Sherman M4A3 105mm HVSS ** Finished!! Pics on pg. 6 - 12/06/08 **

Found a better picture of the gunners periscope and noticed that it was placed farther in and lower, in the armored cover so I repositioned it. I also made the tubes for the headlight socket covers with the chains.

I've also started to work on the stash and the Browning .030.

Some pics...

The Periscope...

The covers...

 

The stash I'm planning to add...

The Browning parts...

Later... :)

dette er Norsk kvalitet!

Ser kjempebra ut!

Phew!

The Browning finally done!

32 parts in all on this one was a challenge itself to get togheter, quite a bit of soldering I tell you  8O , but I'm quite happy with the result if I may say so.

It'll be exiting to get some paint on this one too. The ammo belt is just put down in the box for "illustrational purposes only". I gave it a coat of white glue for some volume, but I'll recon I'll give a coat or two more before painting.

Here's some pics from all angles and more... 

WOW, that looks great. I'm awed by the .50 cal and all its parts. One thing that I might suggest is replace the .50 ammo that you have there with something different. The PE sort of looks 2 dimensional.

Keep it up,

David

You must have eyes like a hawk and the smallest hands ever i could never do that

Outstanding PE work. I think I would go blind doing all those small PE parts Looks fantastic. Can't wait to see it painted.

Rounds Complete!!

Checking refs isn't always a good thing when you want to finish a model in a timely fashion.
I'm officially not certifyable anymore, I'm adding casting numbers!

Dragon was kind enough to include some of the numbers molded to the kit, but a ref check revealed that more of them was needed. 

Here's some of the numbers I've added so far, and according to my refs there will be more.  But, detailing kits are fun...

I front of the gun shield...

On the turret top...

WOW you've got some amazing PE going on there! the browning is sweeeet this is going to look sooooo good when it's painted!

Thanx for the kind words on my PE work guys! Highly appreciated!

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Here's the last addition of casting numbers on the inside of the drivers hatch. I copied these from a ref pic.

Now I GOTTA get down to painting this thing soon!

The original...
  

@Hellcat man: Thanx!

The fun has slowly begun...I'm painting tracks!  | |)

Airbrushed a coat of Panzer Aces Track Primer...

Masked of the outsides and the guide horns...

Airbrushed a coat of Panzer Aces Dark Rubber...

Then a couple of washes with Abteilung 502 Light Rust Brown. I added some Light Rust pigments to the last wash too...
The outside

and the inside...

I also used some MIG Black Smoke pigments on the rubber portion of the track to get a bit more greyish black color to it, and also to simulate wear.
Some drying time is needed for this, and the next step will be some dry brushing and some graphite I guess...well, we'll see.

Waddaya think?  m:-)
 

wbill76: Thanx! Highly appreciated!

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Recon I'll call the tracks done at this point. Some extra weathering will be done when I mount them on the vehicle I guess.

Made a mix of MIG Europe Dust, Light Dust og Brick Dust and applied it with an old brush and worked it into the tracks.
I then drew a soft bristeled wide brush over the tracks in one direction to simulate "movement".
Then I used an ordinary HB pencil and some MIG Gun Metal pigments to get the metallic sheen on the outside and on the horns.

Here's the result...

The outside...

The inside...

And now I hear the preshade color XF61 call my name!   
This is gonna be fun...I think

Your build is awesome, great WIP thread.  I normally build WWI Iplanes; its' been awhile since I did an armor piece.  But I have a couple Shermans, a King Tiger and a T-34 on my shelf and after viewing your build thread I might be due for another armor build.   

Keep posting and thanks for the WIP stuff.

Steve

Those tracks are absolutely unreal. But they sure look real! You need a certain amount of in this hobby and you definitely have it. Great work!

                                                                                                        DISASTERMASTER 

@kielers: Thanx for the kind words on my build! Glad you like my WIP thread.

@disastermaster: Thanx for the cudos on my tracks, highly appreciated! It means a lot coming from a modeler of your standards.

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Got started with the stowage the other night. I think stowage kinda belongs on a Sherman, but I bet it's gonna be a pain to paint and weather.
Made a cover for the luggage and a camo net just to get something else back there other than back packs, sleeping bags and fuel cans. Just need to tie the stuff up with some rope.

So waddaya think, does this look ok?

 Hello Stampede,

 That is seriously radical PE work. I would have had to buy three sets just to cover the ones that got away and would have been cross eyed for several weeks. I love what you did with the Mr. Surfacer and the texture too. That truely is a beautiful work. 

 Those are some nice pics, great detail shots. Thanks for posting! And Keep Posting!

 Best Regards,

Very nice work on the tracks

On the stowage...having all the "stuff" piled on the back is fine butttttttt, think in real terms as you pile it and secure it. If the tank was to piviot would that "stuff" stay secured. How would the crew secure that pile so over bumps and thru turns they would have half a chance to not loose it!!

Rounds Complete!!

@redleg12: Glad you like the tracks, quite satisfied myself too,

I know about the securing of the stowage, that's next in line as I wrote in my earlier post.
Hopefully I will get everything secured and safe, guess I'll find out if I've done a good job by turning the tank upside down.

Ditto what Redleg said on the stowage......

Question for ya: Are those the kit tracks, and if so, are they the "DS" type? If not, how did you shrink the real thing to 1/35?

  Erik what a great job you've done I hope my E8 is just half as good as this baby.

   Careful you dont hurt yourself picking this bad boy up 

@RBaer: He he, thanx for the shrink the real tracks comment. The tracks are just the kit DS type.

@panzerguy: Thanx for the nice comment, I recon your E8 will be as good as this.

@doc-hm3: Thanx for the nice comments, Doc! The trick on working with PE is just patience and a good set of tweezers and PE folding tool I guess, but it helps with some "power-words" and some in a nearby wall from time to time too... The casting numbers was a fun but tedious thing to do, but I think it was worth the effort.

@Bodge: Thank you very much, Bodge! Some of the finest work on here, well, I thank you for that comment but I feel I still got a long way to go. Tuition is no problem, but I don think the builds I've seen on here done by you require that much tuition.

Stay tuned...

I've slowly started on the painting process.
Here's a couple of shots of the Sherman so far, nothing fancy yet. Just the Tamiya Surface Primer and a preshade coat of Tamiya XF-61 Dark Green. I've applied the dark green to get a nice dark base for the shadowed areas of the vehicle. I will subsequently lighten and fade this base color.  First step is to spray the OD from above to get it to blend in with the Dark Green in the lower areas of the vehicle, I hope. 
Well anyways, that's next, here's some pics...

The surface primer...

The XF-61 Dark Green

Hopefully more coats of paint will follow with success...

...and one more thing, remind me the next time I'm building a Sherman to hold back on mounting the suspension until after painting the first base coat! What a p.i.t.a to get inside all those nooks and crannies!

Later...