Painting my baby

[duncanallender]

Hello fellow tankers,I'm new to the forum,but am in possession of a Sherman that I bought second hand in kit form.
I am wanting to prime and paint my baby.
Any suggestions on a primer you can reccomend,or shall I just use a Halfords car primer.Also what paint to use for my top coat?I intend to spray it to get a better finish,would you suggest tins of aerosol type paint or to buy a wee spray gun?Also where do you get an olive green paint from,Tamiya????I have seen Adrian's corrosion on his so am looking to avoid this-although it does look like you would expect a real tank to look like after some use.
I think thats it,look forward to some advice,ta
Dunc
Nord West Kampfrgruppe

[Stewart Ashton]

Hi Duncan

A very warm welcome to these forums

Adrians Sherman was an Armotek prototype (not a production model)
and was left outside the factory in all weathers for a long period of time.

As for priming always use an acid etch primer. Your local Halfords sells the U-Pol branded one. Before priming always wipe all metals with acetone
which prepares the surface for painting. As well as acetone I use methylated spirits.

Regarding the methods of painting an airbrush type of system is usually
regarded as the cheapest and best method.

There are many more experienced and better painters than me on here and
they will no doubt give you more information in due course

Regards Stewart

[Paul Morris]

Hi Dunc.
Are you going to the meeting on Sunday...if so we can have a chat if you like mate and i can answer your questions
Cheers Paul.

Paul's tank workshop. pjtigerman@aol.com

[Stewart Ashton]

Paul

Regards Stewart

[Tim Bowman]

Hi Duncan

Welcome to the fun! Yeah! Another Sherman!

Kind regards
Tim

[Paul Morris]

Hey Duncan.
Heres another thought, you could always bring the Sherman up this weekend and leave it at my house, and pick up a fully weathered one in a month .
Just a thought.

[Robert E Morey]

Duncan,
I like Testors Modelmasters TS-11 Olive Drab for American vehicles. It comes in the small spray cans. I don't know where you get it in the UK, but Squadron here in the US has it. The best option is to probably have an auto shop mix up a quart for you and airbrush it. These things use a lot of paint! I'm sure your mates there in the UK can fix you up.

Good luck, Post some pix of your Sherman!
Bob

[Derek Attree]

Duncan
At War and Peace there was a company doing olive drab in
1 litre tins they were by the jeep stand.
Maybe someone knows the company name.

Derek

[Adrian Harris]

Hi Duncan.

Welcome to the Sherman owners club

My plan was to be:

1) Upol Acid Etch primer all the panels individually
2) Spray the external sides with Red Oxide primer
3) Spray the internal sides with White primer
4) Construct the various major components and fill gaps.
5) Respray over filler with relevant primer.
5) Spray insid with white topcoat
6) Spray outside with OD rattle cans

However, I've seen on various forums (car restoration ones) that it's a bad idea to apply filler over etch primer, due to the acid attacking the filler over time, so I guess I'll have to sand back to bare metal before applying the filler.

Adrian.

[duncanallender]

Thanks for all the info lads,there is certainly alot to go on.I'll have to get myself off down to Halfords or similar.
Paul-am going to try to make it on Sunday,as I'm seeing a friend in Lancaster on Sun morn.I won't have a tank with me ,just the misses and a couple of dogs.If not mazybe see you in 2 weeks after ,will leave message to confirm.
Duncan
Nord West Kampfgruppe