M4A3 HVSS 105 - The Culebra Beach Wreck

[Pete in Lincs]

22 hours ago, Cerberus said:

I'm very glad I kept these parts from the old Dragon M4A3 HVSS 105 kit

Never throw anything away! Works for me.

Seaweed idea? Get the correct or varied shades of cotton. Cut to about four inches long. Anchor down at each end and gently use a small wire brush 

(lengthwise) to roughen it up until threads/whispy bits stick out. Maybe a scalpel blade might work too.  I think it should work. Hope the holiday went well.

[Bertie McBoatface]

8 minutes ago, longshanks said:

Possible scene

Great pictures but I think Alamy would like you to pay for them.😱

 

🤣

[Troy Smith]

On 09/03/2022 at 20:39, Cerberus said:

all rusted and corroded, but

Thought about trying iron filings? Soon get some  real rust....

 

I recently used very fine hardwood dust, from sanding a parquet floor,  use TET on surface sprinkle on dust, lock off excess.  I was using it as way of making railway gravel.  I'll add in a link later.

[Markh-75]

Very interesting post!👍

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 3/7/2022 at 11:34 PM, Cerberus said:

I'm not doing tracks, no way, I'm just gonna forget that I saw that, What track? Nope, I've not seen any track,.. not at all...

 

Is anyone else making bets that there will be track showing?

[Cerberus]

22 hours ago, Pig of the Week said:

Only just noticed this thread, doh...

What a superb idea, will watch with great interest

 Hello Mr Piggy, hope you're well, you  are more than welcome to follow along 

 

 @longshanks Hello, thank you for the build log link, some very useful info, I liked the way you experimented with different ways to do the damage, and you even did bird poop which made me smile, fantastic result as well, those three pictures do spark inspiration. 

 

21 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Seaweed idea? Get the correct or varied shades of cotton. Cut to about four inches long. Anchor down at each end and gently use a small wire brush 

(lengthwise) to roughen it up until threads/whispy bits stick out. Maybe a scalpel blade might work too.  I think it should work. Hope the holiday went well.

 Hello Pete, I just spent a worrying amount of time in the knitting and cross stitch section of a Hobby Craft store, thanks to this fantastic idea, I was getting strange looks from the little old ladies  In the end I bought some very fine cotton, I'll post pics later when I experiment with this idea.

 

7 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

I recently used very fine hardwood dust, from sanding a parquet floor

 I did consider wood dust for adding texture yes, I've got a woodworking shed full of fine dust, if I can't make the fine sand/grit thing work, then I'll be back out in the shed collecting very fine wood dust 

 

4 hours ago, Markh-75 said:

Very interesting post!👍

 Thank you, I'll try and keep it that way 

 

 And last, but not least....

 

4 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Is anyone else making bets that there will be track showing?

 

 I'm not a betting man, and I don't wanna get bogged down in 'correct', but having said that Bertie, some things can never be,... unseen, 

 

 But anyway,

 

 I'm still on me hols, and thx for all the ideas, the help is much appreciated 

 

 Matt 

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 3/7/2022 at 11:34 PM, Cerberus said:

I'm not doing tracks, no way, I'm just gonna forget that I saw that, What track? Nope, I've not seen any track,.. not at all...

 

It's only a link or two. What choice did you have?

[Cerberus]

23 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

It's only a link or two. What choice did you have?

 There's always choice Bertie  There are pictures online of this tank buried deep in sand, only the upper hull and turret showing, but I'll be doing suspension/wheels showing on the high side, and will probably end up having some links poking up out the sand yes (I'll see what I can find in the spares box) but I really don't wanna start messing around with long(ish) lengths of track.

 

 We shall see, when/if I get there 

 

 Matt

[Cerberus]

 A nice short vid, put it on mute though, or listen to the wind blowing a gale 

 

 

[Cerberus]

Sunshine and Sheds

 

 I've not done a lot, I've been on hols, and the sun has ventured out to play at long last so it's possible to spend more than five minutes in a shed without freezing to death, so bearing that in mind I ventured out to make a start on the base, because I figure that the model is gonna need a base, otherwise what's the point? So I found an old lump of wood (as you do) and started trimming it up square with the bandsaw, which is another first for me, as I've never put a bandsaw picture in a build log before, It's a bit on the thick side of life, but not to worry, I'll sort that out at some point, and on the plus side, It has a natural slope to it, which is good, as beaches tend to slope down to the sea...

 

 

 Picture below, In terms of actual work on the model, I haven't done much in the way of anything (see above) I seem to be spending most of my time shopping for things that I need, but anyway, I have however done a little work to the turret base because older kits (Dragon 105mm turret is quite old now) tend to have very small turret rings like the picture on the left, which is perfectly fine if the hatches are closed, but I don't have any hatches, let alone closed ones, just lots of large holes in the top of the turret, so it needs to be opened up, I think? The Sherman did have a turret basket thingy, but that will all be gone now, and the white card is to mount a gun breach which I'm guessing will still be there, and can be seen when looking through all the open hatch holes in the turret top.

 

 

 Picture below, more shopping, Pete in Lincs suggested using some kind of thread to create the texture of the seaweed/Algae/Slime that is all over the front plate, so with that in mind I spent quite a bit of time in my local Hobby Craft shop, in the needle work, knitting and cross stich section, which it has to be said wasn't all that fun, there was a bewildering array of stuff that might be suitable, including some bright green feathers (don't laugh) which seemed to have the right stringy/strand kinda look, but in the end I settled on Natural Wool Roving, which might be worth experimenting with in the future.

 

 

 So, yeah, still working on this, I'm busy scratchin a little gun breach at the moment, because the turret looks very empty inside when viewed from above through all the open holes, and I figure that the gun breach is probably still there due to it being a very large lump of metal, so nothing too fancy, or correct for that matter, needs to be made, just more bodge it and leg it stuff, which will then need to be badly rusted up and gnarly looking, more on that later...

 

 

 I fired up my compressor for the first time in about 5 years the other day as well, it made some horrible clunking and grinding kinda noises, and then snapped the motor/pump drive shaft clean in half, I wasn't impressed to be honest, but then it was just a cheapo one, made on the moon kinda thing, so more shopping is required, probably best to just buy a decent one this time... 

 

 Matt

 

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Cerberus
Added stuff

[Bertie McBoatface]

I don't know what's impressed me most, the shed and its facilities or that pinging great lump of wood! Your beach will have a 1/35 scale weight of many tons of sand and tank. 

 

That roving looks just the job, whatever roving is. I'm guessing supplies for spinners?

[ColonelKrypton]

11 hours ago, Cerberus said:

old lump of wood

 

Not just any old lump of wood - a great big lump of wood. Big enough in fact that you carve the entire scene out of it and still have a substantially thick base. 

 

That wool roving looks interesting...

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Cerberus]

7 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

the shed and its facilities

 Well, It's more of a joinery workshop to be honest, but tends to get used as dumping ground in winter, it's freezing in there even with a heater going.

 

7 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I'm guessing supplies for spinners?

 I have no idea what it's used for, it was in a vague middle ground between knitting and cross stich, so your guess is as good as mine, it's cheap though, and comes in lots of colours, but not bright green, it has incredibly fine strands, and is used for,... something 

 

5 hours ago, ColonelKrypton said:

Not just any old lump of wood - a great big lump of wood.

 Indeed yes, it was mixed in with free logs that I got from a tree surgeon a while back, It looked kinda useful so I didn't burn it, needs to be thinned down, and a section where the model will sit chiselled out 

 

 Matt

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

needs to be thinned down, and a section where the model will sit chiselled out

 

I take it that you will make a feature of the wood edges?

[Cerberus]

10 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I take it that you will make a feature of the wood edges?

 That's the plan Bertie, that big lump of wood has a very nice sandy beach colour to it, might look nice with some clear wood varnish, or waxed 

[Bertie McBoatface]

47 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

 That's the plan Bertie, that big lump of wood has a very nice sandy beach colour to it, might look nice with some clear wood varnish, or waxed 

 

Distressed and matt finished would suggest bleached driftwood...

[Cerberus]

48 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Distressed and matt finished would suggest bleached driftwood...

 That's a damn fine idea, to continue the beach theme, I would need to grey the wood out a bit with some wood stain, dry driftwood tends to have a grey/white kinda look, but yeah I like that idea 

 

 And it would seem that this Culebra Beach Sherman has found fame and fortune as a skin in Warthunder! 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

7 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

 That's a damn fine idea, to continue the beach theme, I would need to grey the wood out a bit with some wood stain, dry driftwood tends to have a grey/white kinda look, but yeah I like that idea 

 

 And it would seem that this Culebra Beach Sherman has found fame and fortune as a skin in Warthunder! 

 

 

It seems odd that anyone else is able to see The Britmodeller Sherman of Culebra Beach. It’s ours!

[Cerberus]

18 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

It seems odd that anyone else is able to see The Britmodeller Sherman of Culebra Beach. It’s ours!

 Well, It's been done quite a few times judging by pictures online, and I think AK have done a paint set/book/mag article/feature thingy on it in the past, I daren't post any pictures though, people get so upset these days, but anyway, I could argue that my work here is done, you got 30 sign ups for a GB proposal 

 

 Now we just eat  and wait...

 

 Matt

[Bertie McBoatface]

36 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

 Well, It's been done quite a few times judging by pictures online, and I think AK have done a paint set/book/mag article/feature thingy on it in the past, I daren't post any pictures though, people get so upset these days, but anyway, I could argue that my work here is done, you got 30 sign ups for a GB proposal 

 

 Now we just eat  and wait...

 

 Matt

 

And practice.

 

Now I've hit on the ship thing for the actual GB, I'll be doing my dingo forthwith. 😉 

 

(I can't think of a joke for the A39 but I'll do that too fairly soon.)

 

I'll do WIPs and use them to publicise the GB over the summer. My old boss in retail would be proud of me for all this marketing activity. I never worked so hard for him.

[Cerberus]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

practice.

 

 Yes, I need a lot of practice, that's for sure, I've been trawling through a lot of Youtube vids over the last few days, looking for a good quick guide to doing heavy rust, using just stuff that you can buy from the local art shop/model shop/hobby shop, and try to avoid any of those products that involve creating real rust with iron powder and an activator, though I might experiment with the old fine wire wool and vinegar trick, which produces both horrible fumes and a nasty rusty mess, but anyway...

 

 I found this vid, and I know it's only a drain cover, for a diorama, but to my eye it looks incredibly realistic in terms of an old and very rusty rusted thing, and all done with just Acrylic paints and powders/pastel chalks, plus some clear matte varnishes/products, so the plan is to practice this on a little gun breach that I've scratched, If I mess it up it doesn't matter, It's in the turret, can hardly see it 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

That drain cover is astonishing. I'll watch the video later.

 

I don't like the 'real rust' products much. They are hard to control and look a bit overscale to me.

 

I do like Lifecolor's rust range of four acrylic paints, which blend and work well together. I think they used metal oxides for pigment because the stuff is gritty and smells like rusty water. You couldn't do that drain cover with them though. That is one step beyond.

[Cerberus]

Everything Now

 

 In the spirit of doing something, I've actually done something, I've made a little gun breach for the turret, and it has to be said that I have absolutely no idea what a Sherman 105mm gun breach actually looks like, and in the spirit of laziness I couldn't be bothered to go hunting pictures to find out, to be honest it really doesn't matter all that much, you can hardly see it in the turret, it just fills up the empty space a bit, but anyway, I'm gonna guess that it looks vaguely like the picture below, which obviously still needs to be roughed up a bit, and then made to look very rusty, more on that later...

 

(It kinda vaguely looks like a gun breach ) 

 

 Pictures below, and I have also done more destruction work on the HVSS (Highly Variable Silly Suspension... ) which has been mostly done with a Minicraft tool and a very small rotary bur, the front set of wheels is not finished yet because I'm still undecided on how to make them look, will probably go with smaller more heavily destroyed wheels, and it has to said that if you are doing a rusty tank wreck then it's probably best not to pick something with lots and lots of small wheels, because it can get a bit boring grinding and destroying the wheels, It seems to take forever.

 

 

 

 The hull itself still needs texture adding to the sides, and some rusty rotted out sponsons need to be added at some point, or in other words, It's a long way from finished yet, plus a very basic interior needs to be added at the front under the crew hatches, (more great big open holes that you can see through) which means I need to scratch a very basic transmission at some point, plus lots of metal junk and stuff to fill up the inside a bit to stop it looking so empty inside, the engine compartment just has a part of the drive shaft laying in it as far as I can see, and not much else.

 

 Anyway, I'm still working at the pace of a very lazy snail that's ambling across the garden, which is normal for me, so no worries 

 

 Matt

Edited March 18, 2022 by Cerberus

[Bertie McBoatface]

Brilliant! I love the wheels and tyres. The gun shield on the breech is a clever touch too.

[Retired Bob]

Really nice work on those wheels, as for all the bits and pieces inside, perhaps it's just a British thing but anything that was useful/working/valuable would have been removed/pinched after the decision had been made to leave it abandoned.  For fine dust added to paint to make a rust texture, I always add talcum powder, I've tried various things over the years but that's always worked best for me.

Here is a good wreck photo, it's a M4 hybrid, 75mm.  I've got an old 1/35th Dragon kit of one of these in the spares box.