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Justin Rogers
8 articles

Six Days War

November 8, 2019 · in Armor · · 14 · 2.6K

Having recently watch a series on a streaming network surrounding some spying in Syria by the Israelis Mossad and the lead up to the Six Days War, I decided to do a build dedicated to the Israeli Defense Force's armored units..

Loving the tanks already I could resist the upgraded M-50 Israeli Super Sherman.. A real life “ Frankentank “! The gun was upgraded to the French CN-75/50 and was quite effective against the Egyptians T-54's -55's & even 62's.. The Israeli forces showed great tenacity and bravery fighting in the now antiquated WWII surplus..

The I chose was the old 1996 M50 and is what you'd expect with an older tooling.. Dragon instructions as always leaves much to be desired.. However, I'd have to still put this kit up there with today's available offerings.. The details are really nice, only some minor modifications were needed. When joking the upper and lower hulls, there's a nice sized gap just above the transmission cover and the front glacias plate. To remedy this is simple and hidden with zero putty.. Just on both rear sides of the sponson wheel wells, trim off 1/8” and then re test fit the hull halves and it should close the gap.

Now I know I've been asked already about the color choice and I've seen many of these built and painted with the desert tan color, but wanted to take a slight artistic approach with my build by mixing my own take on the Sinai green color.. And I did some modulation so it would look faded in the sun.. Like desert vehicles do.. lol

Washes are Tamiya enamels and weathering is done with oils and Tamiya weathering master sets..

I also wanted to display this Fankentank on a atmospheric appropriate display base so I scratch built a closed border crossing point.. base is wood from the garage with insulation foam shaped to terrain. Sandbags are made from both Clay-Bake modeling clay and milliput, the wire is just some old copper wire from the garage and the texture in the sand is fine saw dust, watered down white glue as a fixer and Vallejo model Air colors for painting the base.. oil washes over the sandbags.. Sign is from an image on google as I didn't know how to write in Hebrew.. Hope you like it. And still studying the subject for more future projects.

Reader reactions:
13  Awesome 1 

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14 responses

  1. Very realistic-looking result.

  2. Superb work on one of the 20th century's iconic and historic conflicts. Extremely well done, especially the diorama setting.

  3. Very well done! It's one of my favorite tanks of all times?
    Rgds from Tel-aviv

  4. Nice looking Sherman, especially like the base you build for her. Well done Justin.

  5. The ultimate Sherman! Nice build, nice setting!

  6. Marvelous build. Always love the Sherman

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