Greetings, FSM Armor forum. I’ve been lurking here for a few months and posting the occasional “atta boy,” but this is the first time I’ve posted any serious content. By way of introduction, here’s my modeling CV.
I built a few armor models in high school, joined the army, went to college, spent several years teaching, and developed other interests. I’ve built the odd kit here and there, but didn’t really get back into armor modeling until last year. Now I’m working on building up my chops so I can build some good looking tanks.
One area I’ve struggled with is working with photo-etch. I picked up this Sherman kit at a local store for only $10. I thought it would be fun to try a “braille scale” tank, and I figure that such tiny parts should help me hone my skills with photo-etched brass.
When I played baseball, one of my favorite hitting exercises was to head down to the driving range, rent a bucket of golf balls, and try to hit them with a broom handle. After that, a baseball and bat seemed so huge I could hardly miss. I figure that working with 1:72 scale photo-etch will prepare me for 1:35 in much the same way.
Although the Tulip looks cool, I’ll be leaving off the rockets and building a straight Mk. V. I’m not a Shermaholic by any means, so please bear with me if I don’t know the names of all the parts. The turret is the spinny thing on top, right? [:^)]
This was a pretty quick part of this build. Each pair of road wheels were one part. The bogie casing had two parts, an outside and inside. The return roller was part of one of the bogie halves. There is a suspension piece inside each bogie assembly that is just visible from the side.
The idler wheel was one solid part. The drive sprockets were each two pieces. I’ve already built them, but to aid in the painting process I won’t attach them until I’ve put down the main coat on the tank and the tracks.
Here I’m preparing to replace the transmission cover towing lug mounts with the photo-etched brass supplied in the kit. The replacement lug mount looked like a butterfly. I folded it over by using the blade of my hobby knife as a bending guide. I included the penny so you can see just how small these parts are!
Here are the photo-etch lug mounts attached to the hull. They have a better scale thickness than the pre-mounted styrene, and the hole in the middle should just be visible when the model is painted.
Here’s the completed lower hull front. The towing lugs hang from their mounts very nicely. You can see some wisps of styrene still on the lugs. I couldn’t figure out a way to carve them off without destroying these very delicate pieces.
If you enlarge the photo, you may be able to see a break in the transmission cover band. The piece broke while I was trying to attach it to the hull. That’s how delicate some of these tiny pieces are.
The hull hatches had four pieces of optional photo-etch. I opted not to replace one styrene assembly because the brass parts were just too tiny for me to work with. I did try.
Here you can see two brass pieces: a double handle to the front and a single handle behind it.
The kit came with headlight guards in plastic or photo-etch. I chose the photo-etch and shaped them on a piece of sprue, which was about the right diameter, then glued them to the hull. The photo-etch parts have a better scale thickness and look pretty sharp.
Here’s the front with all the photo-etch applied. I also filled a couple of gaps in the transmission cover edge. I think I installed the bolted strips incorrectly in the lower hull, leaving no room for them to extend into this piece. For now I’ll fill the gaps and decide if there’s a way to get some strip styrene on there. I’m not happy with this fix so far. Any suggestions?
