# My First Tank in Work



## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

I usually do geeky spaceships, classic monsters, scifi models but a friend down the street is having his 90th birthday next month so I am building him a M4A3 tank. The gentleman was a tanker near the end of WW2 and was captured by the Germans in Europe. He actually said they treated him rather well but because it was near the end of the war that was probably partly the reason. So I picked up this kit at a contest in Jax at the beginning of this month and just started building it. If anyone would like to give me some pointers on tank builds and painting I'd appreciate it. One question first off is as far as all the suspension parts, which I've started putting together, do you basically assemble the tank and then paint it? I will be airbrushing Testors olive drab on it, as the directions specify, and it seems that would be a good way to go about it. There are all kinds of small nooks and crannies but I'm sure misting it with the airbrush should allow the paint to get everywhere necessary. If that is a bad assumption please remedy my thoughts. And thanks for any assistance, I'd like to get this done in the next week or so.


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## gman223 (Feb 16, 2010)

That's kinda funny I do sci-fi and decided to do my first tank also (m24 Chaffee). From some of the research I've done, yup assemble it and paint it, but leave the road, drive wheels and tracks off, but have them on when/if you weather it. I'm sure people with a lot more experience will chime in with better info. Good luck on the build. :thumbsup:


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Testors OD is a post war, aircraft color.

Tamiya OD in the jar is an excellent match for the US armor color, which was darker and less yellowy than the Testors shade. If you want to give your tank a faded look, airbrush it with the jar color straight, then mix in some Tamiya Yellow Green or Dark Yellow and mist that on lightly for a faded look.

The Sherman is not so hard to paint. You can assemble the suspension and glue it to the hull. The roadwheels have rubber tires. The VVSS suspension tanks have steel rimmed idler wheels and return rollers too. Late war HVSS tanks had rubber tired idlers and rollers. I almost always paint Sherman suspension on the tank, and then go back and paint the relatively few tires by hand.

Usually I do leave the drive wheel so I can add it last with the tracks.


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## GunTruck (Feb 27, 2004)

When I build Sherman series of tanks, I go ahead and assemble the Bogie Trucks and leave the Road Wheels free to rotate. After painting the primer and base color, I then go back and hand-paint the rubber on the Bogie Wheels. It's the easiest way I've found to get through this stage of finishing these types of tanks.

Jim


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