Assault gun Sherman

[kerick]

This has the rectangular vents just below the rearmost upper hull plate. The engine exhaust pipes are hidden behind the vents when viewed from the rear. No luck on the internet so far.

[Rick Lowe]

As has been mentioned before here:

http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/

3/4 of the way down the page:

http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/manufacturer/m4a376w/m4a3_76w.html

[Wardukw]

Man if i had kept up with reading these posts i could of told ya what this is  Ken but Rick nailed it very nicely ..this is a part i'm very familiar with as i keep breaking em off cause they don't stay on very well on the high end Sherman kits .

[kerick]

Thanks for the information. That website shows stuff I never imagined!
I had forgotten about that welded on step on the transmission cover. Too late to add much now as I just finished painting it! I used the Vallejo paint and so far, I'm not impressed. It takes much longer to dry than Tamiya and seems "soft" so far. Maybe it will seem sturdier tomorrow. It didn't get along with my airbrush either. Cleanup on the other hand, went well. Live and learn.

[kerick]

Moving on with this project. I spayed the paint a couple of days ago. Not too bad. So far I'm not totally happy with this paint but it will do.





The second bottle of paint appeared to be older and sat on the self too long. The first bottle went on well but the second one had solid pigment in the bottom. I had to stir it with a piece of sprue to try and mix it up again. I put in a BB and shook the crap out of it too. Turns out there were solid bits mixed in the paint that made it through the airbrush and onto the model. Maybe I can make it look like spattered mud or something. Or at least some heavy Sinai dust.







Now to dig out the decals I'm pretty sure I have.

[buzzbomb]

Unified colour looks great ! 

[Rick Lowe]

Coming right along. 

Annoying about the paint, though.

[kerick]

I have much better luck with enamels. Next time I'll use model master paint or equivalent.

[kerick]

Hey it's only been a month I've goofed off on this thing! I've finished the decals tonight and started painting the tracks. I'm going with Israeli markings for around the late 60s. It's the second vehicle of the second platoon of the second company of the second battalion   It's the only way I will remember it. I had to piece together the decals from a Tamiya Isherman sheet and the scraps from the decal bin. Tamiya NATO black seems to work pretty well for the rubber parts of the track. Once it's dry I'll get the rusty paints. I have the Vallejo weathering set which is pretty nice. I'll have some pics when I get more accomplished.

[kerick]

I've finished painting the tracks which turned out pretty good in my humble opinion. I tried some weathering on the hull and suspension while I was at it. I used the wash water from the brushes I was using to paint the tracks. I kept it light for now. I can always add more later. If it's too much it's impossible to remove so, I'll be on the safe side for now. If I have the time, I'll add some desert dust using the soil I have from Saudi Arabia. At least no one can say it's not the right color. So here's a few pics of the progress including the decals. Tomorrow will be a coat of flat to seal the decals and then the fiddly bits.

[Rick Lowe]

 

[Old Wombat]

Nice! 

Paint the inside of the gun housing "gunmetal" & you've got the ability to display it as a (breech-loaded) mortar tank when you want a change from the assault gun version. 

[kerick]

Or like that 165mm demolition gun on the M728 combat engineer vehicle. An interesting idea!

[kerick]

Well, it looks like I've finished something! The second vehicle of the second platoon of the second company of the second battalion. It's the only way I'll remember it. Here's the photo dump.













Not only did the paint give me a last-minute fit but some of the decals rebelled too. The "2" on each side looked like white paint had run under masking tape, even though no tape was involved. I had to scrape what must have been decal film off to fix it. The hull numbers on the front and rear both turned almost completely white. I had extra decals so I was able to replace those. The other decals did not come out as well as I hoped. It's no contest winner but I enjoyed building it.

[buzzbomb]

What a great job.

That works so well. and the finish is really nice