Dusty, Dirty Sherman

Well with the completion of most of the details on the tank I got on with the task of making it dirty. Much of the photographic evidence of tank on campaign in Italy shows them appearing very dusty and dirty. I wanted to replicate that look on this vehicle. Starting with the running gear and lower hull I got to work using a three stage process. The first was to make a damp mud mix which consisted of MIG liquid resin and European Earth pigment mixed with plaster dust. This was liberally slapped on to the bottom and sides of the tank, once dry it kept its satin sheen.  

The next stage was to add dried mud on top of the wet mud. For this I took direction from one of Scale Model Medic YouTube tutorial uploads. 

For his stage I used, mixing European Earth pigment and PVA glue and dabbed it on to represent  dried on mud building up on the hull sides  behind the running gear as per the tutorial.  In addition the running gear was given a heavy wash of a European Earth and water. Once this dried I started stripping back the dirt. This is still a work in progress and need a bit  of fine tuning.  

 The next stage involved giving a liberal brushing of Light Sand pigment which was fixed with pigment fixing fluid

 

The final stage so far was to give the upper surfaces a general dusting with the airbrush using Tamiya Buff to represent a dusty coating. 

Well its so far so good, I want to thank the members of the Military Modelling  Forum  for their  advise to date.

I came on in the same old way; I died in the same old way.

The first thing to do is to congratulate Simon on a masterful whipping of my Imperial Romans legions with his Macedonians last night. He played very well and exercised control over the key areas of the table which gave him a deserved 26-2 victory.

While being rattled home on the tube my thoughts turned to the mistakes I made and ultimately, I learned nothing from my loss to his Pyrrhic army earlier in the year.   

 

It all began to go wrong because of my poor deployment.  The key error I made was I spread my force out to thinly. My centre was weak only comprising of two battle groups of Medium Foot giving Simon’s Lancers a tasty target from the offset.

On the right flank my legions were formed up against Simon’s Pike keeping one and other in check. Late in the game with no other option the legions on that flank to charge, and although one battle group had success against Thracian medium foot who stubbornly refused to move for Simon. The other Legion was overwhelmed by the phalanx of pike.  

     

The left flank where the opening exchanges took place was the stalemate of light horse countering each other with a series of wheels and manoeuvres that contestants on “Strictly Come Wargameing” would have been proud of. Nevertheless, all the fancy hoof-work in the world could not correct the miss matches created of light horse against light horse who cancelled each other out and where lost on poor dice roles.

The miss-match of Lancers charging Auxilia, who stood up well, but the outcome was always painfully enviable.

And the disaster that was the right flank where my poor deployment squandered my finest troops forcing me to loose them in an all or nothing charge into ordered pikes in the open. This ultimately leaves the result up to the dice gods, who don’t seem to favour me currently.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If I had to play the game again this evening I would deploy differently. I would attempt to keep my light horse away from Simon’s light horse I would pack my Legions in the centre with archers has rear support I would use the Auxilia to threaten his light horse.  

My Artillery bolt shooters came along for the battle but they decided against fighting, opting to have a picnic on a gentle hill instead!

In closing a note of thanks is due to Gordon, Tamsin and Andy whose help and advise on the rules were invaluable.         

            

Techicolour Sherman

 So here is the next update for the North Irish Horse Sherman with a lick of paint.  

I started with a little pre-shading using  Tamiya Nato Black.

This was followed by a general over spray with Tamiya Olive Drab. Once I was finished I added a little Tamiya Green Yellow to the Olive Drab, about a 30:70 ratio and over sprayed the upper surfaces. 

Enjoy the pictures!

“The Bannerman Way” Addendum #1

When I started this blog back in 2009 I envisaged it as a quick reference source for web pages that I may want to refer back to in the future, a kind of online "Delicious" with a touch of context.  In the subsequent time it has developed in to something more.  Nevertheless, when I examine the traffic statistics for the blog the most popular post by a long strech  is the one entitled  “Mark Bannerman”. It was my second post of April 2009 linking to an number of online articles Bannerman wrote on using oil paints to paint 1/35^th scale heads.

His face painting technique is a real god send for me and raised the level of my head painting skills beyond my natural ability. For this I am eternally to him. So in the interest of  responding to the trend of the Blogger statistics  I felt it would be an opportune moment to remark on a thread which is currently active  the Military Modelling website entitled:  “Painting 1/35 Scale Heads Using Oil Paints:” Attempting"The Bannerman Way”. This thread has been going some and has a great selection of heads by some very talented modellers.

In the meantime here are some examples of my heads painted the “Bannerman Way.”