Jakko’s 1:35 Sherman Crab Mk. I — seeing double?

[Guest]

For the markings, I need to mix and match things to come up with all I need. The main two problems are the number 5 on the sides of the turret of the monument tank and the star on the derelict tank’s engine deck. The former is distinctive enough in shape that I couldn’t use an existing number, so I made a stencil by tracing over a photo of the real thing in Adobe Illustrator and sizing it to fit the model. Though I could have used a decal for the latter, I decided to spray it too to avoid the edges and possible silvering of the decal. For that, I created another stencil in Illustrator, but the ring around it would be difficult because it was probably continuous. To solve that, I made two stencils: a star with an interrupted circle plus only the interrupted circle. The idea was then to spray the star first, and then remove the stencil and replace it by the circle stencil to fill in the gaps. I also had to put some thin strips of tape across the 5 to get it to lie flat enough on the turret. Here they all are:

[ATTACH]382435[/ATTACH]

After spraying the star:

[ATTACH]382436[/ATTACH]

Next, I put the other template on and sprayed again. Here already painted, because I forgot to take a photo before:

[ATTACH]382437[/ATTACH]

And with the second template removed:

[ATTACH]382438[/ATTACH]

That didn’t really go as well as intended I didn’t line up the two templates properly and you can still see the gaps because the paint coverage depends on the number of layers. Also, I misjudged the amount of overspray, so there are two white spots on the sides of the engine deck.

Here is the other tank, where it went a bit better because of course I only had the one template to contend with:

[ATTACH]382439[/ATTACH]

I then touched things up, first by spraying some green over the white patches and then by hand-painting the gaps with more white:

[ATTACH]382441[/ATTACH]

The main lesson learned is that if I want to spray a star with circle again, I’ll cut a template for the full circle and the star out of tape or masking film so I can stick it down properly.

As I had the airbrush out anyway, I also sprayed the derelict tank’s tracks with Italeri Flat Rubber:

[ATTACH]382440[/ATTACH]

I did one of them in one piece, but that was just awkward so I split the other one more or less in half so the two pieces would fit into my paint booth with room to spare.

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
The five and the star look far better using your stencils than decals would. I am certain that a bit of weathering will tone down the white.
Stay safe
Jim

[Guest]

I think so too — the derelict tank need enough weathering that I’ll be able to use it to mask the overspray and to make it less obvious that some of the bits were filled in by hand. The monument tank also needs fairly extensive chipping on the numbers, which will go a long way to making them look better. Now I just need to do the other markings with a combination of decals, dry transfers and hand painting.

[scottie3158]

Jakko, All coming together very nicely

[Graeme C.]

It's getting there Jakko.:thumb2:

[Guest]

Thanks There’s a saying in Dutch, “the last leads weigh the most” — that is, the last part is the hardest. This is one of those models that feels like that a bit …

By now I’ve got the markings mostly but not completely done, so I’m not posting those yet, but I did finish the tracks and put them on today:

[ATTACH]383933[/ATTACH]

They were painted, after I had sprayed them, with a wash of flat black all over, followed by a medium grey drybrush, and then I painted the end connectors/guide teeth first with Tamiya flat earth followed by a wash of Revell rust (acrylic). Painting the connectors was the hardest bit, that took about 15 minutes per side, so an hour or so for the whole track. The wash on them was much faster, luckily.

Once dry, I threaded the track through the suspension, which was fun because I could only use one hand for it — there’s so much junk on this tank that you can’t lay it on its side or top without breaking anything. I had to hold the model with my off hand inside the turret ring, leaving the other one to get the track around the wheels. I had built two runs of 84 links, when the real tank had 83 on a new track, but found I needed to remove two links on both sides. Putting the end connectors back on with one hand was fun …

When the tracks were on, I ran liquid cement over and between the end connectors that I could reach, to hopefully prevent them coming loose.

[john i am]

Great build and background info very interesting. Cheers John

[Guest]

Progress on these models has been slow of late, but I’ve not been entirely idle on it. I need replacement flail chains, because the type Resicast included are the wrong ones for T148656. I need ones with only the top half resembling a bicycle chain, the bottom half being a complicated affair of shackles, chain links and flat plates leading to a final link with a ball on the end. And since these need to bend rather than be straight, I decided I’ll see if Shapeways really can print with 0.05 mm gaps between components …

[ATTACH]386441[/ATTACH]

Not done yet, so I can’t say if this will actually work, but I intend to complete this CAD drawing as a sprue of 50 chains and have them printed up (I need 41 for the tank, but having some spares seems like a good idea ).

To give an idea of the size here: each of the flat links is 4.3 mm long, 1.3 mm wide and 0.6 mm thick. The holes in the centre links (you can just see one at the far right, on the origin of the coordinate lines) are 0.7 mm diameter, and the pins going them are 0.6 mm. I hope this will work and I’ll have a chain that actually works — it doesn’t need to work well, just long enough that I can bend it into position and glue everything together

[Steven000]

If you upload the cad file to shapeways it might show 'issues' when the 'automatic check' goes through it, it might be too small to print, as they clean up those prints by hand (and might break too small parts)...

The build looks very good :thumb2:
Steven

[Guest]

I know, that’s why I intend to try it — to see if it will print Should it indeed do so, I’ll make it available on Shapeways at no markup, so anyone else who needs these kinds of chains for a Crab can get them too.

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Well done with the track - missed that going on. A build like this with so much detail is always going to get more and more fragile as it progresses.
I hope that Shapeways comes good. I can't think of any other way to do it.
Jim

[Guest]

I can, but it’s not a method I would want to try Namely: make the flat links from plastic card and punched pin ends, and the shackles etc. from copper wire. Quick calculation: six narrow flat links (6 parts), five wide flat links (30 parts in all), four shackles (call it 20 parts in all), two chain links (2 parts) and one ball with shackle attachment (2 parts?) per chain, times 41 chains … 2460 parts? I’d rather build a Leopard 2A6M without the bar armour assembly jigs