Sherman With A Bit More Punch - M4A3 Sherman Calliope **Complete**

[WYATT]

Hello,

 

This will probably be an infrequent build blog as i tend to just rattle on and build without taking many photos lol

 

One from the Stash, 1/35 Academy M4A3 Sherman Calliope, at this point (01/03/21) i am about 10-14 hours in the build.

 

Overall really nice kit and this kit comes with a HELL of a lot for the bits box, which is good and will help with other allied builds on the cards.

 

I do do alot of the builds out of the box and this came with PE so that was a welcome addition (i do add thin copper for handles as the carpet monster generally gets the plastic ones lol)

4hrs in at this point.

7 hrs in at this point with the launcher built, the alignment was abit all over the place but tamiya thin helps to hold it.

the flash on the tubes was again abit of a nightmare but cleaned up nicely

All mounted to the turret

turret and hull together we are about 10hrs in here

playing with stowage and what not (gubbins who doesn't like gubbins!)

Now this was my first time doing sand bags and bed rolls as i have tried before and generally ended up with a mess, felt pretty confident i could do it and using a slightly more forgiving material that is white DAS air dry clay rather than a epoxy putty allowed me to make mistakes more or less and fix them, i used a piece of linen (medieval living historian we tend to have that stuff about lol) to give it a "Sand Bag" texture.

on this one the bed roll i am not happy with so we are calling it a canvas roll lol, and underneath the pva and water mixed tissue paper to make a canvas tarp with a few cubes of DAS clay to add something more.

Track Bashing done (these are rubber band type) they were done by painting them all with vallejo panzer aces dark rust in full, washed over with humbrol dust wash and then with a soft black pastel rubbed on the inside and on the chevrons to darken, but they will probably get covered over later. Priming is done with Vallejo Mecha Primer with dries flat and smooth and is only shiney as it was only just dry to the touch (USB desktop fans are good for getting primer to set up so at least you can move the model!)

 

And thats where we are about 14hrs in, i dont always get to spend lots of little chunks of time i normally like to do big blocks (especially as i have no events on etc so it might turn to that lol)

 

Cheers

Jonathan

Edited March 7, 2021 by WYATT

[Cerberus]

4 hours ago, WYATT said:

gubbins who doesn't like gubbins!

 

 Stuff n gubbins!! I say this way too much, lol 

 

 Matt

[WYATT]

7 hours ago, Cerberus said:

 

 Stuff n gubbins!! I say this way too much, lol 

 

 Matt

I like the term stowage but gubbins just sounds right lol

[WYATT]

couple more hours in to the build now (as i type i am just sat waiting for the varnish to dry)

 

So fun and games with the paint on this one the US dark green had gone abit snotty and running it through the airbrush was proving to be a nightmare but i got it on with abit more thinner and flow improver, to this to get a lighter tone i added a drop or 2 of sand yellow. The sand bags were based in green brown and then added some panzer aces canvas.

 

stowage and gubbins painted in and tied down

better shot of the sand bags

to me it always looks like a toy without the decals on also cut some of the duckbills off to add abit of character to the tracks.

 

 

thats better, decals and air panel on (these were used by alot of allied vehicles in the later part of the war to avoid the age old blue on blue no wonder in most recent conflicts they are called anti-yank panels!)

 

next bit is the weathering and i am gunna try a few new things on this one and see if it compares to my other stuff, so far i am about 18 hours work time into this build now  

[vytautas]

Looks really good! I like these contrasting colors - it adds life. Canvas looking like a real

 

Vytautas

[WYATT]

1 minute ago, vytautas said:

Looks really good! I like these contrasting colors - it adds life. Canvas looking like a real

 

Vytautas

Thanks, there is only so much green you can do and does need a "splash" of colour as it draws the eye

[spruecutter96]

Looks very good, indeed, my friend. The sand-bags work really well. Thanks for sharing with us. 

 

I never understood why the American Sherman crews painted the huge white stars on the most vulnerable part of the tanks. There was a lot of 76mm ammo stored in this area and the side armour was not the thickest part of the tank. To me, the crews might as well have painted a big bullseye on the side. Still, if it helped prevent the Yank anti-tank crews from committing fratricide, then I guess it was a good thing. 

 

Chris.    

[WYATT]

German gunners and tank crews are known to have used them as aiming points, I think it was a catch 22, get zipped by your own side or enemy crews. Either way just anything that might help you was worth doing 

[spruecutter96]

I remember watching an old episode of Combat Dealers a while ago. They were interviewing a old guy who was a British Sherman crew-man and he was relating how they used to put old telephone directories on the floor of their tanks. The thinking was that if they ran over a mine, the directories would give them a small degree of extra protection, without adding much extra weight. Just like the Tesco's ads used to say "Every little helps..."

 

Chris.    

[WYATT]

1 hour ago, spruecutter96 said:

I remember watching an old episode of Combat Dealers a while ago. They were interviewing a old guy who was a British Sherman crew-man and he was relating how they used to put old telephone directories on the floor of their tanks. The thinking was that if they ran over a mine, the directories would give them a small degree of extra protection, without adding much extra weight. Just like the Tesco's ads used to say "Every little helps..."

 

Chris.    

I did remember hearing (from a veteran I am sure, not 100%) but they used sand bags as well but mixing straw and sand for mine protection on the floor of tanks, trucks anything really. 

 

Anything can help.... Everything else becomes shrapnel lol

[WYATT]

This is now complete, approx 24 hrs work into it i think but its not in the RFI