1/35 M4A3E8 Sherman Easy Eight by Tamiya

It's done! This is the Tamiya M4A3E8 Sherman Easy Eight (European Theater) in 1/35 scale.

First of all, this is another great kit by Tamiya. There's really no problem to build smoothly. The rubber tracks are good too. but personally I think it could've looked better with separating tracks.

I love Shermans and so this is the 6th Sherman I've built since I got into military models. For this one, it was aimed to be the one in the 4th Armored Division, Bastogne in 1945. I'm no expert in military history but I tried to recreate a similar look that would fit in wartime. By limiting the degree of weathering, I hope that it could show that it's from a newer production with some usual wears.

The build was nothing too fancy. The stowage are from some Chinese-bad-quality-re-molding parts and I tried to make the best out of them. With some sanding and putty care, they look decent.

The painting process is what I always cherish the most. The build is my first attempt using oil color and oil washes extensively. I didn't make a clear record for this one but here's what I did in short:

Firstly, the orange and purple base color. Many builders use the B&W method to lay down the base - that is also fine with me, I just wanna try things in a different way. Without the black and white shades, the dull olive drab could be more interesting. OD with a white base could easily become a cool green which is more preferably used in Soviet armors. Orange base can bring a warm tone to OD. And I'm no expert in art as well, but it just looks better to me. In this build, I probably put too many layers of green on the orange and purple base and the result was not that visible.

Then it follows to the shades of green. As always, I put on layers of green and grey with Chipping Medium in between. The grey layer of chipping was limited because of the less-weathered reason. I think that a greyish chipping layer is crucial to present metal surfaces.

Last but not least, tinting with oil colors. I got just a few enamel products from AK and Ammo by Mig. Both worked great and I do recommend getting them as many as possible. For the spirit of science and in order to save a few dollars, I mixed out some washes for this build. You cannot possibly buy all the products on the market at once without selling your arm or leg. Alternatively, I got the oil medium and possibly-knockoff oil colors of Winsor & Newton. In this way, you could mix many bottles of washes with your desired colors.

And there you go, this is my 6th Sherman build! Although there are lots of Sherman variant kits on my shelf, for example there is the Calliope one and Bulldozer one from Academy, the full interior one from RFM, I'm really looking forward to get my hands on the Easy Eight from Asuka Models. I've heard real good stories with them and planned to make a Fury with it.

Thank you for watching!