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This is it. The home stretch. With the Sherman drybrushed, filtered and streaked, it’s time to move on to dirtying up the lower hull, suspension and tracks.

A Little Somethin’ Somthin’

When I was weathering this Sherman, the idea I held in my mind was of a tank racing across Sicily as part of Patton’s aggressive advance. Lots of dust, but not so much in the way of mud.

I started the dusting by spraying a heavily thinned coat of Tamiya Buff along the suspension, tracks, and lower hull. This made an immediate difference, particularly in the tracks, which seemed too vibrant.

Also, though the FSM article recommended it, I wasn’t very taken with the Helo Drab color on the rubber chevrons. It just seemed too green. So I painted over them with Model Master Burnt Umber, then came back and swished a dry brush over them to wear the paint down in places as it dried.

Pigment!

After the Buff dried, I hit the lower half of the tank with Doc O’Brien’s weather powders – specifically “Muddy Brown”. I’m still learning when it comes to pigments, but my approach this time around involved slathering the stuff on, blending it in with a brush, then wiping off as much as I could with my thumb. When wiping the sides of the hull, I took care to always wipe in the direction of gravity, which helpfully maintained and reinforced some of the streaking I’d done earlier.

Finishing Touches

Once the pigments were on and worked in, I drybrushed the ends of the tracks with Model Master Magnesium Metalizer, and used Chrome Silver on the tank’s lights. From there, it was a simple matter of installing the tracks, which I glued to the sprockets and return rollers. And with that, the Sherman was done!

Here it is in finished form…

All in all, I’m rather pleased with my first armor build in nearly two decades, and look forward to taking on the next one!