Sherman M4 early type

[Maddoxx77]

So, new day, new project.

Since i'm still waiting on aftermarket parts for my Tiger project i decided i want to do something completly different. A Sherman....

I got this kit from Tamiya for a very good price and i thought i could give it a go. 

The M4 early type is a tank i know little about. 

After reading the build guide i decided to get me some information. So i downloaded a couple of usefull photo's on details.

 

i know there are a lot of experts here that can provide me with additional tips on building this model. Also i want to state that this will be a ootb build, no PE or aftermarket parts. This means that there will be historical inacuracies regarding some bolts, hinges, thickness of certain parts etc. For me this is no problem. That beeing said, i want to do this iconic tank justice so i'll take it slow going over every step. No heavily damaged tank this time. I want to tone it down, focussing on a good and tidy build, work on my airbrush and paint skills and do some very light chipping and weathering. Can't blame a guy for trying 😁😉

 

The kit comes with figures and they look fairly descent so i might add them ( the KV2 project was a real eye opener regarding figures )

 

On to the build itself. Beeing a Tamiya kit i expect no major issues, however, the fit of the front hull plate seems a bit off

 

Also, i need to close the gaps above the tracks because otherwise it will be a see trough model. Nothing that can't be solved with plasticard.

 

 

 

the lower back plate is finnished and fitted, no issues there.

 

I'm off to a good start. Enjoying myself wich is the most important part of modeling.

 

I want to thank you guys in advancement for all the tips, tricks, technical details and words of encouragement. Feel free to tag along.

 

I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers! 👍👍👍

[Hamden]

 

Nice start looking forward to watching it progress

 

   Stay safe         Roger

[Bullbasket]

Good to see you having a go at a real tank. Load up the front glacis plate with stowage gear, and that will hopefully hide it's inaccuracies.

 

John.

[FrancisGL]

Hi Maddoxx, 

A classic, I don't think you'll have big problems with this one, and when you think about doing it OOB, although "taking it seriously", it will be "a walk in the park"... lol From time to time it is good to do something like this between more complex kits or those that were very difficult due to problems at the origin.... I have a stash (too big...damn), and although there are models that "call" me, although I love them, due to their innate complexity, they make me consider choosing them or going for something "relaxed"...

Cheers and TC

Francis.👍

[Maddoxx77]

4 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Good to see you having a go at a real tank. Load up the front glacis plate with stowage gear, and that will hopefully hide it's inaccuracies.

 

 

🤣🤣🤣 

That was the intention. The kit comes with a good amount of stowage and spare tracks for use as additional armour. I think the little gap on the front, behind the drive sprocket won't be visible however i have to check it when dry fitting the stowage to make shure. 

The biggest issue is the gap above the tracks. I will fill it up with plasticard to close it off.

 

46 minutes ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi Maddoxx, 

A classic, I don't think you'll have big problems with this one, and when you think about doing it OOB, although "taking it seriously", it will be "a walk in the park"... lol From time to time it is good to do something like this between more complex kits or those that were very difficult due to problems at the origin.... I have a stash (too big...damn), and although there are models that "call" me, although I love them, due to their innate complexity, they make me consider choosing them or going for something "relaxed"...

Cheers and TC

Francis.👍

Yes, i needed a kit like this. I have some complex kits in my stash right now. A Dragon StuG 3B and i fell down the Miniart rabbithole by buying a StuG 3G..... felt inspired by @Bertie McBoatface 🤣. Oh the joy of trying to fit 300 parts on 1 square inch. 

Also the Wittmann Tiger project is still waiting. ( found a good PE set online and some other aftermarket stuff. ) 

So for now a breath of fresh air with this Sherman. With this kit i can focus on details in the painting and weathering without going overboard. 

So far it's a joy. 

 

[Maddoxx77]

It's a real treat if you have a day to spend with a kit that goes together like Tamiya.

 

The build part is done. No problems what so ever. Just some seamlines that needed attention but apart from that it was a walk in the park. Everything is dryfitted so i can spray the different sections before assembly. 

 

I must say that the detail of the parts is really good. The oilcans are dented, the .50 cal looks real nice. I still need to drill the muzzle. 

 

next stop: a coat of Vallejo black primer. 

 

I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers! 👍👍👍

[Kingsman]

I know it's far too late to bring this up, but the glacis of that kit is all wrong.  Tamiya have tooled an A4 glacis complete with the unique A4 drivers' hoods.  Although fitting the applique plates and covering it with gear hides most of the sins.  With TMD going out of business at the end of the year the old correction of getting one of their hulls has gone.  But then they cost more than this kit........

 

For future reference for anyone else contemplating an M4, ignore this kit and look at one of the very much better Dragon or Asuka offerings,

 

You should think about the means by which your various stowages are going to stay in place where you've put them.  Nothing stays on a tank for more than a couple of minutes unless it's very secure.

[Maddoxx77]

8 hours ago, Kingsman said:

I know it's far too late to bring this up, but the glacis of that kit is all wrong.  Tamiya have tooled an A4 glacis complete with the unique A4 drivers' hoods.  Although fitting the applique plates and covering it with gear hides most of the sins.  With TMD going out of business at the end of the year the old correction of getting one of their hulls has gone.  But then they cost more than this kit........

 

For future reference for anyone else contemplating an M4, ignore this kit and look at one of the very much better Dragon or Asuka offerings,

 

You should think about the means by which your various stowages are going to stay in place where you've put them.  Nothing stays on a tank for more than a couple of minutes unless it's very secure.

As mentioned in my first post, this will be a OOB. I've read trough various  buildlogs and i know that a lot of kits have problems with "wrong" parts or structures. I've decided that i want to build this kit to focus on painting and weathering. For this kit it means that there will be flaws. Your comment is much appriciated though. When i will build a Sherman depicting a historicly accurate model i'll be shure to do research.

Regarding the stowage. Beeing a former Tanker myself, i know everything in and on a tank needs to be secured otherwise it will fall off.

I'm thinking of using masking tape as stowage bands or use tread to secure the stowage on the front and back. Not shure if i'll leave the stowage on the side of the turret because it looks weird just hanging there. Also i want to use copper wire to make a towing cable ( got some eyes in the spare box ) 

Tnx again for your tips.

 

Cheers! 

👍👍👍

[Maddoxx77]

This morning i did the first layer of olive drab. I sprayed the whole kit with Vallejo black primer and then i did some preshading with grey white on the flat surfaces and the raised details. 

The first layer of olive drab was sprayed in a 50/50 ratio so the preshading comes trough.

Now i'll let it dry and tomorow i'll start working on the colour varation. No hairspray chipping this time. I want to build the layers slowly so there will be a lot of light and dark highlights.

 

I'll keep you guys posted.

cheers! 👍👍👍

[Maddoxx77]

While waiting on a olivedrab modulation set ( And some workable tracklinks from miniart..... who said OOB???? 🤣 )

I started working on the commander and the driver. I really enjoy painting figures. 

 

far from done but it's a start. 

 

cheers! 👍👍👍

[echen]

4 minutes ago, Maddoxx77 said:

far from done but it's a start. 

A very good start! 

 

[Kingsman]

It was normal practice for the UK to fit 8 "footman loops" on the left side of the turret and another 4 on the left angled rear upper left hull precisely to secure stowage.  In theory I believe the turret loops were for straps for a cam net or rolled canvas.  The US did not do this. The rear lifting rings were commonly used to lash stowage to.

  

 

Did Tamiya say to put the barrel cleaning staves on the rear upper deck?  Never seen a photo of a 75mm Sherman of any type with them stowed there.  Not actually sure where they were stowed on 75mm tanks.  On 76 and 105mm types they were stored externally, but not there.

 

 

[FrancisGL]

Hi Madddoxx,

It is a good start, and it seems that you are going to try more techniques... good! For the parts that are without any type of plastic and are empty, it is a good idea to use plasticine, easy and fast... although in the end it is not hard and dry... if it will never be touched, then it's okay... I have used something similar to plasticard, cheaper and just as effective for this task...it is acetate, cut as needed, and even transparent...once placed and painted, there is no noticeable difference, even more so, where it will go (between the fender and the tracks you will not see practically...) Any container of any object can be used because it will have transparent parts that can be cut...better than throwing it away, which would probably be its destiny...lol.

When I see your work bench, I see that you use very similar materials to what I use, I am very struck by the number of brands and products that there are for the same...lol (again)...😅

Good start with the figure, it seems that it will be more than good.

Cheers and TC

Francis.👍

[Maddoxx77]

4 hours ago, Kingsman said:

It was normal practice for the UK to fit 8 "footman loops" on the left side of the turret and another 4 on the left angled rear upper left hull precisely to secure stowage.  In theory I believe the turret loops were for straps for a cam net or rolled canvas.  The US did not do this. The rear lifting rings were commonly used to lash stowage to.

  

 

Did Tamiya say to put the barrel cleaning staves on the rear upper deck?  Never seen a photo of a 75mm Sherman of any type with them stowed there.  Not actually sure where they were stowed on 75mm tanks.  On 76 and 105mm types they were stored externally, but not there.

 

 

Tnx, this is very helpfull. My thought was to cut the backpacks from the side and add them to the back of the hull. I've seen some reference pics were they had there gear hanging from the back altough i must say that i don't recall if it was a brittish or a US version. 

Your pictures tell me that it could be a Brittish version because of the footman loops.

 

Regarding the cleaning rods. Tamiya had nothing to do with that. It was all me, i like them there. I've read a lot about field mods made by the crew and in my head this could be a possibility. 

 

Cheers! 👍👍👍

[Maddoxx77]

3 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

When I see your work bench, I see that you use very similar materials to what I use, I am very struck by the number of brands and products that there are for the same...lol (again)...

Hahahaha nice to hear i'm not the only one. I must say that at the moment i'm leaning towards Ammo mig products. Their Acrylic paints are really good and the weathering oils and enamels are also top of the line. Vallejo and AK i use more for brushpainting ( figures ) but i'm struggeling with using it in my airbrush. 

 

Regarding the filling of the gap above the tracks. I'm not shure if i will need to close it of. I will decide after the initial paintwork. The gap between the hull and the tracks is really small also there are only 2 hatches that will open both having a figure in them so, from above the gap won't be visible at all. 

[Maddoxx77]

After a long day of real life stuff it's nice to spend 2 hours at the work bench. I managed to paint and weather the radio equipement inside the turret. It won't be visible once the segments are put together but it was a good practice run.

 

i think it's not historicly accurate but i like the look. Maybe i'll add a few spots of rust.... just because i can 😁

I'll add a few more details and paint the commanders seat. Also the breach of the main gun needs to be painted. 

Some of the stowage is comming along nicely

 

A few more passes with a very thin acrylic redbrown filter and then some oils to make it look right.

 

I seem to struggle a bit with getting the color of the jacket of the commander right. It looks to pale to me, almost pink, so tomorow i'll look in to that. 

 

That's it for today. I'm enjoying this one. 

 

Cheers guys! 👍👍👍

[glibble]

Nice build!

Despite its inaccuracies this kit is still high on my wish list.

I would do a OOB too! There are just too many intricate details about Shermans that one can get lost in the rabbit hole.😆

[Kingsman]

1 hour ago, glibble said:

Nice build!

Despite its inaccuracies this kit is still high on my wish list.

I would do a OOB too! There are just too many intricate details about Shermans that one can get lost in the rabbit hole.😆

If you really want to do an M4 then there are much better options from Dragon and Asuka.  About twice the price though, at least in the UK, but IMO well worth it.  But sadly all are hard to come by here in the UK.  Relatively limited Commonwealth opportunities but the M4 was the most common 75mm version used by US forces.  We had about 2,100 M4s but several hundred of those were late composite hulls.  The US had about 6,200, again with several hundred composites.  M4A1 was the predominant 75mm type in US service.

 

The 75mm numbers for the UK/Commonwealth were:

M4 = 2,096

M4A1 = 942

M4A2 = 5,041

M4A3 = 7

M4A4 =7,167

 

The 75mm numbers for the US were:

M4 = 6,240

M4A1 = 8,761

M4A2 = 2,630

M4A3 = 4,700 approx

M4A4 = 58

M4A6 = 75

 

Free France got 374 M4A4s directly

while the Soviet Union got 2 M4A4s and 1,990 75mm M4A2s.

[Maddoxx77]

So....scratch building a gogo today. Nothing fancy, just some minor upgrades.

I made a towingcable.  ( the Sherman crew found them and decided they could use it ) I used the spare eyes from the Airfix Tiger and some twisted copper wire.

Then i decided that the grab handle on the driver assistant/machinegunner hatch did not look the part. So i scraped it of, drilled 2 holes and made a new handle from 0,5 mm copper wire. 

looks better now. I still have to do the drivers hatch and the commanders hatch.

Tonight i'll start working on the leather straps for the tools. I think i'll use some masking tape. 

Also i decided to ditch the commander figure. The casting was very poor and i could not achieve the look i wanted. 

i ordered a new resin one since the KV2 figures came out pretty good. 

 

Also the olive drab modulation set came in as did the Miniart workable tracks. 

More updates later tonight.

 

Cheers! 👍👍👍

[Maddoxx77]

Well this is fun! While searching online for some reference photo's i came across this picture.

In the middle there is some sort of rack. When i continued my search i found it on more M4's

So i decided i needed one too. Measured it, made it from a bit of plasticard and voila. ...

I know it's not 100% accurate but hey.... field modification done by the crew 😁

I also did the basecoat again adding highlights and shades. The olive drab modulation set from Ammo mig is really good providing you with 4 different tones from dark to highlight. I really like the result.

 

 

 

 

tomorow i will start with a coat of semi gloss and add the decals. After that some detail painting and some touchups here and there. 

 

I'll keep you guys posted!

Cheers! 👍👍👍

[edjbartos]

Just gone through the thread, It's looking really nice and neat, looking forward to seeing more...

 

Ed

[Maddoxx77]

3 minutes ago, edjbartos said:

Just gone through the thread, It's looking really nice and neat, looking forward to seeing more...

 

Ed

Tnx Ed. As usual i'm doing things in the wrong order ( first baselayer of paint, then decide to scratch build stuff 🤣 ) but i'm really enjoying myself with this one. There might be a little bit more scratch building coming up as i would like to add guide rails to the side of the hull were the fenders would have been. Not shure yet but i saw some reference pictures and i think it ads a little bit more interest. We'll see how it turns out. 

[Bullbasket]

The rack looks like half of a spare track link rack. It's coming along nicely and at a brisk pace.

 

John.

[Maddoxx77]

Some more scratch building. I ditched the idea of the guide rails. I tried to cut it from the spare fenders from the Tiger kit but in the end it didn't work out.

I made little racks to go over the commanders and the machinegunners periscopeblock. 

and i added two periscopes from the spare box to the open hatches of the commander and the driver. 

i shortened the towing cable as it was way too long. 

when all that was finished i cut the gear away from the side of the turret. I sanded the glue marks and stippled the spot with tinned down putty.

After it dried, i sanded it a little bit to match the rest of the turret casting. 

then i sprayed the whole turret again.

Looks good to me.

I sprayed the whole kit with semi varnish and set it aside to fully dry. This afternoon i'll start placing the decals. 

 

I think this weekend i'll open up the Miniart box with the workable tracks.... not looking foreward to it but the Tamiya rubber tracks that came with the kit were crooked in every way and frankly just not usable. 

 

I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers! 👍👍👍

[Maddoxx77]

Decals done, detailpainting baselayer done. This weekend it's time for some oils and the tracks.