The largely assembled sherman got some cast texture on the turret and transmission-cover, as well as the beautifully detailed OKB tracks. They were a bit fiddly around the sprockets, though a heat-gun helped to form them. The problematic joint on the lower part of the tracks will be hidden in the mud and grass later. You can also see the fixed figure (left)
I handsculpted the sandbags on the tank´s front plate. Stowage will also be placed elsewhere. The cardboard and styrofoam pile symbolizes the position of the bunker/dug in tank
The main terrainforms are being worked on after framing the EXP-foam block with some thin wood. The bunker face was made with carving foam (balsafoam) and some volume was given to the sloped by using packaging styrofoam. This formed the basis for the terrain sculpting using white air drying clay.
The tank (it has rear deck stowage now) was placed on the base during the sculptin process to make sure it sits nicely with the terrain. Rocks were cast from plaster in some aluminium foil and pushed in the steeper parts of the slope. They are being (hopefully) held in place by PVA
There are no tire/track-marks in front of the tank, as I imagine it guarding the engineers clearing a way trough some major fortifications, thus it is feasible to maybe put some not yet removed barbed wire in place in front of the tank.
The result of this session: the frame has been cut and sanded to conform to the shape of the terrain. Rocks are also in place, so I can start with the acrylic textures when the clay is dry. This foundation allows me to use thin layers of texture which should speed up the drying. The bunker will be textured with some concrete paste and maybe will recieve some more shell impacts
Texturing has been done using several acrylic pastes from Ammo and AK. The concrete one was clearly designed for 1/35 hudging from the rather heavy texture 🙂 The framing has also been properly adjusted to fit the terrain.
In those closeups, the individual layers are still visible. Anyway, with a little more contrast and some final details, they might look rather nice when placed in the diorama
Some chipping was added using a sponge and then refined with some brushwork. Note, that even though I added the decals over a gloss coat, I still got silvering... I still have to figure out why that happened :/
I painted up the grass and the ground with my airbrush using different Tamiya paints. Also, the bunker face has recieved a basecoat, which I will however refine with brushpainting. Individual stones and rocks also remain to be painted.
The Sherman has been weathered using different earth and mud-enamels mixed together in three shades; a lighter one as a base and two darker layers to add variety and the look of fresher mud
Another (better) shot of the rear plate of the tank. It clearly shows the caked mud and earth as well as the polished parts of the tracks (there wer no rubber pads on those particular tracks). Along the center of the tracks, some wet mud has been represented by mixing enamel wet effects with a dark mud colour.
The frame has been painte black after I used the mud colours found on the tank to give some more variation to the ground. Stones and the bunker have also been painted. The bunker recieved a treatment with rust enamels on the metal parts of the firing port. I will maybe add some vines and grime to the bunker to really make it look like a somewhat older emplacement. Additional vegetation is also in the pipeline to be added for a further refined look.
My diorama "Trough the Westwall" will be my first try at 3D printing miniatures and possibly building a bunker. The main element will be Trumpeter´s 1/72 M4A3E8 Sherman with some nice OKB resin tracks and a mix of aftermarket, 3d printed and sculpted stowage/sandbags. Because it was my first try at resin tracks, I did not do a perfect job at fitting them and I already fixed them to the vehicle, so I have to paint the assembled model.
The overall scene will be set somewhere in early 1945 with the vehicle crawling trough some rather wet and muddy ground along an abandoned bunker or tank turret emplacement... I still have to figure out which option I will take, although I have a spare Italeri Panzer IV-turret lying around...
The figures are from .stl-files bought from CGTrader then resized, supported and printed by myself using my Photon Mono 3D printer. The first two figures came out rather nicely even though being designed for 1/25 originally 🙂 There only was a little missprint on the head of one of the GIs, so I had to resculpt a bit with Milliput.
Milliput was also used to sculpt some questionable looking sandbags on the tank. Further stowage is also being printed.
As for the terrain I decided for a destroyed bunker embedded in a slope with the tank driving in front of it. The terrain has been sculpted onto the foam using air drying clay that has been fixed with woodglue, textures will be made with acrylic pastes from AMMO/AK.
I also used my new static grass applicator to put on some grass that I will paint together with the ground. Other vegetation willl be added afterwards.
