discussion Greg's Captured Sherman - 'One of Ours...'

[Guest]

Hi all,

Been searching through my stash for something to build for this GB, and I think I've come up with a senario. I found a Sherman, a Willy's jeep from Airfix's Buffallo amphtrac kit, and a set of US winter infantry, all in 1/72 (well, the jeep's in 1/76, but that should be okay). So here's the plan; it's set in Western Germany, January 1945. The Sherman is going to be the captured vehicle, dressed up in German markings. It's going to be approaching a US checkpoint, the occupants of which have been killed. The story is that it's just attacked the position under the cover of darkness, and while it was spotted by the US troops, they assumed it was friendly until it was too late, hence 'one of ours'.

The details aren't set in stone yet, but those are the basics.

Here's some sprue shots, wish me luck

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[papa 695]

Good luck Greg :emo:

 

[Guest]

Constructed and (mostly) painted the German Sherman, minus weathering. Had to abandon using the Airfix jeep, after making it I realised how lacking in detail it was, so I'll have to find something else. Here's some pics of where I am so far, the decals are fresh on, so it appears a little wet around the ones on the turret.

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[papa 695]

Hi Greg the Sherman looks good, but slightly strange with the German cross's on. Pitty about the Jeep ,why not use it as battle damaged then there would be no need for great detail if you know what i mean. But looking forward to more updates keep up the good work

 

[Guest]

Thanks Ian, I know what you mean about it looking strange. Here's the image I was going off in terms of the crosses;

The difference with mine is its a A1 version, but I've used the same scheme. I like how they've kept it in American colours, just added the crosses and painted over the serial number in the closest match to Olive Drab they had avaliable.

Don't worry about the jeep, I bought one of Academy's vehicle sets that contains a better quality version I'll be using.

 

[Guest]

Am looking forward to seeing the diorama. Very interested in how you construct it as I have never made one.

 

[stona]

Good stuff Greg.

I've seen a few war films in which Shermans masquerade as various german tanks too! It sort of reminds me of that with the crosses on.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Guest]

Hi Steve

Have seen a few war films where Pattons have masqueraded as Shermans! Most noteably Patton.

Stephen

 

[Guest]

Quick update, I've made a start on the base. The mud it still wet, so won't be as shiney when it dries. Next step will be to add trees and bushes.

Also, here's the vehicle set I bought. I'll be using the Willy's jeep from this one.

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[papa 695]

Looking very good so far Greg is that real grass? looks good whatever it is

 

[Guest]

Thanks Ian. It's hanging-basket liner, the kind bought from a garden centre. It can give a nice grass effect if you cut it up, and it's cheap too. I've used it for my last few dioramas where grass was needed, and I'm not even halfway through my first bag

 

[papa 695]

Thanks for that tip Greg will come in handy

 

[Guest]

Done a bit of work on this one, put the bushes down and added a tree. I've also made the MG nest (which looking at the pictures, I can see the paint has chipped off )

The jeep is also done, and I think looks better than the Airfix one did. I've still got to add the figures and tidy some things up a bit.

One thing I did run into trouble with is modifying the US figures to look dead. Upon cutting the arms and legs off one of them, I found out that nothing would glue them back together again. I tried Polycement, PVA, even gorrilla glue and super glue. None worked, so I'll have to keep them as they are. They may look a bit off on the ground. I suppose that's always a problem with 1/72 figures

Anyway, here's some pics of where I am now.

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[papa 695]

Hi Greg the dioramas looking good. The paint chipped off the machinegun adds to the affect looks weathered, i don't think they would have had a brand new out of box gun anyway, keep up the good work.

 

[spanner570]

Nice composition Gregg, with plenty to see.

The general foliage is excellent, particularily the tree.

On the subject of your figures, I presume they are the soft plastic ones (I don't know the 'Proper' name!) I found the only thing that got near to sticking the limbs back together was a heated screw driver blade, carefully melt the join and re stick. It was not very successful at that.....

It will be interesting for both of us to see if anyone on here has a deffo, guaranteed, 100% certain way of bonding this type of plastic.

Cheers,

Ron

 

[Guest]

That's very good Greg & there's an amazing amount of detail to see considering it's in a small scale.

Patrick

 

[Ian M]

Looks good Greg.

I am surprised that super glue didn't work. I have heard the hot knife one as well but in such a small scale.... I believe the soft plastic is PVC. Araldite should do the trick. I have also read that UHU general purpose, the one in the yellow tube.

Ian M

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the comments, guys, and for the tips. I'll see if I can find some of that UHU glue and give that a try. I'm pretty sure I've seen it in my local Tesco at some point. If not, I guess I'll try melting the joints together. Never done that before. Could be quite disasterous

 

[Guest]

I'm looking forward to see this completed looking very nice..

 

[Guest]

Finished the German figures on this one, five in total. As is often, the pictures show a few problems that need fixing which I had failed to spot before. I suppose that's a good thing

I couldn't find any UHU glue for the American figures, and my attempts at heating a knife and melting the two pieces together didn't work so well. I have, however, had limited success with some Bostik glue. The bond still breaks if the figure is knocked, but so long as I'm careful during painting, I'm hoping it'll be okay. They'll all be lying on the ground on the diorama, so if I can get them that far it'll be alright.

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