This is a Tamiya 1/48 Sherman with the Cullen device that I built for our ongoing 1/48 Armor Group Build. As I built mainly aircraft and just got into armor, I’ve reposted here to get everyone’s suggestions as to how I can improve my armor modelling. Thanks.
Looks nice. THose 1/48 Tamiya kits are really fun. May I offer one observation? The additional armor on the turret cheek and in front of the drivers’ hoods would have been painted the camo color along with the rest of the tank. These were upgrades made at depots before the vehicles were distributed to the units, where camo paint would have been applied.
HTH
Hey waikong, like the sherman as it is also my fav! Great work!
Roy, thanks for the info. Thats exactly the opposite of what I thought! I didn’t paint them with camo thinking they were field applied afterwards - shows that ‘thinking’ should never replace research.
Hi waikong,
Nice looking work. If you’re looking for comments to help improve your next project, I would say overall the tank is a bit too clean. Perhaps a dusting with some pastel chalks.
Also, the tops of the bogies look as if the seams were not sanded and are clean as well. This appears in the second picture.
Overall I would go [tup][tup]
Joe [:D][:D]
One other thing about armor modelling – you’ll discover that people know about every fitting, knob and weld seam about certain vehicles (like Shermans, Tigers, Panthers, etc.). Lots of good knowledge is out there. Myself, I have a well developed “sherman eye” from climbing over them, staring at them in books and online, and building them constantly. For your next project, once your near the end of construction, post pics and ask for feedback. Kinda like the Fw-190 or P-51 experts out there that can scarily recognize even the smallest iota of inaccuracy. They are legion in AFV modelling circles.
For example, on the Tamiya 1/48 M4, there are some seams and weld beads that can be easily added for a more authentic final representation (if you really want to torture yourself, email me offsite and I can tell you what they are).
There’s something about photographs that can see things that we, as modellers, don’t notice as we construct them. It’s actually a very good dianostic tool, I’ve found. Here are some of mine: http://www.planetarmor.com/blogs/avbench.php?name=988
Good luck and we hope to see more of your stuff!
Interesting comments regarding how ‘dirty’ the tank is, as I noticed that also in the pictures. The actual model actually has a nice coating of weathering powder and looks ‘right’ to my eyes in person, but the pictures looks much cleaner that it actually is. I was tempted to add much more weathering so it shows up more in the pictures, but as this is only my 2nd armor, I’ve decided to give that a try on my next build.
Roy, I looked at some of your builds on your link, awesom builds all around. As for the ‘sherman eye’, its one of the ‘curse’ that as modellers, the more we study something, the more details obessed we get, that’s why my builds are getting slower and slower. But hey, all part of the fun! I have the same comments regarding weld seams as above, I saw some great builds with weld seams, but decided to give that a go on my next try. As I tried scratch building some interior, weathering powders, and light chipping on this one -a fairly new stuff to me for armor.
Much appreciate everyone’s input.
I think your instincts are right on, waikong, about it “looks ‘right’ to my eyes”…you know, I think sometimes that we forget that we’re not really into this hobby for the sake of anyone but our OWN personal satisfaction, in the end, and that trying to correct each and EVERY percieved inadequacy in a kit can ruin the fun of a weekend build. When it starts getting too stressful to relax, it aint a hobby anymore![;)]
I think the Sherman looks great; personally myself, I would fix the paint over the add-on armor, as it IS generally incorrect, but if the finish and weathering beyond that grooved me, I’d say “NEXT?!”