Wow, go out of town for a couple of days and things take off here!

RBaer: Fantastic job!  I really like your base and the figure really shows off the size of that beast

Ghostrider:  Looks great!  I can't wait to see how you weather it up and then the whitewash.

Dan:  Great finish!  Subtle weathering makes it look like it just arrived in theater.

I'm still plugging away on my Hellcat.  I was able to get the decals on last week.  Those were the most stubborn decals I've ever used.  Multiple applications of Solvaset didn't make even make a dent.  Hopefully tonight I'll get a chance to do a pin wash and get it sealed.  Then I'll start weathering.  It'll be tough to get this done by the deadline, but I'm not giving up yet

ok, got all the stuff on the glacis and the turret top done, moving to the tools on the rear deck next.

Thanks, Bob.

Ghostrider, the Sherman's looking good.

Dan: She really looks good! Nice lineup there.

Ghostrider: Very cool! Always great to get the 'fiddly bits' like the lights and siren protective frames out of the way.

thanks,

I got all the tools and stuff on the back deck, they aren't glued down yet, since I'll probably have to take them off for the whitewashing, now I'm working on the tow cable and brackets for it, which should be the last bit I need to assemble on the tank itself.

got the tow cable on, one last pic before I get this thing dirty:

Very cool Ghostrider!

Well, I've got it weathered.  It's my first real attempt at a wash, so I might have gone a little heavy, but damn, at least in person it looks like it jumped out of one of those WWII documentaries.

I'll start the winter camo in the morning.

I think the weathering looks pretty good to me.  What did you use for it?  I'm trying to replicate Karl's acrylic craft paint weathering he did on his Vorpanzer in the Armor Forum, but I'm not having a whole lot of luck with it.

Looks pretty good to me, just like a Sherman that's recently driven though a muddy field.

the wash is MM Enamel Burnt Umber, very heavily thinned, for the mud I used Mig pigments European Dust.

Looks good to me to. I do like those MiG pigments.

I used raw umber for a pin wash, I didn't go too heavy with it.  I think if I can't make the acrylic paint weathering work I'll take a trip to the store and pick up a Tamiya weathering set to dust the Hellcat up.  I'll get some pictures posted of where I'm currently at tonight.

Well, I hurt my ankle at work today, and as a result I'm unable to walk downstairs to my workbench. Hopefully tomorrow or the next day.  I also won't make the deadline because of this.  I'll keep working on it when I can get back downstairs and be done as soon as I can.

that sucks, I hope you feel better.

I got the whitewash on, and added some more dirt.

Bob: Yeah hope you're feeling better soon. You're not the only one here, I mowed the lawn the other day and ended up with my sinuses so congested I didn't get anything done for a few days there.

Ghostrider: I really like what you've got going there. Sometimes I see whitewash that's just too perfect- seems much of it was applied in buckets dumped over the vehicle and spread around with a broom.  What you've got looks great!  

My Sherman is done barring anything going wrong. I think I'm down to applying a matte coat to the two figures I'm putting on the tank. No idea when I'll have the dio done but I should have photos of the tank herself up this evening or tomorrow to beat the deadline.

ok, so that leaves the commander figure and some gear to pile on and I'll be done, just in time for VE day tomorrow.

Update:

Painted the commander figure:

Of course, after I got him painted up nice, I installed him in the turret and realized that you can only see the top of his head.

I was going to do more figures, but then I realized, it's December 1944, somewhere in the middle of Belgium, the rest of the crew probably want to stay buttoned up and warm inside the tank.  That's probably one of the reasons why the commander is just barely sticking his head out.

That reminds me, I need to repaint the vision blocks on the commander's cupola.

Hey Ghostrider, still lookin' good!

Ok, so the figures still need a little work and there seems to be dust on the thing in the photos ( I swear you can wash something off around here and two hours later it will be covered in dust again) but essentially she is done...

PS: Yeah I know considering the hull mounted .50 cal MG and the coaxial turret mounted MG there's not much point of the guy riding on the back firing the AA MG but hey I thought he looked cool back there and it's artistic license!!!

Nice jumbo there, where'd you get the K-ration boxes?

So, I noticed something funny in the instructions for my M4, they tell you to make 8 of each .30 and .50 ammo cans, but the stowage diagram only uses 3 of each.

Hey Ghostrider- thanks!

Guess you can always use extra ammo cans tossed on her somewhere.

I don't remember where I got the ration boxes, they are Tamiya- I think they were from one of the accessory kits but I don't remember which one. The large box is actually a British ration box, I figured they might have met up with some British troops and swapped rations for a change of pace- heck it sounded good to me....

Looking really good guys!  Gamera, if Clint Eastwood can man the .50 in Kelly's Heroes, then he can too

Despite my ankle still hurting a bit, I couldn't keep myself away from the bench.  I attached the tow cable and I'm ready to attach some stowage.  I'm assuming things like fuel and ammo cans would have to be tied down, what would the troops have used?  The pictures on the box show some kind of strap that I could  make out of masking tape, but I see you've got some rope on yours Gamera.  Which would be more likely?  

I also don't think I'll be able to really get Karl's acrylic craft paint weathering down, so I'm going to go and pick up a Tamiya weathering set tomorrow.  From what I've been able to gather, they look good and are easy to apply.  Here's where I'm at so far:

As you can see, I've got some silvering with the decals.  I just couldn't make them cooperate.  And here's a pic of the .50.  I didn't like the kit part, so I grabbed one out of my Academy US Weapons Set.

Lol, thanks Bob- maybe I'll name him Sergeant Kelly!

I think US crews used pretty much whatever they had available to tie stuff down- cable like I used, canvas straps like you referred to,  I think they often just grabbed whatever they had.

Gamera

Hey Ghostrider- thanks!

Guess you can always use extra ammo cans tossed on her somewhere.

I don't remember where I got the ration boxes, they are Tamiya- I think they were from one of the accessory kits but I don't remember which one. The large box is actually a British ration box, I figured they might have met up with some British troops and swapped rations for a change of pace- heck it sounded good to me....

hey, I was taking a closer look at your ration boxes, and actually it looks like you're tank crew has been doing a bit more then trading with friendly units, there might have been some time travel involved.  Those US ration boxes you've got are 80s-90s era MRE boxes, not WWII K-ration boxes.

REALLY!?! Oh gawd- I think they were from a modern weapons set- KRAP guess I need to pull those off and find some other ones...

yeah, I've used that same set, I thought they looked familiar.

good thing we caught them now.

Believe me, I've missed much more embarrassing stuff on models that's been caught in threads just like this.

Edit:

It's midnight May 8th 2015, and I'm done.

I give you: Tamiya M4A3(105) Sherman, H Company, 69th Tank Bttn., 6th Armored Div., December 1944, Ardennes in 1:35 scale

Gunner! Traverse Left!  Target sighted.

And from the right:

She looks awesome Ghostrider!

Only nitpick I might have is the storage over the air intakes though?

I don't know, that's where the diagram in the instructions said to stack everything.  None of it is glued down though, so I could always rearrange it.

Gamera, nice work there. I know what you mean about dust showing up in photo's, I just hate that.

Ghost, Verlinden does a range of cardboard box's which are rather nice and I think a few other company's do them as well.

Sherman's all over the place. Nice work Ghost, i'll get those build added to the list soon.

Ok guys, the GB is now officially closed. I would like to thank you all for taking part and helping to commemorate the end of WW2 in Europe.

Of course, please feel free to finish up your builds and keep posting the pics here, looking forward to seeing yours wrapped up Bob, that's a nice looking build.

Thanks again guys, and thanks for all the words and thoughts for Eagle.