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1/35 MENG M4A3(76)W Sherman


M_Sinclair

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It's been five years since my last tank (Takom T-29E3) and I've been hankering to tackle another. That plus the very generous gift card from my wife for the excellent hobby shop near us (Hobby Sense) resulted in the acquisition of Meng's glorious 76mm armed Sherman. This is my first Meng kit and I don't think it'll be my last. Wow, I have never seen surface detail anything near what comes in this kit. The instruction booklet however, not so good. But man the kit itself is crazy cool. I picked it up a couple weeks ago and I've spent much of my free time since at the bench. I will admit that I'm not a Sherman expert. Far from it as this is only my third ever Sherman and my first in probably 25 years. So while I cant speak to the kits accuracy, it has blown my little mind at almost every step. 

 

I didn't intend to make a build log at first. I just wanted to build. But now that I'm a fair ways into the kit I figure why not. Though for now I'm keeping the blog process simple by only using my Samsung Galaxy phone for taking photos. I did pick up some foam board from the dollar store round the block from us so I could cobble together a simple photobooth for when I feel like putting in a little extra effort. 

 

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First area I started with was building a short section of track. This kit is mostly track parts so I may as well get an idea for what I'm in for. 

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I'm going to build Lt Col. Abrams' Sherman "Thunderbolt VI" from the 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division as seen on the very lovely Meng boxart. I've read he had the habit of wearing out tanks so with that in mind it seemed appropriate to break out the dremel and weather the track pads. 

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Trying to stay organized and not lose anything. 

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Meng provides a handy little track assembly jig. 

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Each track pin gets a tiny dab of CA and then the excess material is trimmed away. 

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And voila, a very short section of working track. It takes time but there's nothing particularly difficult about the process. Only patience is required. Oh and yes, there will be duckbills too. 

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Next I thought I would start the bogeys. Again these are complex compared to the armour kits I've built in the past. But there's nothing hard about getting them together. Just take your time and you will be rewarded with fully functioning VVSS suspension and rolling wheels. The real volute springs are both fun and save you from having to sand any mold seams. 

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One of the many small details I noticed. In any other tank I've built they would have the armoured filler caps. But never the caps underneath which this kit does provide. 

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And even though it's almost invisible once the cover is in place, there is a photoetched grill for I think crew ventilation. 

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Moving to the turret I painted the back of the vision blocks a light gray/green then masked with a small rectangle of tape. 

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I had considered purchasing an aftermarket aluminum barrel which had rifling. But I decided not too as shipping was a touch pricy. To my surprise, the kit barrel provides very nice rifling detail! That's not something I've seen in a plastic kit so I was quite happy to discover this feature! Good thing I didn't bother with the pricy aluminum barrel!

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Wasn't taking too many photos so we jump ahead a fair bit. Hull is complete and primed with major turret components assembled. The flat sections of armour have a beautifully subtle rolled steel texture to them. And the cast steel parts are also very nicely done. If you look along the lower hull dust guard mounts you can see hints of unbelievably tiny welds molded into the kit. 

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There's a very nice gun breech in the turret. Though I will probably be including a commander figure in the turret which will completely obscure it. But we'll know it's there. 

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I did cave and purchase the stunning brass antenna from Adlers Nest. I had no idea you could turn brass that small in diameter. The antenna base even has a piece of some kind of armature wire inside so if I bend it, the wire will hold that angle. Incredible!

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WWII Sherman antenna or miniature lightsaber kit? You be the judge. 

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Each antenna section is of a slightly smaller diameter so they do assemble in a specific order. 

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This will be so cool to add to the model later on.

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The .50 cal is a small kit unto itself. I used my new teeny tiny set of twist drills to hollow out the front sight. The barrel came already hollowed out at the front. 

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The mount for the .50 cal comes in a left and right half. And I managed to lose the right half. Never was able to find it. Carpet monster won that round. Thankfully I keep my spare parts and the Takom T-29 I built a  while back had an unused .50. cal MG. The mount was molded into the gun itself so I used my Dremel to grind away the unneeded plastic. A llittle plastic card was used to finish off my replacement. 

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After looking over a fair few photos of Sherman turrets I learned that the surface of each one is quite unique. Not only the cast texture itself but also how each one is cut with a torch along the bottom. The molded in cast texture is very nice but it's too fine and uniform. I didn't have any Mr Surfacer 500 handy so I used some Tamiya White filler putty thinned down just a bit with a Tamiya lacquer thinner. A very mean looking bit in  my Dremel was used to replicate the torch marks. Once the putty was dry I used a medium sanding stick to tone down the texture where needed. 

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According what reference I've found the 2in smoke discharger in the turret should not be covered over for a WWII Sherman. So it was drilled out. And I'm not sure if it's some sort of turret aiming device or something else. But whatever that little L shaped bracket is in front of the commanders hatch, it should have several very small holes. This is understandably not possible with a plastic part. So I took out my very small twitst drills again and by hand, very slowly drilled out where appropriate. 

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The cast panel on the upper front hull and transmission cover also had their cast textures enhanced. 

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More Vallejo gloss black primer went on to see how she's progressing. I don't think I'll be using Vallejo primer again. It does not dry into a very robust surface and is easily scratched. 

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I think it looks pretty cool all in black. 

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I've done more work since these last photos were taken. The commanders cupola is installed with vision blocks masked. The seam at the end of the main gun barrel has been filled and sanded. Retaining pins and associated chains added to the .50cal MG mount. 

 

It's good to be back and building again. See you all again soon. 

 

-Matt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Love this. I think the texturing looks great - Instinct would be that I'd have sanded it down a little before priming but it does look great like that.

 

Its one of those things that require a little bravery. I've only been modeling since September 2020 so haven't developed the instinct yet to know when to leave stuff and when to tone it down. It means sometimes new builders like me build within themselves a bit as they are worried about over-doing it. 

 

The only way we learn is by seeing other builds such as here online. Next Sherman I do I will push the boat out on the texturing like you have. 

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Thanks PIAT. Building a vehicle as popular as the Sherman definitely has me feeling out of my comfort zone as I really don't know much about them. And boy is there a lot to know! I'm trying to get better at balancing between realism and allowing myself artistic freedom. If I get too worried about being as realistic as possible I can get bogged down which can lead to a build never being finished. In regards to the cast texture on Sherman turrets, I've found there is no one right way as every turret looks different. Some are relatively smooth and others surprisingly coarse. This is great as I feel it gives me a little more breathing room to get it to the point it feels right. Or close enough. Good luck on your next build!

 

Thanks Andy! Yeah it'll be a fun way to finish her off. 

 

I've been getting some more work done the last few days. Looking over photo references and seeing what smaller details I can add without too much fuss. On the Meng box art and in quite a few photos, I see what I assume are simple crew steps (maybe? I dunno) welded between the transmission cover and front tow points. I used my non calibrated mk. I eyeball to cut some plastic strips that seemed like the right size. Bent them to shape and glued 'em in place. Also used a very short section of stretched sprue to simulate some bolt detail on the front tow cable stowage clamp. 

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Up on the turret, the commanders cupola and hatch were glued in place after masking the vision blocks. The Meng kit does not indicate exactly how the cupola should be oriented so I looked at my references and hopefully got it about right. If it's wrong, too late now!

 

I noticed that several Shermans with this type of cupola seem to have a simple loop of leather attached to the hatch. Probably there to help close the hatch? I took some screen grabs from the film FURY as well as the excellent YouTube videos by The Chieftain to help me make my leather strap and mounting bracket. The bracket to mount the leather strap is tiny block of styrene with a modified loop of photoetch from my spares box. Attached to this was my "leather" strap fashioned from some spare copper sheet cut and formed by eye. Is this leather strap correct for Lt Col Abrams' Sherman? Not sure. Was it fun to make, look good and add some interest to the hatch. Yup! 

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Onto the hull rear deck I chose to remove the molded on loops meant for the straps that help secure the tanks tools. After shaving off the kit detail with an X-acto I marked and drilled holes for fine wire replacements. Now once I've added the tools post painting I will be able to add straps and thread them through as per the real thing. 

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Finally, I began painting the tank earlier today. When airbrushing I've been keeping the hull, turret, .50 cal and various smaller components separate. The idler and drive sprocket can also be removed. 

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Over the black primer I loosely sprayed a thin mottled coat of Tamiya's wonderful XF-68 NATO Brown. 

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I guess next up will be starting the olive drab as well as properly diving in to the big job of making the rest of the tracks. Also I see now after looking at these latest pics, a few small areas around the tank that need a touch more filler. Taking photos of your models is an excellent way to see things you may have missed!

 

Till next time!

 

-Matt

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Thank you very much Bertie!

 

 

It's been a productive week despite how small my update is today. 

 

The tracks are assembled!

 

See ya'll next time!

 

-Matt

 

 

Ok for those interested, here's a more detailed explanation of how that all went down.

 

Starting this past Friday I spent three solid hours clipping the remaining track parts from their sprues. Three sprues contain track parts and each sprue held 300  parts. I'm sure many of you here have tackled something similar but I had not! It took me a moment to comprehend a whopping 900 plastic parts made up the tracks. That's end connectors, duckbills and track pads which are made up of a top and bottom half. The parts count is even higher if you include cutting two lengths of wire for each track pad to act as track pins. 

 

The track pads and duckbills were not too bad to remove with two sprue contact points each. But the end connectors had three points to clip. Hence why this alone took three hours. And since the end connectors are rather delicate items, I couldn't trim as close as I'd like otherwise some damage could occur. 

 

The next day I think I spent around 8 hours very carefully sanding all 900 of those track parts. Again, the end connectors with three spots to sand on each one and their complex shape, took the longest. 

 

Assembling the tracks have been spread out over the last few days. I think in total assembly was around 4 hours work. I was worried the duckbills might be a delicate connection to the end connectors but now that the liquid cement has had time to set, they feel fairly robust. 

 

Thankfully you don't need all 900 plastic track parts as Meng give you plenty of spares. While this was a lot of work, none of it was difficult. It was time consuming but all that's required is patience to make a really impressive set of workable tracks. I did wind up running short of kit supplied wire used for the track pins but thankfully I did have a roll of similar wire in my stash. Though my wire was covered in an insulator so frequently stopping to remove that protective covering added a fair bit of time. 

 

Weirdly I didn't find the work overly tedious. I was a ways behind on watching Adam Savage's One Day Builds on YouTube so had those on in the background. 

 

The final step, adding the duckbills. 

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And completed! After about 12 hours work, two complete runs of workable track!

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It's exciting to know that massive part of the build is now behind me!

 

-Matt

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Hello again!

 

Broke out the airbrush today and started laying down colour on the tracks and the rest of the tank. 

 

The tracks were based with Tamiya XF-1 and then a mix of XF-1 with Tamiya NATO black and NATO brown. The olive drab started with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya XF-61 Dark Green and NATO black. Over that went XF-62 Olive Drab. Then I spent a little time going back and forth between my darker mix and pure OD. I don't pay too much attention to where I'm laying down colour at this stage. It's just about adding subtle and random variation. These layers of colour were all fairly thin and quite mottled in their application. I also varied how close I was to the model when painting. I may do a little more but overall I'm pretty happy with how the OD looks so far. I likely don't need to spend too much more time on it as this will be followed with a worn whitewash later on. 

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When painting I keep the hull, turret, .50cal, drivers and idlers all separate. I only post them together for photos.

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Till next time.

 

-Matt

 

 

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On 2/19/2022 at 12:33 AM, M_Sinclair said:

Thank you very much Bertie!

 

 

It's been a productive week despite how small my update is today. 

 

The tracks are assembled!

 

See ya'll next time!

 

-Matt

 

 

Ok for those interested, here's a more detailed explanation of how that all went down.

 

Starting this past Friday I spent three solid hours clipping the remaining track parts from their sprues. Three sprues contain track parts and each sprue held 300  parts. I'm sure many of you here have tackled something similar but I had not! It took me a moment to comprehend a whopping 900 plastic parts made up the tracks. That's end connectors, duckbills and track pads which are made up of a top and bottom half. The parts count is even higher if you include cutting two lengths of wire for each track pad to act as track pins. 

 

The track pads and duckbills were not too bad to remove with two sprue contact points each. But the end connectors had three points to clip. Hence why this alone took three hours. And since the end connectors are rather delicate items, I couldn't trim as close as I'd like otherwise some damage could occur. 

 

The next day I think I spent around 8 hours very carefully sanding all 900 of those track parts. Again, the end connectors with three spots to sand on each one and their complex shape, took the longest. 

 

Assembling the tracks have been spread out over the last few days. I think in total assembly was around 4 hours work. I was worried the duckbills might be a delicate connection to the end connectors but now that the liquid cement has had time to set, they feel fairly robust. 

 

Thankfully you don't need all 900 plastic track parts as Meng give you plenty of spares. While this was a lot of work, none of it was difficult. It was time consuming but all that's required is patience to make a really impressive set of workable tracks. I did wind up running short of kit supplied wire used for the track pins but thankfully I did have a roll of similar wire in my stash. Though my wire was covered in an insulator so frequently stopping to remove that protective covering added a fair bit of time. 

 

Weirdly I didn't find the work overly tedious. I was a ways behind on watching Adam Savage's One Day Builds on YouTube so had those on in the background. 

 

The final step, adding the duckbills. 

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And completed! After about 12 hours work, two complete runs of workable track!

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It's exciting to know that massive part of the build is now behind me!

 

-Matt

 

They look amazing and well worth all the effort. The missing teeth will make it look really mean, like an ice hockey player!

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Thanks Bertie and I agree!

 

The thing about having working running gear is you do need to make sure you don't miss any spots when painting. Every time I paint the tank I need to ensure after the first pass with the airbrush I rotate the wheels and return rollers.  Same goes for the tracks. 

 

I draped the track over a gloved hand and that allowed me to spray Tamiya flat black in between the track pads. If I omitted this step, bare plastic would be visible where the track goes around the idlers and drivers. 

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I feel like the Sherman really came to life just now. To add some contrast and paint fading to my combat veteran I sprayed on a thin, mottled coat of Tamiya Olive Drab XF-62 and Khaki XF-49 mixed around 50/50 and heavily thinned. 

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I was hesitant before spraying this mix, worried it would be too bright. I am now ecstatic with how it came out!

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I did try to avoid certain areas with his coat. Some high points for instance I'm leaving darker to show the effects of the crew. 

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Don't mind the varying exposure of the photos. That's just from me being lazy and leaving my phone on auto. Regardless, I think the tank looks pretty darn good. 

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I'd forgotten how much I enjoy airbrushing Tamiya paints. I've been using Vallejo a fair bit on my last few projects. And while they are nice and have a staggering colour selection, I love how forgiving the Tamiya paints are when it comes to the paint/thinner ratio. Obviously this only relates to me and how I bumble along trying building the odd model. 

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Thanks for looking and see you next time. 

 

-Matt

 

 

 

 

Edited by M_Sinclair
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19 hours ago, Patrykd said:

Beautiful paint, but after varnish and weathering all modulation will disapear. 

 

Wanna bet? I think there's enough contrast in the paintwork to survive the subsequent stages, though it will of course be toned down somewhat. Like you I think this is beautifully done. I can almost see tankers in filthy overalls sliding off the turret on their backsides day after day.

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Thanks everyone! I think when I was younger the tracks would absolutely have felt like a nightmare. But for whatever reason, I didn't mind all the work that went into them (I'm genuinely surprised at this). Though I am glad that stage of the build is behind me!

 

I wouldn't really call my airbrushing modulation, simply post shading. 

 

In many places here in Canada it's a long weekend and I've been trying to make the most of it by getting more done on my Sherman. Yesterday I used my Canon Pixma to scan Meng's decal sheet. I then used the free software Silhouette Studio to carefully trace by hand the markings I would use for my particular Sherman, Thunderbolt VI. Once I had the Thunderbolt VI artwork (which I learned is unique on both sides) and stars traced, I used my Silhouette Portrait 2 vinyl cutter to make some custom paint masks. 

 

Applying masks to hull and turret. 

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A few of the really tiny areas to mask in the clouds I used Vallejo liquid mask applied with a length of stretched sprue cut to a fine point. 

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Masking tape was applied around the vinyl mask to avoid accidental over spray. Tamiya XF-2 Flat White was mixed with a little XF-55 Deck Tan and sprayed on. I tried to spray the stars fairly evenly since they would be factory applied. A little paint came off with the masking tape but that was easily touched up. 

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First step to painting the markings on the hull are complete., Again, a little paint lifted with the tape. 

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While the stars are meant to look factory applied, I wanted the Thunderbolt artwork to look like it was painted by hand with a brush. To help suggest this after airbrushing I used a very fine brush and a couple shades of off white to add some dimension to the cloud. You can see here the top half of the cloud has only been airbrushed. The lower cloud has had the additional brushwork applied.

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I waited a few hours, then applied the next set of masks. 

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Tamiya Flat White was airbrushed on. Then again after waiting a few hours I masked the 'VI" in preparation for the yellow. The yellow was a custom mix from Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow with a touch of XF-55 Deck Tan and X-6 Orange. 

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Once all the masking was removed I did a little more touch up on the olive drab where needed. It was certainly more work then simply using the kit decals. But it was fun and I'm really happy with how the markings turned out. Even the little imperfections I feel add a touch of extra realism. 

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You can see how there are in fact subtle differences in the art work from one side to the other. Like the clouds, once airbrushing the art was complete I went over the "Thunderbolt VI" with a fine brush to help achieve that painted by hand in the field look. 

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Pretty happy with how it's coming together so far. 

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Till next time.

 

-Matt

Edited by M_Sinclair
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All good Longbow lol Feel free to stick around. Still have more work to do on the Sherman!

 

Spent some time adding layers of colour to the tracks. As it's been some years since I've built a tracked vehicle it seemed like a good time to refresh myself with Michael Rinaldi's excellent book, Tank Art 2 Allied Armor. 

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The tracks had been painted black a while ago so the paint was good and set and ready for some gentle handling. I broke out my wet palette (a phenomenal tool that's easy to make) and added a few drops of Vallejo leather brown and white grey. The wet palette keeps the paint (wait for it) wet! Along with extending the working time, you can use the wet palette to play with mixing the colours and adjusting how opaque they are. It's a tool commonly used for figure painting as it allows for wet blending but I think anyone who does brush painting could find it quite handy. The end connectors were painted one by one. As I went I kept altering the paints opacity, the ratio of leather brown to white grey and how wet the paint was. I wanted each end connector to look slightly different to the next and the wet palette makes this very easy and fun! I kept the paint fairly thin as I wanted some of the black base to show through. 

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The paint dried quick so as soon as the end connectors had some colour as a foundation I could move on the fun part. Michael Rinaldi mentions that foam is a fantastic paint applicator for tracks and I can see why now! I added more paints to my wet palette and began mixing them in a few different ways and applying them sparingly by foam. I started going from lighter tones to darker. Then I just started going back and forth from light greys to reddish browns to very dark browns. Adding layer after layer. A very enjoyable process and super easy to do and control. 

 

I also dabbed some paint onto the track pads then wiped off the excess. It's quite possible that most or all of this will get covered with subsequent weathering. I expect I'll be doing more with paints, oils and pigments later on. But it's all about building up layers and I now have the tracks primed and ready for more. Even if all my work here gets covered, it was a fun and educational exercise. 

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-Matt

 

 

 

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I like that you don't use stark pure white but cut it back with the deck tan. This is the way I work. I do similar things with tracks too, but I never thought of using sponges. I like to spatter  paint into a wet surface so that it runs and blends, a watercolour technique, but one that works extra well with enamels too. I'm enjoying your build and picking up some new ideas.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Bertie.

 

Well I haven't posted in a bit but I have been keeping busy with the Sherman. Honestly I spent most of this past week looking over my references to try and answer two questions about Sherman tools. One, did Sherman tools get a coat of OD paint at the factory? Two, what exactly was used to secure those tools to the tank? Webbing material? Leather straps? What kind of buckles? Considering over 49,000 Shermans were produced over many different versions it wouldn't surprise me if there was no one correct answer. By the end of the week I was getting frustrated at my lack of progress so I just made up my mind as best I could so I could get going again. If I'm wrong and my Shermans accuracy suffers, oh well. I did my best with the information I had on hand. 

 

During my hunt for answers and collecting references I managed to find a second photo of Thunderbolt VI. I immediately noticed a prominent detail my replica was missing. I could easily make out a wooden plank sitting across the transmission cover which was quite common on WWII era Shermans. Looking at what references I've been able to collect so far and it seemed that tank crews scavenged the wood used to help increase stowage capacity on the front of their tanks. Some tanks used wood that was quite thick. I also found a couple photos of tanks that appeared to use a couple of thinner planks of wood. 

 

The planks were just some styrene strip cut to size, textured with coarse sanding sticks and a knife. Some knots in the wood were drilled in. And based on one Sherman photo, I damaged the bottom of the planks. Painting wood grain began with a base of acrylic white grey with a touch of leather brown. Then once the acrylic was dry I streaked dark brown oil paint. The hairspray technique was used on the front plank and some chipped yellow and blue paint was added. 

51923253375_bb9b592ee0_b.jpg20220306_174532 

 

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The wood grain on the tools was the same method I used for the planks, I simply varied the colours a bit. Two layers of hairspray was applied to the tools, then after drying I brushed on some Tamiya Olive Drab mixed with khaki. A damp brush activated the hairspray and I was able to get the look of well used tools that had once been painted olive drab at the factory. The straps were lead foil cut into strips and painted Tamiya khaki. The buckles were photoetch items from my spares box and painted dark grey. Most of the paint on the straps came off as I threaded them around the tools so a bit of touch up was needed once they were in place. A wash of dark brown oil paint was then added to the straps to tone down the khaki colour and simulate some shadows. 

51921656282_bb3bcae29b_b.jpg20220306_174612 

 

51923251950_333d00f511_b.jpg20220306_174759 

 

That's all for now. See ya next time. 

 

-Matt

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Shortly after my last post, I began painting the M2 .50cal. I brush painted the ammo and was really unhappy with how it looked. In hindsight if I had airbrushed the brass it probably would have looked fine.

 

But it was too late and I had unknowingly fallen down what became a nearly three week rabbit hole...

 

With a decent paint job the Meng M2 would look great out of the box. But I just wasn't satisfied with my work. So, par for the course. 

51972015458_0f691aa0ef_b.jpgreceived_1693573960983994 

 

I remembered that back in (I think) 2004 I had purchased some incredible turned brass .50cal ammunition from Mission Models. It was still in my spares box as I was too intimidated to try assembling the included photoetch ammo belt links. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try and slay that dragon. Of course that would mean replacing the ammo can and ammo can rack but hey lets cross that bridge later. First, the ammo. 

 

I began by annealing all the ammo belt links and then cutting them from the photoetch fret. I used my x-acto and fine tweezers to form the belt links around a very fine drill bit. This took a bit of practice but thankfully I had lots to practice on. And I knew I only needed a handful for the ammo belt. Which is great cause several did ping off never to appear again. 

51971915946_702ccac02a_b.jpg20220312_225920 

 

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Once the belt links were formed I airbushed some Tamiya flat black and I could begin assembly. I can't tell you how immensely satisfying it was to slide each round into the belt links. This was a very delicate process. 

51971915696_c1cc52e56b_b.jpg20220313_153726 

 

I used a pencil to make some subtle highlights on the edge of each belt link. 

51971982493_271407b59a_b.jpg20220313_153532

 

51972478560_bfbc7ba7ef_b.jpg20220313_154339 

 

Ok that's part one of this update. I'll be back with much, much more tomorrow.

 

-Matt

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Time for part two of my latest update. 

 

The completed belt of ammunition with copper painted bullets. Later on I would paint the tips of two bullets red to indicate tracer rounds which I believe is correct. Feel free to correct me if this is not the case. 

51972476055_c759c8e7c7_b.jpg20220313_161650 

 

A direct comparison between my poorly painted Meng rounds and the little gems from Mission Models. Here you can also see the replacement photoetch ammo rack that is from the excellent old Eduard set TP504. At this point aside from changing out the ammo and associated bits, I did not plan on doing any more to the M2 itself. Earlier I had drilled out the front sight and added some retainer pins. That seemed like enough at the time...

51971984598_19d7dcd8d7_b.jpg20220313_162935 by _m_sinclair, on Flickr

 

Ok so judging by this next photo you would be right to think there was a slight change of plans!

51971914736_25e3229986_b.jpg20220316_182932 

 

Well when I glued the original plastic barrel to the receiver I managed to let the barrel droop a very slight amount. A few times I gently applied pressure to raise the barrel but this only worked temporarily. And you guessed it, eventually it broke clean off. This was entirely my fault.  So since I suddenly had a bunch more work to do on the M2 (and I wasn't happy with the all flat black paint job on the gun anyways) I decided I may as well strip the paint off and try again after repairs. 

 

I cut away and cleaned up where the vented barrel support had been in preparation for the replacement barrel. I also elected to add some small details with various shapes and sizes of styrene. While looking at photo references for the legendary weapon I noticed a very prominent horizontal slot for the bolt. The kit part shows this detail as solid plastic but since we are tumbling down the rabbit hole, lets improve that too. Since it was molded solid I used a small drill bit to remove most of the material. I then used a small photoetch steel saw and strips of thin sanding film to clean up the slot as best I could. It's not a perfect rectangular slot but looks way better now that you can see through the slot, just like the real thing. 

 

OK, what's next? Drill a hole to accept the replacement barrel. Next, test fit new barrel. Realize hole in receiver is too high. Plug hole with styrene rod, drill again. Test fit barrel again. That's more like it. You know what? I was pleased as punch to try out my new tiny drill bits by drilling out the front sight to make it hollow. But that's too easy and not as accurate as it could be. The real front sight is not  a round hole, but a metal arch with a sight post. So I shaved off the original front sight, put down a small rectangle of styrene as a base for the sight. I drilled a super tiny hole into the sight base and insert a piece of stretched sprue that is many times thinner then I have ever worked with previously. A strip of foil from an old wine bottle was cut to shape and formed over an appropriately sized drill bit. This was glued to the sight base with some white glue and voila. I was pretty damn proud of myself for making this! Pleased keep in mind it took several attempts before I managed to build the new sight without breaking or losing any of the teeny tiny and very fragile parts. 

51971912791_96db375e14_b.jpg20220316_190028

 

You will also see here I've installed the Eduard PE ammo box rack. 

51972202624_496610cc20_b.jpg20220316_190035 

 

Diverting away from the .50 cal for a moment, there was other work to be done. I had kept forgetting to deal with a few seams/gaps around the tank that needed rectifying. The lifting points on the rear of the hull had some gaps filled with Squadron white putty.

51971916086_9c0b0726cc_b.jpg20220310_152928 

 

And this piece here on the rear of the turret not only should not have a gap, but a rather chunky weld. My ancient box of Milliput came to the rescue. 

51971916211_152bb358e0_b.jpg20220310_152841 

 

I also painted up and assembled the brass .30cal barrel from Master Model (item GM-35-004). I had damaged the hull .30cal that came with the kit so this little beauty has been called up for service. 

51971983913_eefa6344bd_b.jpg20220318_155150 

 

The barrel parts were painted slightly different shades of grey to help make them look a bit more interesting. The colour differences are more subtle when not under the direct glare of my bench lamp. 

51972202559_e159077396_b.jpg20220318_155312

 

OK that's part two done! Next I'll start working on part three of my latest update lol. I've been away from here but I've been busy at the bench!

 

-Matt

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Here is part three of this latest update. 

 

Back to the never ending M2 project.  The receiver has been painted up in a very dark grey and the new barrel installed. My spares box came to the rescue again as back in the mid 2000's I had bought a few .50cal barrels. The one here is an item from Adlers Nest and the photoetch barrel handle is from the Armorscale M2 barrel set. Each section of barrel was airbrushed a different shade of grey. Once the Tamiya paint had a day to dry I used a cotton swab to gently burnish the barrel as looking at references showed it can have a bit of a sheen to it compared to the rest of the gun. A standard pencil was used to add metallic highlights and depict wear. At this stage I also got ready to reinstall the retainer pins and chains which had popped off during earlier disassembly and paint stripping. It was at this stage I noticed the pins don't connect directly to the chain. There is a small almost "T" shaped clip the connects the chain to the retaining pins. You can see in this photo my first attempts to recreate said clips. Not bad but a bit too chunky for the scale. 

 

Also that lovely little front sight I was so proud of? It is very fragile and without noticing at first, I had managed to knock it off. So I got to build the front sight all over again. Which like before, took a few tries to get right. 

51970912432_f032a38883_b.jpg20220323_151417 

 

Going through old spare power cables I had lying around I cut some open and found some very delicate wire. After many tries I was able to make two even smaller clips to add to my M2 cradle. 

51971982168_961c4cc9a7_b.jpg20220323_153039 

 

So during all this I knew I needed an ammo box to place my amazing little belt of turned brass and photoetched ammunition. I started off by making a few from the thinnest sheet styrene I have (0.25mm thick). But my ammunition was just too wide to fit. So I built another ammo box but this time using foil from an old wine bottle. This actually came out pretty good and the crazy thin (and slightly flexible) material meant my ammo just barely fit inside. But the more I looked at my references for WWII US ammo boxes the more I was dissatisfied with how plain jane my ammo boxes looked. I made attempts with scratchbuilding even more ammo boxes. These attempts I played with making my own embossed detail (which was interesting but only marginally successful) and adding layers of detail with spare photoetch material cut to shape. But that didn't look great and added too much thickness. 

 

I found online some lovely PE ammo boxes by Tetra. I placed an order and was quite impressed when they showed up. I stripped off the paint they came applied with and began to build up a box to see if the MG rounds would fit. They did not. I can't help but wonder if this Mission Models ammo is ever so slightly over size? I used a file to bring down the size of the brass rounds and that helped a little. But I could only take off so much brass before it would start to look odd. After plenty more experimenting (thankfully you get eight photo etch ammo boxes from Tetra as I used up four) I used a fine diamond file to reduce the wall thickness of the ammo box by about half. But even after filing down the rounds and the sides of the ammo box, the Mission Models ammo still refused to fit. I was kinda all in here so finding a solution was paramount. 

 

In the end I chose the let the ammo push out the sides of the ammo box just a little, as well the ammo inside the box sits at a slight angle. While it was disappointing to have to compromise, I still feel what I ended up with was far more visually interesting then if I had stuck with the stock parts from Meng. 

 

Here we see the M2 with the ammo box and ammo installed. 

51971982818_d7f8d377e5_b.jpg20220326_090357 

 

Looks pretty cool eh? But wait we aren't done yet! Careful observation will note, the spade grips are broken off (my bad) and the charging handle is also gone (I'm clumsy). And the ammunition is at a weird angle going into the gun. I guess the rack for the ammo box was sitting ever so slightly too far forwards. 

 

Yeah this little sub assembly came to be a fair bit of work, probably consuming as much time as I spent on making those tracks earlier. 

 

Ok so gently remove the ammo belt. Pop off the ammo box and rack. Glue ammo, ammo box ands rack all together. Then install this sub subassembly back onto the machine guns cradle mount ensuring the ammo has a straighter path to the gun itself. Now to replace the broken parts. As luck would have it, back in the early 2000's I had bought the Academy US machine gun set which was full of plastic .50cals and associated parts. Including things like spade grips, triggers and charging handles! 

 

So here is how it looked with the ammo in the right place and the spade grips, charging handle and trigger from Academy installed. I also added a couple more tiny scratchbuilt details and all that was needed was to paint the handles to look like wood and add the bracket thingy that helps hold the ammo box in place. That bracket also came from the Eduard PE set I mentioned earlier. 

51971982143_f6d573e4f2_b.jpg20220326_190354 

 

And here we have the completed machine gun. 

51970911377_6530267b15_b.jpg20220329_194235 

 

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Overall despite it being WAY more work then I ever thought it would be, I'm pretty dang satisfied with how it came out. Far from perfect but I think it's a big improvement over the stock machine gun. This little sub assembly was very challenging and pushed my meager skills forward a fair bit. And for anyone who might be curious, this M2 .50cal sub assembly is now made up of I think around 57 parts. I hope some of what I wrote actually made sense. It was tricky to get the last few weeks of work out of my head and written down. 

 

Here's a little before and after. 

 

Before. 

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After.

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So assuming I don't damage anything, that whole saga is now behind us. 

 

To get everyone 100% up to date, I did manage to get some more work done on the rest of the tank as well during all that. 

 

Previously for the tools mounted to the hull, I shaved off and added thin wire as tie down points, or footman loops as they are sometimes called. Thing is I forgot to do that with the stowage rack on the rear of the hull. So the plastic tie down points were shaved off and sanded. Holes were drilled and small wire tie downs super glued in place. They aren't perfect but they will let me tie down the stowage I will add later on. Suffice to say this work meant touching up the olive drab. That was fine as I had to anyway after fixing some seams and after a bit of handling, the OD didn't look so hot in a few spots. I broke out my fine detail airbrush and in the end, went over most of the tank tweaking and fixing the Tamiya olive drab. After that, I rusted up the exhausts with a combination of paints and pigments. And areas of the running gear that should have worn bare metal, I brush painted some AK 3rd Gen AK11212 Gun Metal. 

51970911047_a5bb6d84a1_b.jpg20220329_194836 

 

Oh! And I painted the spare track blocks and the tubes under the stowage rack (gun cleaning tubes?). So that's it! You're all caught up! For real! And if you skimmed over most of these three parts I don't blame you! haha

 

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51970911467_43ccff6770_b.jpg20220329_194229 

 

-Matt

Edited by M_Sinclair
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Good lord that .50 is a work of art ......should have displayed it all on its own .... made my eyes bleed just imagining how fiddley it must have been doing those links for the feed belt :blink: ....hats of too ya sir other level detailing. the paint is coming along well to in particular like the pioneer tools and the wood shade you have used for them.....a  stunning piece in the making. 

                                                     :goodjob:

 

Damn ...just noticed you even tipped the tracer rounds ...... :frantic:

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