Hello Colin, @coling
I really like what you have done so far, and thank you very much for posting up some armor. I have two American tanks that I will most likely post articles on, and like yours, mine have both been started. One is a Dragon / DML M-26 Pershing, and the other is the Tamiya "Easy 8" from the Korean War. Both are 1/35 scale.

As far as painting the vision blocks:
I have painted the inside of mine using a mixture of Tamiya clear green and clear blue. I mixed a little of each together, added some "Future" in the mix and brushed it on the inside of the clear to give it an appearance of being armored glass. The inside of the Commander's Cupola would have been painted white, but the inside of all the hatches would have been some shade of dark green. On our tanks, the Commander's hatch had a rubber pad to protect your head in the event it was not locked in the open position and it accidentally closed on you. This does happen on occasion... I had a "newbie" loader once break all 4 fingers in his hand when the hatch closed by itself on his fingers. Ouch !

These rubber pads on our tanks were either a shade of dark green, (most often), and occasionally black. I'm certain the ones used inside the Sherman's and Pershings would have been colored the same.

There were several US Armored units in the Korean War that operated both the M-4A3E8 and the M-26 Pershing, both at the same time. So your diorama is still a possibility. I'll do some digging to see which ones they were and get back to you. My Dad served in the 6th Medium tank battalion for a little while, and the 31st RCT Tank Company, also for a while. I am positive there were other units he served in. He said they were often assigned on a temporary basis to other units as needed. I am still trying to find out what other tank units he served with. His records were burned up in the St. Louis fire...

The modified muzzle break looks great by the way...

Thanks again for joining up, and I look forward to seeing your next installment.

Hi Spiros,
Thanks for your support. I hope you try armor. I like to do armor modelling sometimes because it provides a relief from fine work on interiors and clear parts. There is a whole other challenge in weathering and stowage, especially in as much as there are many expensive weathering products that are apparently "essential" for some armor aficionados at modelling competitions and certain on-line forums ( I mean "filters," and other media to give a supposedly realistic finish). I don't build for competitions and I am not so convinced by the look filters provide. so I go a more old fashioned route with oil paints, weathering powders. pastels and pre/post shading with airbrushing. Tanks are fascinating historically significant machines so I am happy to have some on my shelves. Do you know this Canadian-made documentary series that used to run on the history channel called Greatest Tank Battles? I find it provides some inspiration for model building. The CGI is rather basic and the tone of the narration is sometimes a bit melodramatic at times but I like the interviews with veterans and historians and the period film footage. I even like some of the CGI recreations of battles. Even if they are a bit crude, animation-wise they give you a way of visualizing tank combat that is otherwise hard to picture. Here is a link to the Korean War episode on Youtube:

Hey Colin, @coling
Yes I have seen this TV series before. I have several CD copies as they were available for purchase shortly after the first episodes came out. This is a great TV series, and I still try to watch the re run episodes when they are on air. It's very similar to the "Dogfight" series that came out around the same time.

As far as the picture you show with the Pershing and a Sherman. Yes it is an "Easy 8". You can tell that by looking at the tracks and road wheels. It has a squared center guide and the older Sherman's had a thinner track without center guides. The guides were part of the end connectors on the tracks.
The Pershing in your photo is a USMC tank, and it's quite possible the Sherman is too. The Marine Corps operated a Company of Flame Thrower tanks in Korea. They were used in the capture of Seoul right after the Inchon landing. In fact, this picture you posted could very well have been taken there in the battle for Seoul.

But it could also be a US Army Sherman...

Dad told me that his Army unit often supported the Marines as they advanced through the city. He told me once about how he actually picked up a wounded Marine who had been shot and was laying there, bleeding to death in the street. They drove their tank over the top of him, straddling his body with the tracks. They dropped the escape hatch located in the belly of the tank, and pulled forward a little more. Then they pulled him up into their tank, and drove him away to an aid station where he was treated immediately. Years later my Dad met the Marine again. Ironically his older brother worked at the Boat Works where my Dad was employed at the time. Turns out it is indeed a small world. The Marine remembered my Dad's voice. If you ever met my Dad you would understand why... After Korea, he became a Drill Sgt., where he could use his "voice" all he wanted to.

The 31st RCT was decimated. From what I have read about their encounters with the Chinese, by the time the survivors reached the Port of Hungnam, they were down to something like 385 "able bodied" men. Some of these men could have been wounded...all this meant was they could still walk and shoot a weapon. Only years later when Dad finally started opening up to me about some of his experiences in Korea did I finally start to understand what he went through, and how lucky he was to have survived the ordeal.

Hi Guys. I can't believe it has been 2 months since my last update on this build. I have been busy with the MiG-15 (see above post) in this GB as well as four other armor projects soon to be documented in the Military Vehicles WW II GB (Tiger I, Panther, King Tiger and Sherman Firefly). I got on a bit of a roll doing intricate track assemblies after my T-72 and forged ahead on all of these other tanks that had been shelf queens for far too long. The M4A3E8 is another example of finally taking on the tracks to get over a build hump.

I actually tried several options including a link by link version with pins from a company called Kaizen. In spite of the claims on the box these did NOT fit the TASCA/D-Corporation Easy Eight I have, being at least a millimeter a half too wide. They were also going to drive me crazy to assemble link by link. I also looked at Academy Super Sherman rubber band tracks from my spares box but these were also too wide. I finally went with the kit tracks, which I originally thought would be too flimsy when I first looked at them. In fact they are quite sturdy when assembled and are built up from a nice combo of flexible rubber and solid styrene track plates and guide horns. I say "nice" for the overall accuracy and sturdiness of the final result but, in fact, they are a bear to assemble. Each side has two lengths of rubber requiring you to glue on a total of 156 tiny squares of plastic in perfect alignment using super glue. That's 312 squares total for both sides! Each guide horn on the flip side is also a separate piece so that's additional 78 pieces to attach on each side. I tried using epoxy at first because I thought its slower drying time would allow me to tweak the alignment of parts as I went more easily. Turns out epoxy dries hard quite quickly and liquid super glue was better. Anyway, you can see that I have got all the plates attached on one side but no guide horns glued on yet. I fitted the road wheels at each corner of the tank as well as the idler and drive wheels. This let me test fit the track and check its length. It turns out the fit is perfect with good track tension. So finally I figure that once the tracks are done, I will make rapid progress on this build. Major assembly is done with only pioneer tools and some lights and periscopes to attach. The undersides and all wheel assemblies have been pre-painted in Tamiya OD and the rubber on the road wheels has also been painted. I may still do a Korean War diorama with this one including my M-26 Pershing. I finally found a picture of the Easy Eight and Pershing together in the same battle space - something that eluded me earlier. To sum up, I hope this build journal will be of some help to those struggling with link by link track builds - perseverance and careful test fitting is the key. Comments welcome.

Sounds like the tracks are good value in parts terms!

Colin, @coling
This is a great update. I just happened to notice your last post too. That's a very good picture you found, with the Pershing in front of the Sherman's. By chance do you have any information about the picture ? Such as where or when it was taken ? Or what unit is was in the photo ? I'm very interested as my Dad served in both types of tanks while he served in Korea. Not all Army units had both types in service together at the same time.

It looks like you have been very busy with building the tracks. They look very good too. You have the track tension perfect. I also spotted the two Tigers in the background. You have excellent taste with armor subjects.

As soon as I wrap up a few kits that have to get completed by a self imposed deadline, I will finish my 1/35 scale Pershing and Easy 8 Sherman builds,... so your Sherman will have some company.

Thanks for posting the updates, and I'm happy to see you have mastered adding notes to your pictures. It is like icing on the cake. 🙂

Hi Colin @coling!
This is such a great update and those tracks look amazing: all your efforts produced an excellent result.
Great to see comments on your pics, makes your presentations even more appealing!