First tank suggestions--German or American

Tamiya is a great mfg. for new modelers. Great kits with pretty good detail and most have rubber band tracks. Since you're painting with rattle cans, U.S. AFV's were pretty much olive drab. If you get into the German vehicles, you have many more that use a camo pattern, but there are still many you can make that were Panzer Grey or Dunlegelb (dark yellow). Another consideration would be the Trumpeter KV series of tank. Great kits, rubber tracks, single color patterns, reasonable price.

Good luck!

Please excuse my ignorance here but what is a AFV?

Another question I have is what version of Germanys tanks saw the most action and wich American tanks saw the most action?

The Sherman without a doubt was the most used American tank... As far as the Germans go, that's a little tougher since they made relatively few of any one thing. The Pz IV was the workhorse of the German army along with Stug IIIs. I read somewhere that around the time of the Normandy Invasion the Stug III was the most numerous armored vehicle in the German inventory. 

However, if you're wanting to dabble in German armor I would suggest a Hetzer as your first one. It's very simple to build. Tamiya makes a great one but the DML (DRAGON) kit is also nice. The Tamiya one as simpler tracks to assemble so I'd suggest that one. The more popular TIger's and Panthers are cool no doubt but someone that is just starting out such as yourself could get overwhelmed by the sheer number of parts and the time consuming overlapping suspension.

If you want to build a Sherman and accuracy isn't at the top of your list go with the Tamiya ones. They're much easier to build and have rubber band tracks (nice ones)... The newer and generally more accurate Dragon and Tasca Sherman kits are much more time consuming to build.

AFV, Armored Fighting Vehicle.

I think I'll go with a Sherman as my first build.

Thanks for everyones help with this.

Well now that I think about it is one of the Shermans easier to build than the others?

AFV = Armored Fighting Vehicle

As far as the Shermans....anyone will do, IMO

Rounds Complete!!

STL DALE

Well now that I think about it is one of the Shermans easier to build than the others?

All Sherman kits are not created equal...

The Tamiya ones are fairly straight forward while the Tasca kits have MANY more parts in them. The suspension is a much more complex design than the Tamiya one. Details are molded finer as well which tends complicated them because of more and smaller pieces. 

The Dragon kits fall somewhere in the middle depending on which one it is. If it's one of the latest ones with the DS Vinyl tracks you'd be ok there (such as the Normandy Sherman Kit: 6511) However their earlier ones come with individual tracks which comprise of 3 parts per link. They're tedious if you don't know what you're doing so it's best to avoid them until you're more comfortable.

Could i get some kit numbers on the Tamiya ones?

Thanks.

Yes, the Sherman Early version mentioned below is a great kit. And if accuracy isn't a huge issue so is the older Tamiya M4A3. Both of them suffer from open sponsons that Tamiya is so famous for but for this build I wouldn't worry about that.

The Dragon kit I mentioned above 6511 is a good one as well...

I'm building Tamiya's M4 Sherman Early Production right now. Good kit, goes together very easily (I built 90% of it in 2 hours - nice thing about armor vs. aircraft is not having to be as careful about seams).

Honestly I'd pick any of Tamiya's Sherman kits - they've got a few to choose from - and go from there. Just hit Great Model, Sprue Bros, or Tamiya USA to browse. Look out where you buy them, though. The local Hobby Lobby always has the M4A3 in stock, but they want $60, vs. $30 online.

Thanks to everone for all this help.

I bet all these questions get on your nerves.

I am going to try the 1/35 scale early production Sherman.

I've built the early and it's avery easy kit to build.

As I look around at photos of the Sherman it seems to me that they were more of a gray than a OD.

Any advice on wich spray can color I sould use? 

Hi STL:

Colour depends alot on the campaign;

Europe and Pacific, you will see a lot of OD. North Africa, sand and tan shades.

Often you see photos of Shermans in the field, so they are a grimy weathered lot, and that can translate into grey via photo and printing.

If you can, spring for FSM's "Building and Detailing Realistic Sherman Tanks." -yeah, full disclosure, I get $50 for each one I sell. 

It mentions the use of grey in some Pacific colour schemes. Once you know exactly where and when your type of Sherman served, you can usually find reference photos or built up examples to help you with the colour.

There are quite a few reference books available as well. But I only get a $35 commission for those!

Many a builder spends as much or more time reading/researching than building, history is a huge part of the hobby.

Keep us posted.

For the subjects I would suggest German tanks. The best brand would be Tamiya or Trumpeter

Has anyone painted on the stars and not use the decals?

How would that turn out?

STL DALE

Has anyone painted on the stars and not use the decals?

How would that turn out?

You would need some sort of stencil to spray over.

I have a set of MIG transfers, which is a spendier way of doing them.

As to color, they were not grey.  You can't go wrong with OD green.  Only a few were camo or any other color.  Probably 95% were OD green.