Wednesday 16 October 2013

Sherman Crab Flail Work In Progress

I've been a bit quiet blogging wise of late as I had hit a bit of a wall painting wise and had a visitor last week and a visit to my son last weekend. This week I decided to try and get rolling again, so picked up where I left off with my flail tanks.

These have been a bit challenging so far as I've fretted a lot over how to paint the drum and chains. I've spent a good bit of time trying to find colour pics, but nothing has come up other than other modellers tanks. This has had me dithering a bit as I have had to decide what I want to do with my own models.

One thing that has become obvious is that this tank (the Sherman Crab II) had some form of rear turret bin. While the rear hull bin came with the model, neither of the kits I got from Battlefront had anything for the turret.

I was just going to leave this, but had a spare section of metal sprue handy, so snipped it to shape and fitted it on.


As for the drum and chains (sounds like a band!) I decided that even if it had been painted, regular exposure to exploding mines and the action of the chains and dust on the metal would wear any paint away. I've gone for a coat of black and I will try some light metal colour and see how it looks from there...


Still got the track details to do and then a quick tidy of the models. The one in the picture above had suffered an altitude related accident (if fell off the table) and needed repaired - resulting in some metal showing through. The black patches are just a base before I repaint Russian Uniform green.

6 comments:

  1. Those painting walls are hard to bust through for sure. In the middle of one myself, hence why I've been working on sundry projects like the mud on my vehicles and making low walls terrain pieces for my table. Very exciting. :)

    I really like the idea of painting the tank to show wear and tear though - makes perfect sense. One day when I manage to reduce my painting queue enough to be able to start purchasing toward a new army (Commandos!), I fully intend to include some Sherman Crabs as they do look too cool.

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    1. Thanks Dai, I know myself that wear and tear is something I need to try - most of my vehicles look a bit factory fresh. I'm basing my lack of mud etc on the assumption that these units were fighting during Totalise (August '44). Sunny, warm and dusty. Dust is something else I need to learn to do!

      The crabs are cool looking, however the chain that comes with them is a bit thick - and thinner chain is a bugger to put on!

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  2. Hi Jamie,
    I can see them as being raw metal with some rubbed/shined areas. Maybe an umber wash as a bit of rust and dust? Can't see them being painted green.

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    1. Thanks Paul, thats my thinking as well. Just aware if I go for Gunmetal they will be too shiny - any ideas on a colour to use as raw metal that won't be quite so bling?

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  3. I think if you do a dark wash over the gun metal and apply your chalks/pastels it would look good. What do you think?

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  4. you could just apply the wash and dust over the raw chain? May look even more authentic J?

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