Yes I really do have the breaking strain of a damp kitkat! After popping into my local hobby shop today I managed somehow to come away with yet another kit, don't know how that happened!
I've been looking at the new Tamiya SU-76M for a while and liked the look of it. Also the inclusion of three figures in action poses made me think of a Berlin dio. A quick look in the box reveals yet another quality model with superb detail and sensible construction steps. It also looks to be another simple kit to build. So watch out for this one sometime this year! LOL.
Thanks to a usual wet bank holiday weekend here in the UK I've almost finished off the Sherman. The model received a couple of filters using Mig neutral filter then a dark pin wash mixed up from oil paints. After that some oil dot fading finished up the weathering adding some nice streaks and stains. Once the mat varnish was on and had dried for a day final assembly could commence, here all the lights and periscope lenses were added. Pigments have been added sparingly as I want a slightly cleaner look for this model. Just a little bit more work on the pigments and adding some fuel spills needs to be done I think. Again this will be placed on a small simple base with a suitable figure from Alpine miniatures (which is on the way).
The sherman has now had some subtle chipping added using vallejo german camo black brown. I used some fine sponge and a small brush. A couple more areas need detail painting then I can start adding washes, filters & some oil fading.
After a nice gloss coat the decals, such as they are, went on the model over the weekend. The blacked out stars on the turret look particularly nice. Next up will be some very light chipping I think.
More work on the Sherman now and I've been getting stuck into the detail painting. Just the fuel cans and bucket to finish off before a coat of gloss varnish ready for the decals and chipping later on.
It's nice to get this far so quickly for a change and I'm really enjoying this build. It's also another milestone here on the blog with 600 posts in the eight years since I started blogging my modelling journey, and I'm glad to say I still enjoy the process of sharing with you all.
After an almost all day session spraying the Sherman is now in it's nice new coat of paint. I used Gunze H52 olive drab No1 with a good slug of Tamiya XF4 yellow green as a base colour. This was then thinned and more XF4 was added gradually to add some highlights. Finally a drop of white was added and this was sprayed selectively over the model to add yet more highlights. The wheels got a coat of Tamiya XF85 rubber black then using the quickwheel mask which was supplied in this particular boxing the centres of the wheels were sprayed with the olive drab. It's the first time I've used these particular masks and it worked extremely well being quick and simple to use.
The model has now received its primer coat and again I'm trying something new.This time it's a new primer from Badger airbrush called Stynylrez, bit of a strange name I know but this new primer is a water based acrylic polyurethane. It's a spray straight from the bottle primer and is also self leveling. You can get it in different colours such as black & white but here I've used the grey version. After a good shake of the bottle it sprayed beautifully through the airbrush and after just a couple of light coats gave a really good coverage and even distribution of the primer over the model. Drying time is also impressive with the instructions stating that you can paint over it after just 8 minutes.
The initial results are impressive, far better than all the other primers currently sitting on my paint rack. I bought mine from Scale model shop who are the UK distributors for it. I was so impressed I decided to prime my secret Chieftain project with it and again it went on extremely well and easily. Here's a sneaky picture!
I've been cracking on with the Sherman over the last couple of days and have now completed the construction phase of the project. It's been a real pleasure to build and very relaxing too. As you can see very little in the way of improvements have been made with only the odd bolt here and there and new handles for the hatches and engine deck added. I did use a brass antenna base though but only because I mucked up drilling out the plastic version! The stowage is just some tamiya fuel cans, a resin box and a nice value gear tarp which fits perfectly on the back deck. Finally some lead foil was used to add straps to the tools. I'm now thinking about crew and whether I just use the kit supplied figure or get either some resin figures or use the new tamiya tank crew set.
The model is now taking shape in the usual swift and easy tamiya manner. The running gear is now all completed and looks very good. One tip is to leave the rear idler mounts loose and not glue them as per instructions. If you do the tracks will be too loose. I test fitted all the wheels and tracks then adjusted the idlers for a nice tight run of track then glued them in place. The upper and lower sections of the hull just push into place and really don't need glue the fits that good.
