Zvezda 1:100 M4A2 Sherman

A closer look at the 1:100 M4A2 Sherman tank expansion for the "Art Of Tactic" wargame made by Zvezda from Russia. This kit gives you a 15mm Sherman tank, that can be used either for Zvezdas game itself or any other wargame where you can find this unit.

But I do not want to spend any more words before we have taken a look at the modelkit which came with this expansion:

This kit comes in two sand-colored sprues. And as usual, the material is not as stiff as from other kits I know, what does not mean that it is soft. But Zvezda uses a material for their kits that feels (at least for me) somehow different.

Maybe this is the reason that their wargaming kits in general are casted without any flaws. No sinkholes, no ejectormarks which would be seen after construction, minimal mouldlines that would need removal.

Some tools and the towrope are moulded onto the hull, the overall grade of detail is acceptable for a wargaming piece, I have seen worse in bigger scales. The roadwheels are well made and surprisingly the tracks are not as simple as we have seen on other Zvezda kits, the Sherman tracks are ok.

A standard issue with these "Art Of Tactic" tanks kits is the absence of decals, and this kit is no exception. Another thing that I do not like, there is only the option to build it with closed hatches for (not included) crewmembers.

Following the well made building instrutions, after some cleanup, the tank was built pretty fast without any issues, as usual I used glue but it is not needed to use. In each case you should use enough pressure to avoid any gaps during the construction (next Tuesday we will see what happens if you do not).

I added a leftover hedgerow cutter from the Sherman kit of the "TANKS" starterbox, see the finished kit below:

All in all this is a decent kit.

The grade of detail is acceptable, even the tracks are not too bad. If you need a cheap M4 Sherman, you should get this one, if you can live with the usual issues that "Art Of Tactic" tanks kits offer (no opened hatches, no decals, nocrewmembers).

And (as we see below) there are some differences in the size of this compared to the BFM Sherman:

While I would not mix both models in a single platoon because of their differences, if you would use only Zvezda (of BFM or PSC) Shermans in a platoon, it would be ok.

The price for this kit is below 4 Euros what is the average price for the sort of kits. What I wrote in earlier posts fits here as well, either you want it cheap and easy to build, or you pay a little more and get 15mm Shermans from other companies, in most cases those kits offer some extra bits and stuff.

In the end it is your choice whatever Sherman you want to use, but I recommend this kit beside the issues I have with it.

This is one of the last posts I had prepared, what means that I have to start another writing marathon in the next days, yet tomorrow we will take another closer look at a Zvezda 1:100 kit, and then I will have to start writing upcoming the posts for the next weeks.

1:100 M36 Jackson Bitsbox/3D Print Hybrid

When I built the Achilles tank hunter from its expansion for "TANKS", I had an unused spare M36 Jackson turret that went to the bitsbox. Since I had some time ago the idea to combine leftover parts with 3D printed parts, you may already know what I did.

This chimaera is the result of combining the Battlefront Miniatures M36 turrets with a 3D printed hull from Thingiverse.com, if I remember correctly, I took it from this collection. The last indegrent were the tracks, taken from a 1st generation BFM plastic Sherman. 

The tracks are a little oversized what clearly can be seen when this tank is compared to his British comrade, the Achilles.

While the lenght and the height of the printed hull do not differ much from its plastic counterpart, the printed part should have been 2mm wider, what clearly can not be seen on this picture. Except for that, I am pleased with the print.
Sure, since the machine which made it is, ahm, let me call it, ahm, pretty basic as also the overall print quality is pretty basic and would be better with a better machine. But I am still fascinated with this relatively new technology and what is possible with the cheapest printer we got.

I do not want to get too enthusiastic about 3D printing, I think you can see the endless possibilites of this stuff, not only for modelling purposes but on a bigger level, for yourself. As I may have written sometime in the past, I compare 3D printing to the replicators of "Star Trek", even when these are completely different technologies.

But back to the Jackson, then there are the tracks.

The scavenged tracks are the reason for the height differences of both tanks, while they look ok, they are way to big and I may change them in the near future. This would be the oppurtunity to get some "Art Of Tactics" Shermans, to see if their tracks could be used.

Sunday, funday, and since the next Montagsmaler meeting is on close sight, you may not expect another post for today except for the case, that I will get motivated to drop some lines about another Zvezda 1:100 kit. But at the moment, the chances for that are pretty low.

Revell 1:144 WW2 US Army Vehicles

Some pictures of my recently finished 1:144 U.S. tanks and trucks made by Revell. The box contains 2 equal sprues from which you can build 3 different vehicles twice.

Originally these small kits were included in the 1:144 medium U.S. Navy Landing Ship modelkit, but you can get them seperately too. When I saw them at my local hobbyshop I could not resist to get them.

Building the Shermans was pretty simple. Each tank was made of only 6 parts and took only some minutes to build after all parts were cleaned. I painted them (and all other vehicles in this post) with the same color combination as I did for my 15mm Shermans which I used for "TANKS".

I had to improvise with the decals and markings because I used some of this box decals for other projects.

Also included twice is the M8 Greyhound recon vehicle. This kit was almost built as fast as the Sherman, but the wheels took some time to clean them up. Last year I 3d printed some of them in 15mm scale.

Some crewfigures would have been a nice addition to these kits. But I may have found a solution to get some crew members, more about that will come in a future post, but this may take 1 or 2 months

The third vehicle included is the GMC CCKW 353. This kit had twice as many parts as the other kits included in the box. The buildup took some time since many parts had to be cleaned from mouldlines and flash.

I added a floor made from paper to the freightbed and installed the Browning AA machine gun on it. The guns belong to the landing ship but I think the fit pretty nice to the truck. Maybe it was a frontline modification.

Last but not least this is a size comparison shot with the Revell 1:144 Stuka. This may not fit but at the moment it is the only finished plane with landing gear I have.

3Dprinted 15mm U.S. WW2 Vehicles

This is the next batch of selfmade vehicles. All of them were printed with our Anet A8 3D printer. For gaming pieces the quality is pretty good, compared to my Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company tanks and halftracks their quality is not so good anymore.

But to be honest, I like them very much, because this 3D printing stuff offers almost endless possibillities even with a very low cost printer like ours.
With some stuff from the bitsbox and some paint they look alright to be used on the battlefield.

Two M8 Greyhound wheeled recon tanks, take from this pack. As you can see, the wheels are not printed properly. But when they are on the table, they look nice. We use it for our custom TANKS scenarios which sometimes need some NPCs.

Not only the German forces used halftracked AA vehicles, this two are in U.S. service.

On the left side is a M15 halftrack (find it here), equipped with a 40mm bofors in the center flanked by a 0.5 cal browning on each side. The stl file was created for 28mm but I tried my best to rescale it to 15mm.

On the right side is a M17 halftrack, from this excellent collection. when I printed the quad Browning 0.5 cal. gun, I cut the machine guns apart from the tower and glued them back in a new angle.

For both vehicles the front bumper, the crew, some bits and the tracks (only the M15's) were taken from the PSC M3 kit, the front wheels are copies of the wheels from the same kit, made with instant mould and milliput.

The guns in detail. I did not much to them after printing, but I had to replace the barrels with plastic rods for a better look.

Thes two AA units will be used for some simple additional rules for TANKS, which we are writing at the moment. But this may take some time since the summer is coming.

This M7 Priest artillery tank came from the same source as the Greyhound tanks. The crew and some bits were taken from the PSC M3 kit. The (too) big barrel of the main gun was made from a tube of a Q-tip.

In the next few weeks I will have more time for posting, I finished a lot of stuff in the last time which I would like to show.

15mm US Forces For Tanks By Galeforce 9

My next finished platoon for Tanks by GF9. Four M4 Shermans with changeable turrets to play them as 75mm or 76mm version and one lonely M26 Pershing. Two of the M4 76mm earned their first hitmarks for destroying enemy tanks and surviving the battle.

As basecolor I used Revell Aquacolor Khakibraun then the tanks got some drybrushing with Revell Aquacolor Helloliv. After a wash with a 50/50 mix of GW Nuln Oil and War-Ter® I added some decals from the sparebook  (1/72 and 1/144 scale). Each of the Sherman hulls got an individual sign (Cross,Flower,Square,Arrow) to tell them apart while gaming. Sadly, the callsign decals got a little silverish because I forgot to add a glossy coat on that spot before applying them. For sealing I used Revell Aquacolor Clear/Matt as usual.

They still have no box, because I think I will add some more troops in the near future but more no this topic in two weeks (at least). But when the American tank force is finish I will get an old ammo box to store them properly.

I still have to finish the commanders of the tanks.

While this tank platoon is ready for some action I am still struggling with the decals for my British tank force. These fraking Battlefront decals keep sticking on the paper no matter how long I keep them in water and if I get them from the paper they are so §&$"$! thin that they tear apart so easy.

Even several layers of clearcoat and decals solution don not fix this problem.

I tried the 15mm decals from the Plastic Soldier Company and it was nice to work with them, no problems while I applied them. But in the PSC decal set are not all of the decals I need.

The next step is to order a third set of decals, this time from Skytrex or Dom's Decals, I hope this will be the last British decals I have to order to get the tank markings I want.