Tamiya 1/35 Sherman M4A3

[Stuart]

H Guys,

Here's the current situation minus the decals - they obviously decided they didn't want to be on the voyage. Oddly, the turret ones seem okay.



Currently I'm just playing with some citadel washes and Humbrol pigments - I'd like the running gear to be mudded up a bit, but not too much. I might give the hull a wash of my Flory Models grime wash just to mess it up some. As it is on the running gear I'm going to drybrush with some lighter pigments etc. and maybe some more of the base colour.



Cheers!

[keavdog]

Looks good Stuart. Brings back memories...

[Stuart]

Thanks John! You've built this kit before then?

[Stuart]

Okay then - I can totally see why rubber band tracks are disliked.



As you can see, the tracks are far too long, and don't sit down on the return rollers correctly.



There's a far bit of slack!



Hopefully, with some subtle applications of CA glue, I should be able to improve it. I don't really want to have to cut a section out if I can help it.

Cheers!

[keavdog]

Not much of an armor builder myself but I seem to remember folks wiring the tracks down to the return rollers.

[Stuart]

I can see that working if all else fails, thanks for the tip John!

[Stikpusher]

Glue on top of the return roller and skids will cure the floating tracks top run problem.

[Stuart]

Thanks Carlos, that's pretty much what I've done on one side - I share some pic's tomorrow to show how I'm getting on.

Just out of interest. Can you get AM tracks for these Tamiya kits?

[Stikpusher]

Well… Dragon’s indy link AM tracks fit the Tamiya kits. I haven’t tried AFV Club yet, but I suspect that they will. Worst case is with a little needle file work on the sprockets those would fit also. I have some Model Kasten Sherman tracks in my stash, but haven’t tried fitting those to any kits yet.

[Stuart]

Thanks! You'd have thought given how common this kit it, there would be a dedicated set for it. But them maybe it's a case of there's so much else wrong with it, anyone that would replace the tracks would just build another kit anyway, so what's the point.

Progress!

Tracks are now glued in place - not 100% perfect but livable.



And now my AM stars have turned up, I'm redoing the decals using the other ETO option in the box. The AM stars went down well on the hull, but to avoid repeat issues with the Tamiya decals I'm using their Tamiya Decal Adhesive - it seems to work well, the '50' has gone down much better than the other decals from the Tamiya sheet - if you see the star on the turret, it has a lot of silvering around the edge.



Cheers!