Building a Full Resin Resicast Sherman ARV Mk.I Part Two - Painting, Weathering & Finishing	Resicast, 1/35 scale
by Paul Chatfield

Resicast's 1/35 scale Sherman ARV Mk.I is available online from Mission Models

Preparation

Having finished the basic build, as detailed in Part one of this article, it’s time to get on with the really fun part, painting.

After going over the model, checking for glue smears, cracked seams and other flaws (and cleaning up where required), I would usually give a resin model a quick wash in warm soapy water. However, with this model having so many small delicate surface parts, I felt it safer to leave out this stage. I did go over the entire model with a very soft, clean brush to remove any little bits of dust, though.

All loose parts, including the tracks, were removed from the model and set aside. Resin and PE needs priming before any other painting can be done, so that was the first stage of painting. Last thing before priming the lenses on the headlights were covered with liquid masking fluid. Once dry the primer was applied over the whole model. I used Alclad II’s Grey primer for this. I find this provides a good base for most types of paint and adheres very well to the resin and PE.

With the primer coat on and dried, I again looked over the model for any flaws. It’s amazing how often little rough patches of filler or cracks only show up when the primer goes on.

All loose small parts and the tracks need this treatment too before moving on to the main painting.

Painting

Base colour

The first bit of painting I did after the primer was dry was to spray a white patch on the turret plate. This was for the white Air Identification Star. Once dry an Eduard mask was applied over it. The whole model was then painted Vallejo Model Air Dark Green. A lot of modellers will either pre-shade or post-shade a model, especially one with a single colour paint scheme, I tend not to do this but break up the single colour starkness with oil washes. I will describe this later, after the markings are applied.

The mask over the Star was now removed. It was at this point I glanced at my reference photo and noticed that the vehicle in the photo also has a white star on the side of the hull at the front! After uttering a few words unrepeatable here, I waited for the Green to dry over night, then applied 2 more masks and sprayed a star on each side. The moral of this story take notice of your references and look at them regularly!

Markings

One thing missing from the Resicast kit is Decals or any kind of marking instructions or colour scheme reference. So it is up to the modeller to find some. I found a picture of a British Army Sherman ARV MkI in the Histoire & Collections Publication “ The British Soldier, From D-Day to VE-Day. Vol 2 Organisation, Armament, Tanks and Vehicles.” The view was a ¾ shot from the front showing the left hand side of the ARV as it tows a Panzer IV (probably Aust H). The divisional Badge and serial number were clearly visible and references showed the Vehicle to be from 3rd Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Brigade workshop. (This information was also found in the same publication) Unfortunately no vehicle registration number is visible in the photograph and a 2-hour trawl through other references and the Internet failed to turn up a photo of an ARV displaying a registration number. I could have just left it off, but felt it would look bare without one. This is where an educated guess had to be made on the prefix letter. I figured that an ARV would probably not be classed as a Tank and therefore not have the “T” prefix, although I could easily be wrong. The problem I then had was would it be classed as a Towing Vehicle “H” or an Engineering Vehicle “E”? After a bit of head scratching and asking other armour modellers no definitive answer was forth coming so I picked “H”. If anyone out there has the correct definition please let me know. The numbers were just chosen at random, so in all honesty this model does not represent an actual ARV and is hypothetical.

The Unit emblem and the Serial numbers were clearly painted on the vehicle by hand so, even though I had some decals to suit, I too painted them on by hand with a brush. The registration numbers were made up from Archer Dry Transfers and that completed the markings.

Oil Filters

Once the markings were on and dried it was time to break up the starkness with some filters of oil paint. Before the oils could be applied though there were two other little jobs. First the dry rub decals of the Registration Number were sealed with clear satin varnish to prevent them lifting. Then the White stars were scratched up. This was done with a very old brush with filaments splayed out in a random, messy manner. The brush was then lightly dipped into the Dark Green base colour and wiped almost dry before applying lots of random, tiny scratches all over the stars. The big Air Identification Star was the most heavily attacked, as this is right beside the main hatch and would be walked over constantly by the crew.

I should, at this stage, have had photographs of how I applied the Oils to the hull. Unfortunately as I was editing the file in which I’d placed them my computer decided to crash and they were lost. With the memory card of my Camera now also wiped to make room for other pictures I have no record of this stage of painting on this Model. Luckily I do still have pictures of this same process used on a previous model and I will use them to illustrate the technique. As luck would have it they also feature a Resicast Sherman M4A4 based Vehicle, this time a Sherman V Tank, so I’m using exactly the same base colour and main hull.

The technique is simplicity itself. Firstly cover the whole vehicle in random dots of oil paint in a variety of colours. I use Green, Yellow, Brown, White and Orange mainly, with Black and a small amount of Blue around fuel fillers. Then take a large round brush filled with clean white (Mineral) spirits. Keeping the brush clean drag the oils downwards cleaning most away with the brush. Around fuel fillers more is left behind to represent spills and stains. How much you remove is down to personal taste. Leave it all to dry for around 24 hours for the full effect to appear, if you feel you have removed too much simply repeat until you are happy with the colouring. You should be left with a subtle and varied colour across the model with a lightly streaked and weather faded appearance.

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Details, details!

This Vehicle has more surface details than almost any other I’ve seen. It also has a wide variety of textures and materials to replicate and so is perfect for this kind of Article. It’s almost hard to know where to start; there is so much to paint! I started at the bottom, with the road wheels and running gear. On this style of Sherman, with VVSS suspension this is quite a simple task. I used Vallejo Model Air RLM 21 black for the rubber tyres and rollers. The track Guides were first painted with a mix of Vallejo Steel and about 10% German Grey on the part that would be in almost permanent contact with the Tracks, then rubbed with Graphite from a soft pencil. The ends of the Teeth on the front Drive sprocket and the running surface of the rear Idler wheel were dry brushed with the same Steel, German Grey mix, and that was about it for the running gear until weathering, which will come later.

Now onto the main hull fittings, I decided to start with the wooden Gun Planks and Skid Blocks mounted in frames at the rear of the vehicle. Both are moulded as solid blocks, fitted into their respective frames. The wooden parts carry a nice wood grain texture. As a base colour I chose Vallejo’s Aircraft Colors Sandgelb. To give variation in tone between planks, I painted a few in the basic colour then added a little white and painted a couple of adjacent planks and then some dark brown and finished the rest. This gives a subtle distinction between the planks. Next using thinned black I dotted in a few knots. Whilst this was still wet very thin Chocolate Brown stripes were added to simulate grain, the two colours mixing slightly to give a “blur” to the edge of the knot. By going over some parts twice and leaving others thin a realistic wood grain effect was achieved. Finally when all was dry a thin wash of dark brown oils was flowed over to pick out the texture and highlight the gaps between planks. Other “wooden” areas such as tool handles and the two long spars for the lifting jib were treated in the same way, although the base colour for the tool handles was Deck Tan.

The ARV carries quite a variety of Metal fittings and tools and most are basically painted in the same way with some variation to give differing shades for different grades of Steel or Iron. As an Example I will use the Chain for the jib. The chain is from Accurate Armour and is made from copper. The first step is again to apply primer to give a base for following coats of paint. Chain is not the easiest thing to handle when painting, but I now have a little technique I use to help a little. First cut the chain too long for what is need, then tape down one end. Taking the other end in your hand stretch out the chain and it can now easily be airbrushed, twisting the chain with your fingers as you go to cover all sides. After the primer use Burnt Umber to leave the chain a nice Dark Brown. The chain must now be left at least 24 hours so that the paint dries thoroughly. Once fully dry scrape some graphite from a very soft artist’s pencil and rub the flakes between thumb and forefinger. With your fingers coated rub the graphite into the surface of the chain coating the whole thing. Once covered cut the unpainted ends off and there you have a nice tough looking, iron chain.

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The same technique can be used on braided copper wire to simulate tow cables and the like. For steel tools a more “silvery” finish is desirable and so I use Vallejo Steel as a base coat on Shovels and spades and Steel mixed with German Grey on Hammers, Pick Axes and other tools. Graphite is applied over this again to give the final finish. Grousers fitted in square “cages” down the sides if the ARV are treated in the same way as the tools then secured in their cages.

The final metal pieces of equipment on the ARV are mounted in racking along the top of the Hull and on the front plate. These are Ground Spikes and Hold Fasts used for a variety of tasks. Resicast do provide photo references of these items, showing them to be quite roughcast and of a dark dull rusted appearance. To replicate this texture and colouring I used Artist oil paint, un-thinned. For the base colour I mixed Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna roughly 50/50 with just a touch of Orange. A coat of this was dabbed all over to give a raised texture. To add to the roughness a brush filled with dry Mig Pigment powder Dark Rust was worked into the wet paint. This gave a pleasing and convincing look of oxidised rough cast iron. While the oils were still wet Mig pigment powder Dry Mud was sprinkled over a few of the ground spikes and left to stick to it. This was to give the impression that they had been used and hammered into the ground, with some soil remaining when they were pulled out of the ground. With the oils being neat and un-thinned they took about 3 days to fully dry. The loose dust was now shaken off and the parts placed into their racks.

Tracks

This Sherman ARV is fitted with metal chevron style tracks. The base metal colour was mixed from Vallejo Acrylics. I used three colours, Chocolate Brown and German Grey from their Model Color range (mainly designed for brush painting) and Steel from their Model Air Range (pre-thinned for airbrushes). I used about 50/50 of the Brown and Grey with a couple of drops of Steel. I then thinned the mix with about 10% tap water and loaded the Airbrush. An even coat was applied over the whole surface of the tracks.

Almost every Tank track you see will be polished on the surface that comes in contact with the ground, even off road. (Although rust will quickly appear on these surfaces if the tank stands for any time, even over night if the weather is damp). To give this polished look I mixed Vallejo steel with about 10% German Grey and dry brushed it onto all high spots on the tracks. Finally, to give the tracks a metal “sheen” I scraped some graphite dust from a soft artist’s pencil and rubbed it into the track surface. The finished tracks have a nice metallic look to them. I left the tracks like this for now as I haven’t decided on the surface on which the Sherman will be standing, so final weathering will be done to blend them to the base when the diorama base is finished.

Weathering

Running gear and lower Hull.

On all Tracked vehicles the road wheels, suspension and hull sides behind the tracks get pretty dirty, pretty quickly. To represent caked on mud and dirt in this area I used about 5 different shades of weathering powders, from both the Cmk Stardust range and Mig to give a varied finish and to show a vehicle that has travelled over different terrain.

First step is to mix some PVA adhesive 50/50 with water then add a small amount of the pigment powder. This slurry wash is applied over the whole of the lower hull, behind the tracks and road wheels. Blobs are also put on the top of the suspension units and swing arms and inside the wheels. Keep this mixture off of the running surfaces of the wheels and track guides. Now with the slurry still wet sprinkle your mixture of pigments over it. Leave the tank on it’s side while you do this and give the powders about 5 minutes to “fix” to wet slurry. Now stand the model up and shake off the excess. This is rather a messy process and I usually do before detail painting on the upper hull. Any spilled powder on the upper hull can be brushed off with a soft dry brush and smears washed off with a damp cloth.

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Upper Hull.

The upper hull is treated slightly differently to the lower hull, as unless it is wading through deep mud it is unlikely to have much thick, caked on mud on it. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be dirty though. To replicate a well-used vehicle with a heavy coat of dust I use the following method.

Using the same pigment colours as for the lower hull mix again with water, this time without the PVA, as we don’t want it to stick to the surface like paint. Mix it to a thin, wet mud like consistency and spread over most of the upper hull. Don’t cover the interior of hatches or other hull features such as spare wheels (These can be done with a lighter, dry brush of powder). Leave this for around 12 hours until a thick layer of dry dust covers the model. Now using a large soft brush start brushing away the dust. In areas of regular use remove almost all the dust, leaving it collected around details and in inaccessible areas. Some raised areas and ridges, such as in front of the hatches and around fuel and coolant fillers, can be rubbed with a finger to vary the effect. Like the oil filters how much you remove is down to personal preference and how dirty you want your model to look. When weathering don’t forget a little brush of dust for the headlight lenses, as they would get dusty too.

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Finishing Touches.

Almost done now, and time to add all the little finishing touches. All the tow cables were wound around their hooks on the turret ring, with the thick one dangled over the front. Some stowage is placed on the rear engine deck and secured with straps of Tamiya tape painted Khaki. No AFV would be complete without at least one bucket hung somewhere on it. I used two PE ones from Plus model, filling one with shackles and hanging it from the jib at the front. There is actually more stowage with this kit than I could use on one model, unused parts include a camo net, a tarp, two gas welding bottles (with two sets of optional fittings), another full set of pioneer tools, an optional rear stowage box, more spare track and two more spare wheels. I did use the two jerry cans from the kit and added Resin oil cans from plus model. Finally the model was topped off with a couple of Accurate Armour’s excellent new carbon fibre Aerials.

My final photograph shows some figures to be used with the kit in an up coming Diorama. The ARV will be reversing into position. The Commander is leaning over the side to check clearance, another crewmember stands at the rear using the exterior telephone to pass on instructions to the driver and an MP adds some “helpful” advice.

This was an enjoyable and involving model and would recommend it to anyone with a bit of Multi-media experience. I hope you’ve enjoyed it too.

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