1/48 Tamiya 32537 M26 Pershing

[The Astrononeer]

Hello, I'm Alex and I just joined this forum. This is going to be my first post, and I wanted to show what I'm currently capable of and see what I can improve on.

 

Here's the build;

 

I started with the stock Tamiya m26 pershing kit in 1/48. This one's getting a bit long in the tooth( I especially learned that when half my torsion bar mounts snapped during the build), but in my opinion is still an excellent kit. It is, to my knowledge, the only American heavy tank in 1/48 scale. 

 

I started by drilling out the headlights and replacing the gigantic brush guards with some styrene strip of an unknown size. I also took some time to file down the brush guard for the horn. 

next, the hull and anti-aircraft machine guns were drilled out. The final modification was that the antenna mount was drilled and a piece of wire was glued in place.

Also, the sideskirts were omitted for some variety and the edges of the return rollers were left unpainted due to the size of their rims.

 

 

Here's the full finished model. Any thoughts are appreciated,  thanks for taking a gander!

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by The Astrononeer

[Stef N.]

Welcome aboard Alex. Looks good mate. Great factory fresh finish. The only thing I would tweak is the cable colour. Maybe a darker steel. Other than that very minor detail a great debut model. Nice one. 👍👏

[Nenad Ilijic]

Nice work Alex and welcome to the forum.

 

Regarding making your models more realistic, the best advice you can get is to just follow some threads in WIP section on this forum. There are so many great modelers here. I learned much much more since I joined the forum than I managed to do for a long time before that on my own. And there are many different styles and techniques, so you can choose whatever suit you best.

 

Regarding this particular model, making factory fresh finish to look realistic is the hardest I would say

As Stef mentioned, darker steel for cable would do the trick. Also, tracks are maybe a bit too rusty, especially for a  factory fresh finish. I usually use a mix of Tamiya XF-84 and XF-10 (75:25 approximately) to spray the tracks and then drybrush some metallic pigments or silver paint on the areas that are exposed to wear.

 

Other than that, some weathering always helps to make model look real. It's kinda like a cheating

You can start with minimal weathering and then as you gather confidence experiment with new techniques. For start you can add some dust for example, and do some color variations with oils. I prefer working with pigments, it allows you to do all kinds of effects.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

[Geo1966]

The photos are not showing? Maybe just me?

 

George

[Nenad Ilijic]

3 minutes ago, Geo1966 said:

The photos are not showing? Maybe just me?

 

George

They are showing on my phone, but not on the computer (at least in Chrome).

[Ade H]

Not just you, George. This is why we are advised against using Google Drive (and One Drive).

 

Welcome, Alex. I'm always pleased to see another model maker who is keen to improve and find out how good he/she may be. However, in this instance, me, George, and probably most people are in the dark...

[FrancisGL]

Hi Alex.

Welcome to the forum, I'm sorry to tell you that I can't comment, because I don't see your photos ...
As the colleagues say above, the fresh factory finish makes the final appearance a bit like "a detailed toy", or that the kit has something left to finish it (weathering) ....
Logically, here there is much to see and comment, to improve (or despair ... lol), and also members who will "make you a cable" when you ask them.
Cheers and TC
Francis.👍

[Bertie McBoatface]

Same problem, no photos on the laptop.

[The Astrononeer]

6 hours ago, Geo1966 said:

The photos are not showing? Maybe just me?

 

George

 

6 hours ago, Ade H said:

Not just you, George. This is why we are advised against using Google Drive (and One Drive).

 

Welcome, Alex. I'm always pleased to see another model maker who is keen to improve and find out how good he/she may be. However, in this instance, me, George, and probably most people are in the dark...

 

35 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Same problem, no photos on the laptop.

2 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi Alex.

Welcome to the forum, I'm sorry to tell you that I can't comment, because I don't see your photos ...
As the colleagues say above, the fresh factory finish makes the final appearance a bit like "a detailed toy", or that the kit has something left to finish it (weathering) ....
Logically, here there is much to see and comment, to improve (or despair ... lol), and also members who will "make you a cable" when you ask them.
Cheers and TC
Francis.👍

Sorry about that, photos should be up now. I switched to Imgur.

Edited November 14, 2021 by The Astrononeer

[The Astrononeer]

6 hours ago, Nenad Ilijic said:

Nice work Alex and welcome to the forum.

 

Regarding making your models more realistic, the best advice you can get is to just follow some threads in WIP section on this forum. There are so many great modelers here. I learned much much more since I joined the forum than I managed to do for a long time before that on my own. And there are many different styles and techniques, so you can choose whatever suit you best.

 

Regarding this particular model, making factory fresh finish to look realistic is the hardest I would say

As Stef mentioned, darker steel for cable would do the trick. Also, tracks are maybe a bit too rusty, especially for a  factory fresh finish. I usually use a mix of Tamiya XF-84 and XF-10 (75:25 approximately) to spray the tracks and then drybrush some metallic pigments or silver paint on the areas that are exposed to wear.

 

Other than that, some weathering always helps to make model look real. It's kinda like a cheating

You can start with minimal weathering and then as you gather confidence experiment with new techniques. For start you can add some dust for example, and do some color variations with oils. I prefer working with pigments, it allows you to do all kinds of effects.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

Ah, you make some good points. Out of curiosity, on the factor fresh finish part, how would you say I could do that? I have a RFM Easy Eight with a full interior that I was planning to make factory fresh. Admittedly this pershing wasn't supposed to be so clean, but I ran out of time. I'll check around the armor forum for some Weathering tips.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Very nice Pershing. Well done and welcome

[FrancisGL]

.

Edited November 17, 2021 by FrancisGL

[Ade H]

31 minutes ago, The Astrononeer said:

I'll check around the armor forum for some Weathering tips

Advice about weathering is scattered around piecemeal throughout almost all sections, partly because of how it can crop up in discussions and partly because it has no sub-section of its own (despite everything else having one).

 

It's probably best if you don't simply ask how to weather, as no-one has that much spare time. 😄 Better to ask specifics if you can.

 

Aside from weathering, If you're OK for feedback, a couple of things jumped out from the second photo in particular. Make sure that you have some putty and decal solvent.

[IanC]

Nice model!

 

Like @Nenad Ilijic, I love using pigments for weathering. You can apply them wet or dry, slosh them on heavily or just lightly dust, depending on the effect you're going for. They're very forgiving and you can wash them off completely if you're unhappy. 

 

And of course, look at photos of the real thing as well as other models, for guidance and inspiration. 😀

[The Astrononeer]

39 minutes ago, Ade H said:

Advice about weathering is scattered around piecemeal throughout almost all sections, partly because of how it can crop up in discussions and partly because it has no sub-section of its own (despite everything else having one).

 

It's probably best if you don't simply ask how to weather, as no-one has that much spare time. 😄 Better to ask specifics if you can.

 

Aside from weathering, If you're OK for feedback, a couple of things jumped out from the second photo in particular. Make sure that you have some putty and decal solvent.

 

27 minutes ago, IanC said:

Nice model!

 

Like @Nenad Ilijic, I love using pigments for weathering. You can apply them wet or dry, slosh them on heavily or just lightly dust, depending on the effect you're going for. They're very forgiving and you can wash them off completely if you're unhappy. 

 

And of course, look at photos of the real thing as well as other models, for guidance and inspiration. 😀

Ah, good advice for the pigments. I usually just used them for exhausts,  I never thought yo use em on the whole model. Also thanks for the advice on the decals and putty. I really struggle with those tamiya decals. I think I need to start sanding them down, but I'm always scared of ruining my finish. 

[Ade H]

If you're worried about ruining something, that's normal and sensible. It's why we all have practice models. It's why I experiment with everything because I put too much time, effort, and thought into a model to risk doing something which isn't as good as it could have been if I had only stepped back and tested it first. I learned that the hard way, involving a bin.

 

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by Ade H

[The Astrononeer]

11 hours ago, Ade H said:

If you're worried about ruining something, that's normal and sensible. It's why we all have practice models. It's why I experiment with everything because I put too much time, effort, and thought into a model to risk doing something which isn't as good as it could have been if I had only stepped back and tested it first. I learned that the hard way, involving a bin.

 

 

Yeah, i think I have a few more kits in this scale that would be good for testing. Admittedly this one was supposed to be for weathering, but I ended up liking it too much.

[TheOxley]

I like the Pershing… clean build!

[The Astrononeer]

18 hours ago, TheOxley said:

I like the Pershing… clean build!

Thanks. 

[Nenad Ilijic]

On 11/14/2021 at 5:09 PM, The Astrononeer said:

Ah, you make some good points. Out of curiosity, on the factor fresh finish part, how would you say I could do that? I have a RFM Easy Eight with a full interior that I was planning to make factory fresh. Admittedly this pershing wasn't supposed to be so clean, but I ran out of time. I'll check around the armor forum for some Weathering tips.

 

I don't know really. Not sure that I would be able to make a factory fresh finish that looks realistic.

 

The only thing that may help that comes up to my mind is to mist very light coat of dust to bland everything together. You can use stuff like this  or light paint. Some use Tamiya Buff although I don't like using paint for this because it is hard to remove it if you are not happy with the result.

 

Nenad

[The Astrononeer]

3 hours ago, Nenad Ilijic said:

 

I don't know really. Not sure that I would be able to make a factory fresh finish that looks realistic.

 

The only thing that may help that comes up to my mind is to mist very light coat of dust to bland everything together. You can use stuff like this  or light paint. Some use Tamiya Buff although I don't like using paint for this because it is hard to remove it if you are not happy with the result.

 

Nenad

Ah, I like the misting idea.