Formations Sherman V DV (M4A4 Direct Vision) |
| By James Wechsler |
| Started: | May 21, 2007 | | Updated: | Jul 14, 2007 |
|
This blog could easily be subtitled ‘the easy way to do well at model contests’. Having just wrapped up a blog using the Tasca Firefly, I couldn’t believe there was anyway to make an even better Sherman. Then I remembered the Formations has now expanded their line to allow a complete ‘Formations’ Sherman minus only a couple of small parts.
So for this blog I’ll be building a Sherman V with direct vision ports as used by the British in the Burma campaign.
The Formations set that I’ll use are:
F067 Direct Vision M4A4 Hull
F080 Early VVSS Suspension
F018 Sherman Pioneer Tools
F050 Sherman Headlights
F003 Early M4 Dry Stowage Turret
F016 M34A1 Mantlet and M3 75mm Gun
In addition, I’ll be using tracks, sprockets and left over photoetch light guards from the Tasca Firefly.
I’ll also include in this blog a few chapters on ground work and a special ‘Burmese transportation vehicle’ for the base.
Up next: The Hull – major assembly
|
|
|
|
| Putting it all together | Jul 14, 2007 |
| Well this is it. The final chapter. Just a few last items. I added a 0.030 cal MG, a stowage tie down rope, and put all of the figures in place. I made a simple dirt road base using a piece of plexiglass and a mix of Fixall (a wall board repair product available in local hardware stores), powdered... more |
| The Tank Crew | Jul 13, 2007 |
Normally I would have covered the tank crew earlier in the blog but it seemed to make sense to first discuss the overall scene so the positions of the crew would be understandable.
The elephant will be off the right rear quarter of the tank. The tank commander is thus turned backward in the turret... more |
| Thank God for National Geographic | Jul 12, 2007 |
I confess, I’m lacking good reference material for the proper painting of an elephant. But once again the internet and specifically the National Geographic website have all the photos one could need.
I painted the elephant in much the same way as I do a tank. It got a base coat of dark gray followed... more |
| Colonel Hathi | Jul 11, 2007 |
| OK, for those of you who do not have children and/or are not big fans of the Disney animated movies, Colonel Hathi was the head elephant in the movie ‘Jungle Book’ which Disney released in 1967 and takes place in India. He was proud to have served in the British Army and is a stereotypical British officer.... more |
| Chicken Wire | Jul 10, 2007 |
When I look at the mesh over the cage on the front of the tank, It appears to be something like simple chicken wire. It’s a rather large opening mesh and as much as I would have liked to use some type of metal mesh, I just couldn’t find something that wasn’t too dense.
So I ended up using tulle,... more |
| The Tracks | Jul 9, 2007 |
| One of the problems of building an all resin kit is that you have to find tracks. This used to be no problem at all when RHPS was around since their link to link tracks are quite nice. But they’re gone and finding their tracks, especially the British style metal chevron sets, is really tough. Were... more |
| Pigments | Jul 8, 2007 |
To compliment the pre-dusting work in the last chapter, I used MIG pigments to complete the dusty look on the tank. I basically used two different processes, one for the lower hull and another for the rest.
For the lower hull I used a large brush and a lot of pigments to really coat the whole tank.... more |
| Pre-dusting: part 2 | Jul 5, 2007 |
This is basically the same process as in the previous chapter on pre-dusting. I used a heavily thinned down mix of Tamiya Buff to add a dusting color to the bottom of the tank. The only real difference is that this time I did it after the washing and drybrushing so the effect is a little more pronounced.
Up... more |
| Stowage | Jul 3, 2007 |
For some reason I completely forgot about the stowage on this build. Usually I’m planning it way in advance and sometime even mounting it to the vehicle before painting.
For this tank I wanted to have a pretty healthy amount of stowage and just as importantly, I wanted stowage with color variation.... more |
| Washes and Streaking | Jul 1, 2007 |
I like to incorporate my washes into an overall filter. I’ve found that for a first filter, Raw Umber oil paints really do the trick. Since I’d done a lot of fading during the paint stages, the wash helps to blend in the colors and actually accentuates the fading a little bit.
To this I added some... more |
| Drybrushing and Detail Painting | Jun 28, 2007 |
| With the pre-dust applied, I now did some overall drybrushing. For dark green colored tanks I’ve come to like Model Master’s Afrika Dunkelgrau as a nice, complimentary color for use in drybrushing. I try not to be very accurate in drybrushing. The idea is to introduce some variety so future weathering... more |
| Pre-dusting | Jun 25, 2007 |
| As I understand the weather in Burma, there’s a monsoon season during which there is a heavy amount of rainfall. Then there is a dry season noted by extreme heat and little rainfall. It is during the dry season that most of the armored operations took place since the roads and fields were not passable... more |
| Markings | Jun 22, 2007 |
Coming up with the markings for this tank is tough. There simply aren’t that many shots of the tanks and hardly more than a couple of any one tank. So the markings I’ve used are probably more of a mish-mash and represent those in general use and not any one tank.
But there are several items worthy... more |
| Painting | Jun 21, 2007 |
I started the painting process by painting the entire model in Model Master Flat Black enamel. This makes a good base coat from which I can then move on to panel fade in the colors of the tank.
With this base coat applied, I used Model Master Green Drab to panel fade the whole model. Then I followed... more |
| Rework | Jun 19, 2007 |
| I was doing a final look over prior to painting and no matter how I looked at it, I just felt the front add-on framing didn’t look right. After staring at it and the photos, I decided I had a few problems. The first was that the inner brackets are mounted too low down the transmission cover. As a... more |
| The Idlers | Jun 16, 2007 |
| Formations idlers are designed to be mounted to a small cam which then allows them to swing once mounted to the idler mounts on the hull. This is a great feature (now offered on the latest Dragon and Tasca kits as well) in that it makes it easy to take up the slack in the tracks and get the correct... more |
| The Suspension | Jun 13, 2007 |
| Well it’s been a long time coming but Formations has finally started making complete Sherman suspension sets. Their first was the M3 Less style with the return roller mounted above the spring housing. Now they’ve released an early M4 style suspension with the initial configuration of the rear mounted... more |
| The Turret – Small Parts | Jun 10, 2007 |
Since I didn’t actually buy the turret set, I had to scrounge around to find the rest of the turret parts. It seems that all of the Shermans sent to Burma had the M34A1 Mantlet and M3 75mm Gun and I had Formations set F016 (which is the M34A1 Mantlet and M3 75mm Gun) so that wasn’t an issue.
I found... more |
| The Turret – A change in plans | Jun 7, 2007 |
| Well I had planned to use Formations set F003 Early M4 Dry Stowage Turret for this build since it’s the correct turret and a really easy to use set. But then I realized that I still had a left over turret from the Pakistani Sherman blog (http://www.track-link.net/blogs/55) I did last year and I just... more |
| The Hull – Stowage Bins | Jun 4, 2007 |
A number of the Shermans in Burma had one or two stowage bins on the rear deck. These seem unique to the Burma theatre and I can only guess that they were custom made in the local depots. I chose to replicate two bins, one on the left side of the hull and another on the rear deck.
Detail photos... more |
| The Hull – Pioneer Tools | Jun 1, 2007 |
| The hull set doesn’t come with tools but there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to use Formations’ set F018 Sherman Pioneer Tools. I’ve used these many times and they look great and are easy to use. Since they come with the brackets and straps molded on, all you really have to do is to cut... more |
| The Hull – The original non-stick surface | May 29, 2007 |
Many of the Shermans in Burma had a frame structure built on the front glacis (and sometimes the rear deck too) that had chicken wire attached to it. The reported purpose was to prevent Japanese ‘sticky bombs’ from adhering to the sloped surfaces and exploding.
Creating this turned out to be a bit... more |
| The Hull – Exhaust Deflector | May 26, 2007 |
| The Shermans in Burma seem to have all carried the rear exhaust deflector. This can also been seen on European Sherman Vs but its pretty rare. I’m not sure if the conditions warranted this or if this deflector is what remains of the deep wading gear which was used on the Sherman Vs in Burma when they... more |
| The Hull – small parts | May 24, 2007 |
The Formations set is pretty complete for the small parts that get added to the hull. Things like the lifting rings, rear exhausts, tow cable brackets, etc are all nicely rendered and require little more that removing the pour block and attaching.
However, it seems that this set was intended as a... more |
| The Hull – Major Assembly | May 21, 2007 |
Formations set F067 Direct Vision M4A4 Hull is a complete hull set so no donor kit is required. The fit of the lower rear hull to the lower hull is good but you must first cut away some of the pour block on the lower rear hull.
The fit of the upper rear hull to the upper hull has an unusual problem.... more |
