IDF M1 Super Sherman.

[Dads203]

That’s looking rather great John, usual attention to the tiny details that we have come to expect from you mate 

[Bullbasket]

21 hours ago, Dads203 said:

That’s looking rather great John, usual attention to the tiny details that we have come to expect from you mate 

Many thanks Dan. Much appreciated.

 

John.

[Hewy]

Smart model  john , the details you've added are all coming nicley together

[Bullbasket]

13 hours ago, Hewy said:

Smart model  john , the details you've added are all coming nicley together

'Morning Glynn. Thanks very much for the feed back.

 

John.

[Model Mate]

Lovely work John - painstakingly detailed and I can't wait to see it weathered up. Top job.

[M3talpig]

You've been very quiet lately John ...starting to worry the wife has buried you under the foundations of one of your barns ...along with the cement mixer 

[Bullbasket]

4 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Lovely work John - painstakingly detailed and I can't wait to see it weathered up. Top job.

Thanks Mate for the comments. Thanks to the weather, I might even get some more work done over the next few days.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, M3talpig said:

You've been very quiet lately John ...starting to worry the wife has buried you under the foundations of one of your barns ...along with the cement mixer 

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Don't give her ideas.

I'll be on here a bit less over the next few weeks (or even months) as I'm spending more time on the construction jobs. I'm trying to get this Sherman finished and then concentrate on the two barns. I started a thread in the Chat page to show the progress.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Day off today, as yesterday was SWMBO’s and my birthday, and we’ve been out for a nice lunch time meal. Couldn’t go yesterday because most restaurants in France are closed on a Monday. Yeah! I know. Mad!!

Home straight now. The first job was to paint the tracks with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya black and brown, and then give the steel chevrons a light dry brushing of Xtracolour’s Oily Steel. They’ll be weathered later. On the box cover, the Easy 8 Sherman is depicted with T66 tracks, but fortunately, what is included is actually T80 steel chevron tracks. They are a bit of a tight stretch to get them on and they didn’t seem to take kindly to being glued. As this tight fit would make a glued joint a waste of time, I stapled them together with a couple of small staples which (hopefully) I will be able to hide with some paint.

All the remaining jobs are stowage items starting with the tow rope. The ones that I had were too thick, so I wound a new one from strands of copper wire. The only problem was that I didn’t have any 1/48th scale end clamps for the rope but nil desperandum!! I did what I always do in cases like this….I improvised! In other words, I buried each end under some stowage. So once it was wound I painted it with some Extracolour Oily Steel, and when dry, super glued in place.

Next, something to bury the front of the tow rope. IDF Shermans were frequently seen carrying a roll of barbed wire on the front of the final drive, wrapped in a (usually torn) canvas material. To make this, I first wound some thin, copper wire into a circle, and then covered it in some paper towel, soaked in dilute PVA glue. 24 hours later I wound some barbed wire into a circle and glued this to it. The barbed wire came from an etched set by Eduard. It comes on a small fret and measures a total of 0.75m, so you get quite a bit. It’s meant to be for 1/35th scale, but I don’t think that this will notice too much. Once the glue had hardened, I covered it in some more tissue, only this time I used toilet paper (unused). The paper is made up of about three layers, and I stripped one away. Obviously, it’s very fragile, but that’s what I wanted. Again, it was soaked in dilute PVA and wrapped around the barbed wire and smoothed down with a damp brush. The action of the brush began to tear the tissue until some of the barbed wire was exposed. Once it had dried, it was glued in place on the final drive housing, over the end of the tow rope.

 

At the back, on the LHS of the hull I added a typical IDF camnet. They look a little like a Cumberland Sausage, and I made it from a roll of Milliput. Once it had hardened, I glued it in place over the other end of the tow rope. There was a bit of a gap on one side, so I covered this up with a tarp made from PVA/paper towel.

 

To add something to the fold down stowage tray at the rear, I made an oblong shape from Milliput and when it had hardened, I wrapped it in some more PVA/paper towel and then tied some cotton thread around it. It didn’t sit well on the tray, so I made another tarp and pushed it into place, before adding the oblong piece of kit.

 

There was one job that had been niggling at me for some time, and after Steve pointed it out, I thought that it couldn’t be put off any longer. The stripe around the turret was hand painted and it was far more solid than the Hebrew characters on the turret sides and the hull sides, which were decals. I needed to over paint them so that they didn’t stand out. I used artists oil white for this as I thought that it would cover better and there was less likelihood of brush marks. I’ll let you be the judge, but I am reasonably happy with the outcome. I just need to leave it to dry, as being oil paint, it’s need a couple of days.

Edit; The smudges are testament to the fact that 48 hours later, the paint was still wet!

 

Nearly there. Thanks for looking and for any comments.

 

John.

[M3talpig]

Going over the decals has finished that beautifully and adds the touch of the real ....like the fact that they now look like they have been hand painted, so much better and they don't stand out against the stripe....job well done John. The wood on the pioneer tools looks great as well......had a practice myself with the wood grain on the gun cleaning rods on the YT much happier now i;m getting something that looks more like the effect you have.

 

Not much more to do with this one then John...... are you planning a base for it or just as is ? 

 

P.S ....Happy birfday  

Edited September 29, 2020 by M3talpig

[Bullbasket]

7 minutes ago, M3talpig said:

P.S ....Happy birfday  

Thanks Steve.

Yes, I will do one of my simple bases. Just somewhere in the Negev, with a few rocks and clumps of dry grass. No figures though, as I don't have anything suitable in  this scale.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Looking good John, nice work with the stowage, gives it that extra personal touch, not that it needs it mind, one of a kind as it is!

 

Decals are better for the over paint too!

 

Glad to hear you'd been granted a little bench time too, an unusual birthday gift but...👍

 

Atb

Darryl 

 

[Bullbasket]

13 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Decals are better for the over paint too!

Apart from the 1/1 scale finger prints in the oil paint.

If I'm lucky, I may even get some more bench time on Sunday.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Just now, Bullbasket said:

Apart from the 1/1 scale finger prints in the oil paint.

If I'm lucky, I may even get some more bench time on Sunday.

 

John.

Finger prints, I see no fingers prints, perhaps a little over spray from when the crew applied the unit markings....

 

Steady John, don't get prematurely carried away, permission can be removed as well as granted!

 

Cheers

[Bullbasket]

Just some detail painting to finish off before I get on with the weathering. I used a mix of Vallejo for some items (camnet and barbed wire wrap) and LifeColor for the OD (tarps and lump on the rear stowage shelf). I then picked out some smaller detail, such as the barbed wire in silver and the tie down strings on various items. Pioneer tool tie downs were done in Vallejo brown.

Weathering was kept simple…..dust! There are several photos in the Sabingamartin book on the Super Sherman, showing the tank literally covered in dust. To replicate this I used a combination of Mig’s European Dust and Gulf War Sand, mostly the latter. I also brushed the various pigments over the tracks. No thick clumps of dust on them as this was a very dry area. I’m glad to say that the staples have disappeared under a coat of paint.

 

 

 

A couple of small jobs before declaring this finished. Aerials added using Accurate Armour’s carbon fibre rods, and lastly; the top loop on the gun travel lock got knocked off and lost some time ago, so time to make a new one. To do this, I drilled a hole into a sheet of plastic card and whittled away at it until I was left with a loop that I then added a thin piece of curved card to, to form the lip on the inside. This was then cut off and super glued into place. It’s been painted, but needs another thin coat.

 

 

And that, L&Gs, is as far as I’m going with this one. Once it’s on a suitable base, I’ll put it in RFI. I’ve enjoyed the build, and if I can get hold of the decals that I want, then I will return to this scale for a bog standard M1 Sherman. Thanks for looking and all of the comments and likes.

 

John.

[Longbow]

Very nice finish !!

 

The Israeli green/grey always stumped me. I could never put my finger on the mix ratios. 

[M3talpig]

Beautifully done John, everything about it is just perfect ...stowage the extra details the carefully covered 50 cal and the subtle but effective weathering, another build to be proud of ......... 

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, Longbow said:

Very nice finish !!

 

The Israeli green/grey always stumped me. I could never put my finger on the mix ratios. 

Thanks a lot. It's a difficult colour to achieve. Tamiya would have you use their OD, but it's definitely not that. It's much browner.  I use Mig's IDF Green, and it's very good. If I was to mix it myself using Tamiya paints then I would use XF49 Khaki and XF51 Khaki Drab in a 50/50 mix. It come quite close.

3 hours ago, M3talpig said:

Beautifully done John, everything about it is just perfect ...stowage the extra details the carefully covered 50 cal and the subtle but effective weathering, another build to be proud of ......... 

Thanks Steve. It was an enjoyable build. After  conversation with Dr. Robert yesterday, he might.......just might.......do some of his decals in 1/48th. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

John.

[diablo rsv]

Excellent work John,

I have enjoyed watching this one progress. The painting and weathering look very authentic and the time you have spent on all of those extra little details has really paid off.

 

Wayne

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, diablo rsv said:

and the time you have spent on all of those extra little details has really paid off.

 

Thanks Wayne. There were times when I thought about propelling it at warp speed towards the wall, but patience won out in the end.

 

John.

[Longbow]

2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Thanks Wayne. There were times when I thought about propelling it at warp speed towards the wall, but patience won out in the end.

 

John.

"Take a deep breath, and .... Step... Back... From.... The .... Plastic....!!" 

 

 

[StuartH]

A little piece of perfection...everything just looks like it should do 👏

A real inspiration as to what can be done in this scale. Cheers 👍

[diablo rsv]

16 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

There were times when I thought about propelling it at warp speed towards the wall,

That pretty much applies to every model I have built. I do wonder sometimes how this hobby is meant to be relaxing.

[Bullbasket]

11 hours ago, StuartH said:

A little piece of perfection...everything just looks like it should do 👏

A real inspiration as to what can be done in this scale. Cheers 👍

Thanks Stuart. Much appreciated. It's a scale that I like to come back to every so often. I find it rewarding in a strange way. Glad to see that you are a fellow 48er.

 

John.

[Hewy]

Very well done john, superb added details , there's always something new to learn during my visits to the armour forum