Update Sherman M4A3 (76mm) Thunderbolt VI - Sept 3/2013

Some incremental updates, biggest one being the painted recognition panel. I still need to weather that to draw out shadows and fading. I also did some tweaking of the chipping, for the spots that were toned down a bit too much by some of the washes. the stowage tarps are still a bit too shiny, so I will have to dull that up a bit too. its not perfect, but I am satisfied with it. I will take these learnings to the next one.

I will probably tweak a few more things, I am enetering this in our IPMS Club show in Oct, but it is time to move on to the M10 Tank Destroyer. Fini.

Aircraft Recognition Panel - I think that's it...

After playing some more with Apoxy Sculpt, using wax paper and flour and an upopened jar of pickles as a rolling pin again, I was able to get a thinner panel. Instead of priming it, I painted the raw Apoxy Sculpt with the Michaels Artists Loft Brilliant Magenta acrylic paint (120ml tube). It took about 4-5 coats, it goes on very thin, but it dries fast, you can paint another coat in less than 30 minutes.

I painted enamel olive drab around the edges to represent the edging of the panel (it has some gromets for line as well). These panels were two sided, with Cerise on one side and White on the other, depending on the Order of the day. There was another panel with Electric Blue and Arc Yellow as well in the kit. (kit in real life, back in the day).

So I made a test one and put it on an old M20 kit I did a few years ago. Today I painted it. I think it looks quite sharp. I built another one now for Thunderbolt VI. Not painted yet.

I just have to thread some string through the bend and tie it on to the lift rings.

Here you go..

Random Updates August 25, 2013

I am just finishing 3 weeks of vacation and got to spend a bit of time with the hobby in between other chores. So before I go back to work..

I was testing a few things and got to practice some painting techniques on some stowage. I put together and painted some US and German jerry cans. I also made myself a little paint chart with colors I have on hand, for when I do paint other stowage items. I would rather go right out of the jar than mix, that way I can repeat much easier when I need to.

I was also trying to figure out how to build an air recognition panel for the back of my WWII AFVs. I tried two methods. One was build with Apoxy Sculpt, the other was to use think aluminum foil. Foil was a none starter, couldn't form it right and paint didn't cover well.

 I used Apoxy Sculpt (2 part apoxy putty) and flattened it as thin as I could with a glass pickle jar -not opened ( I think I can go thinner) and when it dried I painted it. It took a while to find something that I could call Cerise, it is actually Brilliant Magenta. I THINK this is the color they used, but will have to try a few other things yet. This shot is the result of my testing and fooling around.

I made some progress on my M10 Tank Destroyer. I painted the stars where I could and used a decal for the front. I recently bought a jar of chipping fluid and tested that out so that I could use it on this TD. The rear deck gets a lot of wear and tear/scratch traffic, and the side plates get scratches going through the woods. So I decided to chip that since I painted the stars with a Lion Roar stencil. I painted the base color, then sprayed on the chipping fluid, then painted the white (actually light gray) stars. With a Testors brush and some water, I was able to wear away some of the paint. I did better in practice, but with some weathering and other effects, this will look OK.

Shots of chipping practice and the M10. It looks shiny because I Future-d it to put on the front star, the bumps made stenciling improbable, and the bumper codes. I had to make the codes up from a small decal sheet with individual numbers – front and back! It looks mostly lined up J Didn't make up the unit though, 702 TD was attached to 2^nd Armored for the whole European campaign, using M10s up til Jan 45, then they switched to M36 with the 90mm gun.

Not sure why it struck me to dip a Tamiya Willys Jeep in Easy off and start from scratch, but I did it. Who doesn't love a jeep J. This is the third paint job in about 4 years for that particular model. I scrounged through my decal pile to come up with authentic decals for it, and that is where it stands now, and probably will for a while. Next steps would be to paint the details: rear lights, seats, dashboard, etc, then go at the weathering. Should be fun, again!

Lastly my Sherman rear deck stowage came and tonight I painted the base coat. Next up is a coat of future, an overall filter and then some washes/highlights. Still got to put some pigments in the road wheels, and other little touch ups.

And the Sherman Jumbo? Nothing new on that, BUT I wouldn't be surprised to see that get a coat of chipping fluid to build a weathered winter white camouflage, finish all chipped and worn.

That’s enough for now..

More coming, stay tuned.

Update Sherman M4A3 (76mm) Thunderbolt VI - Aug 17/2013

A few minor things to update.
I have added the tow cable and the board across the nose to hold up the Jerry Can and Ration box. I also added pigment with pigment fixer against the lower hulls sides. This stuff drys rock hard and the pigment becomes a permanent part of the model, no mushing or drying up and falling off, even after handling. I will add some pigments to the road wheels as well, and then give it a shot of XF57 Buff overall to blend together. The fixer will allow me to do this. I should have gotten some of that a long time ago.

My Value Gear Sherman Deck accessory is on the way, will add that when it comes (and I paint it).

Some more streaking over the star and Thunderbolt and more storage hanging from the turret.

I also experimented with using Apoxy Sculpt (2 part apoxy putty) to scratch build a recognition panel for the rear, but will have to build a new one when I get my deck piece. OR I can make one out of painted aluminum foil. Will try that too.
This is a fabric panel with the color Cerise, for observation by friendly aircraft. This would have been the WWII version of International Distress Orange. I can make Cerise by mixing Red Blue and White.
This is what it is and where it goes.

Stay tuned....

Update Sherman M4A3 (76mm) Thunderbolt VI - Aug 10/2013

More detail work in this update, seems like the small things take as much time or more than the big things, while hardly noticeable to the average eye :) .

The big thing I have done last night that I have not attempted before is the streaking on the large flat side of a Sherman.

I dabbled with it on the "yellow" Jagdpanther, but taking lessons from Andreas Grewin's fabulous Sherman Jumbo http://modelhobby.eu/2012/10/sherman-m4a3e2-jumbo-king-cobra-completed/ I was able to go further with it by doing almost a whole panel, instead of selective large streaks.

Still a ways to go. I have to put on the big streaks from the overflow of the gas tank refilling cap, and have to do the mud splatters on the running gear, and lower front and back.

No pictures of it, but this morning there are more highlite details with pinwashes around the small details the bogey wheels. I have also cleaned up the tracks a little, adding more mud for consistency where there was little, and I have used my graphite pencil to make the constant contact points of the track/sprocket shiny.

I also toned down the large streaks on the transmission cover, I thought it drew too much attention.

As well,I have a stowage pack for the rear deck coming from Value Gear Models. It looks like this (Manufacturer photo of painted product on an unfinished model).

More to come. Stay tuned ( I am on vacation and getting at this regularly).

Update Sherman M4A3 (76mm) Thunderbolt VI

A little more progress on the weathering. I was not thrilled that the brighter modulation on the upper glacis and the forward part of the top of the turret did not blend as well with the rest of the colours. It stood out too much (bright) for me, so I tried something new, I filtered using Testors Olive Drab enamel on those spots to tone down the light parts and draw it right into the darker parts by lightening those edges slightly with the same olive drab. I think it made a bit of a difference (6 filters over 4 days should!!). Just to be clear, I used the dot filter method, put little dabs of Olive Drab all over the bright spots and then with a wide brush with a bit of thinner on it, worked it until the dots were gone, but made a translucent shift in the tone. The chips underneath remained intact, if a little faded. Still nice though I think.

I also did some washes around the raised parts to highlite/create shadows on them.

Next I need to have a good close look at the overall finish to see if I need to work any more filters to blend.

After that it is going to be some streaking down some of the sides and front, some oil splotchs on the engine deck and maybe the front, then some pigments for mud and splatters.

Maybe some mud pigments fixed on the fenders and deck, tracked up there by the tankers boots. hmm..  yeah.

Stay tuned...

Update M10 Duckbill

This one was primed but had not aired out enough when I painted the other two. My paint strategy is always enamel/Acrylic/Enamel/Acrylic, etcc. but I find the Enamels take a while to dry..

Anyway, that is what I did today. I used the same paint modulation theme as the Shermans.

I still have to add some interior items to the turret like the spare ammo racks. And a fire extinguisher tot he driver hull.
I have a rough plan for stowage on this one, since there was not much room inside to fight and carry the luggage. I will work on that a bit.

Update Sherman M4A3 76mm (Thunderbolt VI)

Did a little bit of work on this one in the past few weeks.

I have the Lion Marc US Army star paint stencil, so I painted the stars on the turret and sponsons as per the photos I had. Yes, they are different sizes, according to the photos, and best estimates of the people at Bison decal, where I got the Thunderbolt VI sheet from.

I also painted the suspension to look dusty/etc. This is the Steve Zaloga method for Sherman suspension and I have used it once before, successfully I think, on my Sherman III (Sherbrooke Fusiliers). Paint the entire suspension Tamiya XF51Khaki Drab, highlight it with XF72 JGSDF Brown, then the most exposed highlights with XF57 Buff. There are pigments to go on that for depth and blending.

After I gave the paint a few days to dry, I Futured the whole thing so that the oil washes will flow (the old capillary action :) ) and to apply the Thunderbolt decals. I applied the decals with the MicroSet/Sol system. I then sprayed the decals again with Future the next day to seal them.

I then applied two washes of Winsor and Newton Yellow Ochre as a filter to the whole vehicle to see how much that would blend. Not much, so I will be doing some Dot Filtering in short order.

I also started to experiment with some chipping to the front of the tank. I usually do this before the filter(s) so that the filters tone those down as well. although talking to Mike from the club (who gets his advice from Adam Wilder), you can do before or after, or you can do chip/filter/wash as many times as you want over each other.

I will see how it goes. I haven't decided what to do next yet.

Here is what it looks like so far....

I will take this one forward before I do anything with the other two I am working on I think.
If anything comes up on this one, I can replicate or fix it on the next one.

However, I did paint the M10 from primer to green.. Stay tuned..