M4A3 (76) HVSS just off the boat

[Jakko]

I don’t think that will be thick enough, unless I put on a lot. I need to apply something that will actually fill the seams between the pieces of tape, but not completely obliterate them. This is why I’m thinking of acrylic gel, because that shrinks a little when it hardens, meaning I can simply smear it all over and hopefully have some seams left. I’ll have to do a test piece to make sure, of course.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Isn’t acrylic gel formulated for impasto painting techniques though? It should maintain the application brushstrokes so it may well obliterate all of your previous hard work.....Another option could be artists tube acrylic paint? That still has body, but won’t hold to the surface as thick as gel?

 

[Jakko]

That’s why I need to do a test first, of course I think I’ll try a few of the options people have mentioned and see which works best.

 

[Jakko]

Here’s the trial:



I stuck three bits of tape together and smeared superglue over them, like on the model. Leaving the centre bit uncovered as a control, I then put acrylic paint from a tube on the left and acrylic gel on the right. I did this with a spatula rather than a brush and dragged it lengthwise, in the direction of the tape strips, so it would smear the paint and gel into the ridges rather than uniformly cover the tape.

After waiting overnight for it all to dry, I sprayed white primer over them (first photo) and then brush-painted everything with the semigloss black I intend to spray the model with (second photo), and drybrushed with Tamiya NATO Black, which is a very dark grey (third photo). This is more noticeable in the flesh than in the photo, though, so I then drybrushed some more with Vallejo Dark Bluegrey, which is a regular dark grey. Again, this doesn’t seem to show up well in the photo, but IRL it made the edges rather more obvious than I’d like.

The gel seems to almost obscure the tape edges, but not quite, while the paint seems to make hardly any difference. You can spot where it is, but it seems to have covered the tape much more evenly as it dried than the gel did. Because of this, I’m leaning to the gel based on this test.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Hard to tell from the photos but looks fine. You just go with what you're happy with and what looks right 'in the flesh'. Glad you have overcome this issue.
Jim

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Jakko

I'm a bit late coming to this, great concept - something subtly different to the norm.

Peter

 

[Tim Marlow]

Good experimentation Jakko. Looks like you’ve cracked it.

 

[Jakko]

I hope so … I’m still not 100% convinced, but the more I look at the bits I painted on the actual model, the more I think the seams need filling

Meanwhile, here’s the painted wheels and suspension bogies:



Nothing spectacular, because most of this will be covered in black goo later

And I finished taping up the turret:



I now need to settle on how to fill the seams (and whether to) before I can continue, because I also need to glue the turret to the hull and fill the gap between the two with more tape. I’d rather have the two parts separate while I deal with the seams, because that will make them easier to handle.

 

[Jakko]

While debating what to do with the tape, I made the second crate for the rear deck:



I’ve glued them to the pallet, but still need to add the metal straps that held them on. The whole assembly will stay loose until after painting, so I can spray it in a slightly different shade of OD from the tank.

 

[JR]

Nice Jakko.

 

[Jim R]

Nice Jakko.

Ditto
Jim

 

[Jakko]

Cheers Now I’ve done the suspension and the crates, I don’t have anymore excuses for not tackling the tape, though …

 

[Tim Marlow]

No you don’t Crates look great by the way.....

 

[Jakko]

After doing a test on the actual model this afternoon, on the tape under the exhaust at the rear, I decided that yes, acrylic gel was the way forward. Just now, I did the rest of the taped-up patches, which wasn’t nearly as much of a chore as I had expected it to be. Far simpler than the tape itself, certainly



Hopefully, I didn’t apply too thick a coat, as the intent is to fill the gaps and add perhaps a suggestion of more folds than there really are, but not obliterate the tape.

At this point, I remembered I had forgotten the tail lights, so I stuck tape on them on as well:



The kit comes with two sets of tail lights, one far better detailed than the other, so guess which ones are underneath the tape here I also filled all the holes for the pioneer tools, but haven’t sanded and scraped it down yet,

You can also just see black by the exhaust, which is because after the “test” gel there had dried and looked good, I painted it black to see if it still did in its eventual colour.

 

[Jakko]

Finally done with the tape!

After glueing the turret to the hull, in the 6-o’clock position, I added bits of masking tape not cut into strips yet:



This is because when I did the gun shield, I found too many gaps falling between the pieces of tape. By doing it like this, there won’t be (nearly as m)any, and I don’t absolutely need to have the thin strips overlap. As you can see in the next photos:



Also note the white plastic where I added the tow cable holder bracket, that Tamiya forgot to include on the model. From Son of Sherman, I determined the tank in the kit would have been built in October 1944 at Chrysler, when the forward cable bracket was in this position.

With all that done, I added horizontal edging strips all around, top and bottom, like is shown in photos of the real tanks:



After taking that photo I smeared more superglue over it all, which was tricky in places because some are hard to reach even with a cocktail stick (never mind my fingers) and I had to be careful not to poke through the tape. Once the glue is dry, I’ll do a layer of acrylic gel here too, and then I can finally get on with finishing the model. I hope

 

[rtfoe]

Jakko, I thought I stumbled onto a King Tut tomb and discovered a mummified Sherman Even the mighty Tamiya can miss and miss-mold a part. Good spotting it.
It's definitely water proofed now.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[adt70hk]

Great work as always Jakko. And a very interesting insight to something I'd never ever thought about.

ATB

Andrew

 

[Jakko]

I thought I stumbled onto a King Tut tomb and discovered a mummified Sherman

It does look a lot like that, now you mention it

Even the mighty Tamiya can miss and miss-mold a part. Good spotting it.

TBH, I don’t think my next M4 will be a Tamiya kit … Maybe they designed this one on a Monday morning, but it’s probably the least-good Tamiya kit I’ve ever built. On the other hand, it comes with sponson bottoms, so they did finally manage to figure that bit out.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
You must be sick and tired of the sight of Tamiya tape but it has worked out well in the end. A unique model.
Jim

 

[rtfoe]

If it has a sponson bottom perhaps it's not a Tamiya kit but a re-box from another brand. Haven't bought any Tamiya kit for a while so don't know what their state is like now. I thought their new kits were detailed and fit perfectly?

Cheers,
Richard