Wednesday 15 February 2023

Sherman Tanks

A few years back I spotted some Flames of War vehicles in the second hand part of the local toy and model shop.  I bought 4 resin M4 Shermans and a resin/metal Sherman Firefly with its upgraded 17 pounder gun.

Shermans

The tanks had all been painted in a basic but effective green drab colour scheme, though this was partly obscured by a layer of dust.  The easiest way to clean them seemed to be a quick wash with some hot water and an old toothbrush (a baby toothbrush, so very soft).  Once in the water, a strange pale residue started to appear all over them, gradually giving the models a cloudy grey-white tint.  I can only assume that they had been covered with some sort of strange varnish, possible even a layer of PVA or Mod-Podge.  I had to give them a fairly hard scrub in the hot water, soapy water to get it off but eventually they all came out undamaged.

Stowage detail

I also ended up with an M10 tank destroyer.  I want to remove the cast-on base because I prefer my vehicles unbased.  It's pretty tough resin so I'm not sure how easy this will be!

M10 tank destroyer

I added a few extra details, painting in the tool handles and some other bits of stowage.  A dab of gold on the shell cases in the M10 turret also helps.

Some internal detail painted

These will be used for both AK-47 Republic and also for my Action Force "Desert Strike" project.  Z-Force liberated several former Dunan army tanks from the Gibli fanatics and used them for their counter-attack.  There was obviously a bit of mis-translation or confusion somewhere, because they are referred to as "Centurions" in the text, but are clearly Shermans in the illustrations!  Ignore the lead Z-Force tank - that's a modified version of the GI Joe MOBAT tank.

Desert Strike!
 These will probably get a full repaint at some point but for now they'll do fine to provide the main punch of an AK-47 Republic army.

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