Lloyd,

Your comments are much appreciated.

 

First off, I painted the tracks with Tamiya Dark Iron applied a gloss varnish and then rubbed a graphite stick over the 'treads'. I then applied the mud and grass. This was made up of a mix of Japanese 'Grit Paint', dark earth weathering powder, 3mm static grass and gloss varnish. I 'slapped' this stuff on with an ice lolly stick, pressing it into the recesses, but then rubbing it off of the treads. I should really have dry brushed the treads with maybe aluminium/silver rather than use the graphite stick as the graphite was removed during this process and had to be reapplied. It's since been rubbed off again during handling and so it doesn't show so well in the photos above.

 

The 'Grit Paint' is a water-soluble, acrylic based product made only for the Japanese market, and designed to be used in the making of dioramas, the various colours and grades of 'grit' being used to represent a wide range of effects such as snow, mud, rust, sand, concrete, grass, moss, tarmac, etc etc. There are similar products available worldwide of course. I've used the mud paint to great effect on a couple of models now. It's particularly good for the underside of tanks, the lower hulls, sponsons etc and is made even better with wet and dry brushing. It soaks up washes if left unvarnished and you get a really nice 'bleed' into the dried paint. If you apply washes while the grit paint is still damp, it is re-activated and the grit particles in the paint are released and exposed, making for realistic effects, not just for mud, but also for the textures on stone walls for example (not just the stone texture but in the case of green grit paint, moss/lichen)

 

I confess I haven't used the 'snow' grit paint yet, mainly because I only have one pot of each colour and don't want to waste any of it. I will try it out on the forthcoming diorama though. I suspect the stuff would be easy to make oneself though, mixing grit/sand into white acrylic paint.

 
Onto the star markings on the Sherman. There were a couple of options given by Tamiya, one of which used both black and white stars and labelled as appearing on Shermans in the region of Bastogne in Jan 45. The Sherman in the black and white photos is also described as operating in that area at that time, and so I used the white and black star combo. In the photo, these markings are very faint, having presumably been removed by the crew.


I assume that the black stars were used to contrast with any winter camo, though I could be wrong. Whatever, the decals for the black stars are not neat and tidy and appear to show hand-painted stars. Moreover, the'cheek' armour on the turrets would have covered up the original stars and so they had to be repainted on the cheek armour.

 

Having said all of that, the stars in the photos appear to have been removed by the crew.

 

There was a discussion about this removal of markings by the crew, who feared that the enemy would use the markings as guides to targeting. Certainly, the driver and gunner wouldn't want an enemy round to strike the white stars on the side panels, and nor would the commander and gunner want a round hitting the black stars on the turret......

But I would argue that IF the enemy were close enough to take aim and fire at an allied vehicle's markings, they were close enough to aim at any point they liked, and actually, in the case of the 'up-armoured' Sherman in the photos, I think the crew would PREFER the enemy aimed at and hit the black stars or the frontal white star, as these areas are the thickest! :D

 

And that brings me onto the added armour. The extra glacis added to the front obviously doubles the thickness of the armour, and that glacis armour is itself sloped at 45 degrees, increasing the effective thickness still further. I forget the effective thickness of the sloped armour now, but I think I read that it was thick enough to withstand ANY round fired at it

 

I don't think that the plate overhanging the front is a snow plough btw. :hmmm:I know you were joking! Again, it's sloped armour (effectively thicker than the same plate placed on the perpendicular) and iso it has to jut out further in order to protect the transmission cover beneath. I've had a look at the angles and basically there's next to no chance of the enemy knocking out the Sherman's transmission from the front. The Sherman would have to be cresting higher ground and the enemy quite close in order for a round to strike there. (A very brave chap in a ditch with a panzerfaust would have the best chance)

 

Finally, I have to confess that a fresh application of whitewash is something I'm not interested in. As you say, the effect is blinding and to me does nothing to improve the look of the vehicle. In fact, if anything, it makes a it worse, showing up all the imperfections... dust, hairs, errant glue, mould lines, etc, etc. After all, we all want our models to LOOK good don't we? Worn and dirty whitewash is much more interesting, and more forgiving, though it's still a scary propostion!

 

Thanks again for your comments, and I hope my reply was helpful rather than a ramble!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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2 hours ago, Carius said:

wow, I love it :thumbsup:

 

30 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Great job badder, looks ace with that little backdrop

Thanks chaps,

High praise indeed coming from the pair of you!

 

I'm still waiting for your fabulous Calliope to appear in this RFI section Glynn.

 

BTW, the backdrop isn't so 'little'! That's around 3kg of plaster there, with an interior wall and full gable end walls (not visible in the photos) I'll be modelling collapsed floors, ceilings and roof when the time comes. A covering of drifted snow will make that job a lot easier!

 

Rearguards,

Badder.

 

 

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Guess what?

 

Yep, off into town again to buy, hopefully, the Tamiya US tank crew set again! I suspect Hobbycraft won't have any in stock though as the box I bought last week was the only one on the shelf and they are pretty useless at re-stocking. I once bought the last packet of static grass they had and it was about 4 months before they put any more out!

 

If they don't have the kit, I will console myself by searching their extensive assortment of threads, cords and wires, looking for something suitable for a tow cable. And I'll get some more colours of acrylic inks while I'm at it.

 

Badder

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Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. I have to say that yours is one of the most convincing muddy, worn whitewash finishes I have seen. If you take some photos with a suitable backdrop it will easily pass for the real thing. Very much worth all your efforts and trials and tribulations! :worthy::worthy:

Kind regards,

Stix 

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On 04/04/2018 at 9:15 AM, Bullbasket said:

It all turned out really well in the end. Great job on the add on armour and the weathering.

 

John.

Thanks John,

I enjoyed the challenge of the conversion and the weathered winter camo. The conversion wasn't as straight forward as I'd thought it would be. It demanded some guts to take off the surface details of the kit's glacis before going ahead. Looking back on it, I should have cut the gun travel lock mountings, and the headlight mounts out of the kit's glacis and inserted them into the new glacis. It would have required some precise 'cutting and pasting' though and I didn't really have the tools to do that at the time. (I now have a razor saw which would have been ideal)T

 

As for the figures, well.... I've just purchased a THIRD set! Hobbycraft have replenished their stock and now have 5 boxes on the shelf. With my buying a 3rd today, they must think they are very popular with everyone, not realising I'm the sole purchaser! If I get this lot right they'll find their sales of the kit will suddenly cease!

 

I just wasn't happy with the face painting. I got them to a reasonable state and then found problems fitting the tankers' helmets. The tooling of each helmet isn't good, the inner structures slightly askew in each, and each askew slightly differently. Whilst trying to sort that out with test fitting and filing of both helmet inners and heads, I inevitably damaged the faces, rubbing paint off and/or getting it dirty.

 

I still haven't sussed out the best order in which to do things, but now I'm going for constructing the helmets and adding the goggles. The helmets will then be test fitted to the unpainted heads, choosing which helmet best fits which head. They'll be filed if needs be. Once I've got that sorted I can paint the helmets to completion and then paint the heads and faces.

I've explained my mode of opertation here, because it's forced me to think about it as I type!

Hopefully it will all work out this time.

 

I blame the gentleman below BTW. His figure painting is way better than mine and I'm determined to improve and match him in that area at least!:D

 

Thanks again,

Rearguards,

Badder

On 04/04/2018 at 9:36 AM, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Hope you are keeping well. I have to say that yours is one of the most convincing muddy, worn whitewash finishes I have seen. If you take some photos with a suitable backdrop it will easily pass for the real thing. Very much worth all your efforts and trials and tribulations! :worthy::worthy:

Kind regards,

Stix 

Hi Stix,

I am as well as can be expected thank you!

And thank you for your kind words and the pair of 'bowers'. 

 

The diorama build may start at the weekend. I have some plans in my head already. I quite like the idea of the Sherman in the snow, beside the ruined building, and behind it an abandoned 8 tonne Semi-track with flakvierling anti-arcrafts guns. And the finished thing will be in a glass case........

 

Hmmmmmmmmm........:idea:

 

 

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

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On 2/4/2018 at 11:58, Badder said:

TAMIYA 1/35th M4A

 

Thanks to all those who inspired me throughout the GB.

 

Now don't forget to vote!

I've already cast my vote, and no, it wasn't for my own model! There's some crackers in there and in my eyes, 3 masterpieces! It's a shame we only get one vote each.

 

TFL

Badder

I just realized this last ... :huh: I've already voted already, and not my model ...:whistle: totally agree only to vote for one (it was difficult, and somewhat unfair ...:hmmm:), you can as well say a few "few" great jobs.

 

It is my first GB, and I thought that once finalized, the voting was general (at least of the AFVs forum), and not only of the participants, that if they are a small group, I imagine that even more if we take into account the members They did not finish their work for whatever reason.

All this makes me think that the result of the vote is somewhat poor, having no publicity practically in the forum ...

It is not a criticism, just a modest suggestion to consider for the next GBs to encourage participation ...:rolleyes:

Cheers Badder :yes:

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Just now, FrancisGL said:

All this makes me think that the result of the vote is somewhat poor, having no publicity practically in the forum ...

It is not a criticism, just a modest suggestion to consider for the next GBs to encourage participation ...:rolleyes:

Cheers Badder :yes:

Hi Francis,

It surprises me that so few participants have voted, when you think there were over who 50 signed up.

As for getting other people to vote, I think all we can do is advertise that the poll is open. I don't think it helps that the Group Build forum is right down the page though!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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16 minutes ago, stevej60 said:

Superb job all round weathering and dio are beautifully done.

Thanks Steve, although that's not a diorama yet, just a 'backdrop'.

I've made my mind up and will be starting the diorama this weekend.

 

Rearguards

Badder

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Although I've posted this in the RFI section, my Easy Eight isn't finished.

I posted it here as 'finished' because this is how it appeared in the M3-M4 STGB Gallery at the time of closing.

 

As I am continuing to add stowage, and new figures, I am not sure where to post the pics of progress.... the STGB WIP would seem wrong as when the Sherman is finally finished the photos won't match those that were submitted to the Gallery.

 

If I post them HERE, then strictly, this would become a WIP..... so that doesn't seem right either. And starting a new WIP seems silly as well as it would only consist of adding stowage and figures to an already constructed and painted model.

 

Having weighed all of this up, I've decided to post the additional work here. It's my thread and I suppose I am free to do what I like with it? Anyway, there's not going to be a lot of work, just a few bits and pieces.

 

Badder 

 

 

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So here's the stowage now. I repositioned the jerry cans because they looked too precarious where they were. I've also added some rope and a couple of spare track links. The track links were supposed to be stored on the side 'skirt', like the others, but I fancy they hindered climbing up onto the rear deck and so the crew moved them.

iI was planning on laying a tarp over some of this, but I really don't want to cover up all the lovely details! Any I add here will be rolled up, but I suspect they'll more likely be hung from the rails on the turret.

 

DEvbGY1.jpg

 

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And a shot right up the Jacksie. I always complain when people forget a Jacksie shot! This photo is more to show the amount of mud at the rear.

GNP8B8y.jpg

Potty! I forgot about the bucket! And I was in Hobbycraft today and very nearly picked up the Tamiya fuel drum and jerry can set! That has buckets in it! Guess where I'm going tomorrow!

 

And finally a little tip....

After knocking the aerial off for a second time (it's made from a very thin and quite hard to see wire guitar 'string' ) I came up with this solution. No danger of forgetting the aerial is there now!

 

mJjP9DY.jpg

It's a rizzla paper, but anything similar would do.

 

TFL

Badder

 

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Hello Badder,

 

excellent work, this Sherman turned into a very nice battle-hardened beast !!

 

What is the provenance of the wooden ammo boxes stored on the back panel ?

 

Cheers, E

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Fantastic,  you've turned out another masterpiece, so much attention to detail. Loving the worn winterfinish, plenty of mud and general well used appearance. Looking forward to the finished dio, always think figures and even just a simple base really finishes a model off nicely.

 

Cheers Darryl 

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