Sherman M4A3 76 Free French

[Panzermechaniker]

Thanks for the compliments guys and this Taigen is one superb base for a build. I don't like to have shiny tanks but I will leave this one in it's straight off the dealers lot form for a couple of days because driving it is so much fun while stuck inside during this cold snap. The cast texturing on the transmission cover and front of the upper hull one piece around the hatches was done with Mr. Dissolved Putty. I love this stuff. Expensive but what pretty cheap for the remnants of a $12 bottle that I have used on several tanks already when this Sherman build is pushing $1500. The turret is a different story. I wanted to tone down the Taigen casting in the metal as I think it is too pronounced. I tried using Tamiya Surfacer 500 but it did nothing. I could have I suppose puttied the whole thing and sanded it down but again I used the dissolved putty. It worked it's just the phone pictures still really pick out the Taigen cast texture but to real eyes it is much more subdued. The next big thing was the huge gap and seam that Taigen has between their smooth plastic lower turret piece and the chinesium textured upper. On that I filled the seam and smeared the excess with Tamiya Basic Putty. Looking at the pictures of real Sherman turret castings I was amazed how almost Russian rough it was with large grinding areas. That surprised me but also made things easier. The lower part of the smooth plastic was again textured with the dissolved putty. Once the tank has been covered with matte and a lot weathering pastels the weird Taigen texture will mostly disappear.

Mike the casting numbers are done with the still available Archer raised surface details decal set. They look great but tbh once you get into the very small stuff they sort of disappear so I concentrated more on the larger hull and turret numbers. It really does make a nice improvement. I still have lots left on the sheet

https://www.archertransfers.com/product ... eq=uniform

I also can't say enough about how fantastic the Clark TK-50S M4A3 version plus the turret servos makes this tank drive,function and sound. The low speed control and sound is amazing and the sheer weight of this tank just makes it run at real speed. Without question my best running tank and the quality is top notch. I now know why Erik when he worked at IMEX said this was Taigen's best

[HERMAN BIX]

Even I like this one.................
Spray a waft of hairspray over it before you run it in the dust mate, that will get it looking the way you want it !

[Meter rat]

Panzermechaniker. Thank you for posting this build. Between yourself, Mr Chef, and his Stug build, Painless’s builds, and Mr Bix’s builds, I am getting very tempted to try something different.
Your methodical approach to detailing always inspires.

[Panzermechaniker]

Panzermechaniker. Thank you for posting this build. Between yourself, Mr Chef, and his Stug build, Painless’s builds, and Mr Bix’s builds, I am getting very tempted to try something different.
Your methodical approach to detailing always inspires.

Beware of going down the Sherman rabbit hole. It is truly insane how many variants within variants within variants you could build. Absolutely fascinating though for me who used to be a Shermanophobe.

[Panzermechaniker]

Even I like this one.................
Spray a waft of hairspray over it before you run it in the dust mate, that will get it looking the way you want it !

It's funny my T-34 and KVs pick up the most realistic dust deposits just running around the field whereas the panzers stay totally dust free so will be interesting to see if the Sherman picks up dirt the same way. Going to be awhile until we see dust unfortunately

This is outside my door now

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[Stormbringer]

Now thats snow