In the spirit (if not the skill of ) Streetsquid’s work and posting, I have attempted the weathering of my Pershing. I have highlighted, chipped and dirtied all my hard work on my beloved WWII M26….

And I LOVE IT!

I know it is not very well done, and I know far more on how to than I did when I start and could do better now than when I started, but I think it looks freaking kewl! Thank you so much for your step-by-step Streetsquid, it allowed me to attempt what you make look so easy and sooooo realistic. My Panzer IV will be better than this, but I think this will still be my favorite customizing job.

What I’ve learned:
1. Wash the body after painting before putting on the watercolor highlight paint. Some paint like the one I used (Model Master) tends to bead water, making it difficult to spread out smoothly.
2. Go slow, and always use a smaller brush than you have. Nothing worse than blobbing paint when you wanted a fine touch. Better too dry of a paintbrush than too wet.
3. Turn the darn ceiling fan off before doing any paint. Even on low, the paint dries far too fast otherwise.
4. Play some music in the background. It relaxes you, and you want to be loose and free for most of this.
5. Don’t try to show your wife what you just spent the entire evening doing. She will not understand why you are doing such detail, and she will think you foolish for “wasting” the evening.
6. Don’t sweat minor imperfections. You can always strap a box or tarp over it, or spray more dirt there! ;o) It’s a tank, and they didn’t have showroom paintjobs!
7. Post pics on this forum and do it often! More than once I was told of a detail or mistake several times, allowing me to do a better job and before having to redo the entire tank. Besides, pics rock, and everyone loves seeing them.

So, I am posting a series of pics for your perusal before I shoot my sealing dullcoat. Before anyone asks what I used to texture my rusted cast iron exhaust, I used rust! I have a metal shelf in my shop, so I took a razor blade and scraped. I mixed up a color that looked the right color,then dumped the rust powder in and stirred. In person it looks very authentic for rusted cast, but a bit too shiny. Also, some of the paint I mixed for my chips were gloss resulting in shiny chips. I’ll get rid of that with brushing on some dullcoat, then sealing the entire tank with an aerosol dullcoat spray.

So, anyone have any suggestions on my tank before I finish it?

Great job, I started today weathering my pershing and I did the same as you and followed Craig's ( streetsquids ) advice. I just didnt go as heavy on the filter as you have but I think after looking at your pershing I might [8D] what colors did you use? I had a mix of yewllow ochre and burnt umber and later Im going to go take a paynes gray and raw umber for the grills. And then a pin wash to bring out the highlights?

Looks great though, Hows the weaher today in the "Peg"

Jeremy

....and the rest of the pics!

I just mixed until I had what I wanted....I used Testors model paints (got a ton of them from when I was a kid) with the brush, and I used my airbrush for the dirt and the olive drab. And I did the highlights by brush, but used my Dad's water base paints from his model railroading days.

It was 18C and sunny in Winnipeg this afternoon, but turned to crap around 4 and now it is cold (11C) and raining.... I'd like to know where our 32C went from last week!

commin' along nicely. You need a white star on the turret top between the TC and loader's hatch and just behind the lifting eye...point facing rear as on the bow. Don't be concerned about coloration of the grill doors, as all you need is a bit of dirt, scuffing and mud from boots. No great amount of heat came out there and no exhaust...those are intake greiils. Exhaust looks good...I prefer Rust-all over rust paint, but you have a good mix and it looks good. Don't go overboard on the black...it's not a diesel, so the exhaust is more grey than black. You may want to drill out the TC vision blocks and fill in with Window Glazing (MicroMart). Nice stuff...just put a big drop on the side of a hole and drag it across....when it dries, it looks like glass. and lots better than painted plastic.

Pershing is looking good. (Don't mind the gun travel lock on the photo...that's my M-26A1.)

justed noted yours is a Marine tank[X(]....markings (outside of stars) should be pale yellow.

PattonCommander did you receive my PM my friend

Pattoncommander- Not according to the walk-around I used....besides, I may do it again in a year or so once I'm better at it. But I found more than one Marine M26 that was all white graphics, and went with this (pretty common) walk-around of this particular tank. I like it. Of course, this is the problem I had thruout- the accurate pics are in black and white, the color pics are museum restores (right or wrong). Besides, I saw some of the yellow Marine lettering you are talking about and I don't like the color- it just doesn't look "right"! Oh, and some of the Marine paint jobs I saw pics of did not have the star on the top of the turret and I could not find a top pic of this particular tank I modelled after, so I didn't do it. I may add it still, I don't know.

Strange, USMC regs in that era require yellow markings, but then too, many museums are off base on a lot of things....like putting Tiger markings on Pershings, hatch interriors white etc. [:@] Many cases, they just don't know, or in the case of my former museum curator, put stuff on because "it looks nice", regardless if it's correct or not. Reason I no longer work there. [>:] The star on top was pretty much SOP for aircraft recognition and IAW Geneva Convention requirements,, but since this is a museum display...

Fair enuf. Since you know a ton of this info firsthand, I'll see about that star. But I'm going to keep the white lettering- too hard to redo (was too hard to do also- next time I'm using decals!). Thanks for the input.

Is the star like this pic?

You quit because of that? [X(]

Someday, when you own your museum you'll understand why ... they're the boss apple sauce. [>:]

Panther F- I can underastand why Pattoncommander would leave such a job. [sm=cry_smile.gif]He was hired to assist with restoring pieces of history- not for making rides at an amusement park. "If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing right!"..... If a museum curator is more interested in putting innacurate "junk" onto a vintage tank, what's to stop them from painting the tank paisley, or hot pink? That might look "cool".... [:'(] Besides, the purpose of a museum is to freeze a piece of history the way it was so future generations can realize just what was done and lost and won in "the good old days"..... "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". Maybe accurate renditions of these war machines may impress just how bad war can be into the mind of the next US President or PM of England.

For someone who knows how the tank should look, being told to do something that was just wrong and innacurate just to placate a paper-pushing manager would be like drinking battery acid! I don't blame Pattoncommander one bit. It's a matter of personal integrity. Hard decision though...giving up working on those restorations..... I wouldn't mind the barked knuckles and scraped arms working on one, and I'd even bring my own penetrating oil just for the chance. Of course, I'd have to email Pattoncommander 10 times a day to check on just how everything should be done it the tank! [sm=confused.gif][sm=lol.gif]

shes taking shape nicely, cant wait to start on mine, just one thing did the ww2 pershings have the phone on the back !!!
regards cliff

Hmmmm.....In all my reference books, when USMC tanks are shown they all do carry the "yellow" lettering. But getting info about colours can be a real pain. I have no books specifically on Pershings but will be doing mine as it appeared in Europe, preferably with the 9 AD.

I've gone through all the resources I can find on the internet, and the only WWII Pershing tank I can clearly "read" the markings on belonged to 3 AD [>:] (I really wish someone would do a "walkaround" of John Grimball's "Bridge at Remagen" tank from the Wright Museum in Wolfeboro NH. )

(My personal "nightmare" involves finding the correct markings for KT #104, of the 1. Kompanie, s.SS.PzAbt 501, in the Ardennes. In all "actual" photos I have seen I cannot make out ANY markings, neither national crosses OR numbers, so how a tank was "identified" beats me [] )

I gotta agree with pattoncommander that if a Museum is going to "redo" and preserve pieces of History, it should as "accurate" as possible. Otherwise what's the point of the "preservation" ? Endless frustration for modellers who faithfully copy what they "see" only to find out later they've "done it all wrong" ! And it doesn;t just apply to "tanks", either..... !

Your Pershing's "Paint Coat" looks great and far better than mine will, if its any consolation....

Killick64- Maybe they worked on the HEYU identification principle....One tank commander would yell at another "Hey you! What tank is that you're in?"

After all the research and searching I did trying to find an accurate tank to emulate, and it was not done right! <sigh> Well, I am going to leave it the way it is (except for adding the top turret star)- it is too late to try and repaint the lettering in yellow without white showing and then weathering the letters with dirt and such. I think I'll redo the whole tank one day, and then I'll do it as asn army tank with white lettering and all that. And I'll probably go with a Korean War M26 variant- there are far more pics to go by.

If you need some assistance with painting your Pershing, Killick, let me know. After all we are both about to suffer thru another Winnipeg winter.

...You DID have to remind me about the "Winter"...!! It has one advantage, though: we get to build our tanks, whereas some of the folks who live in "other places" have to spend that time mowing their lawns.. They should be sentenced to a week on "sentry duty" at the corner of Portage and Main, in January. They'll get a living history lesson about life on the Eastern Front.

(After all, aren't we on almost the same Latitude as the City Formerly Known as "Stalingrad" ??? Just talk to all those fine Bundeswehr Boys who used to come to CFB Shilo for "Tank Manoeuvers" in Winter....)

Which makes your Pershing perfect for "Winter Runs". NOBODY's gonna be wasting time in our conditions studying your "markings" while freezing to death: -40 is still -40, in Fahrenheit AND Celsius scales!

Was this to be a WWII or Korean War Pershing? The Marines didn't get the Pershings until the Korean War, and the first Pershings in Korea with the Corps were from B Co, 1st Tank Bn, attached to 5th Marines during the Naktong defense. They had yellow markings and used the older single pin tracks (I forget the designation). Later, as part of the Inchon invasion, they began to use the dual-pin tracks with the chevrons.

You have the right tracks for an Inchon or later Marine tank. The markings will work, too, since most of the tanks were from 1st Tank Bn (Companies A-C). You even have the metal chevron tracks. All of the pictures that I have found have them using the metal chevrons. The only rubber chevrons that I have found are on the museum pieces.

I've got a couple of small books with a few pictures of Marine Pershings. I'll see if I can scan them and put them here for you. Most are B&W, though. [>:]

These images came from the book "Armor in Korea: A Pictorial History" by Jim Mesko (ISBN: 0-89747-150-4). I also recommend the book "M26 Pershing and Variants" by Troy D. Thiel (ISBN: 0-7643-1544). Both have pictures of the Pershing and her variants - T26E3, M26/A1, M45 and M46/A1).

Edit: Another one that looks good from Amazon is "M26/M46 Pershing Tank 1943-53" by Steven Zaloga (ISBN: 1-8417-6202-4)

Thanks for the scans.....guess I'll have to do something about the white lettering. GRRRR.... [:@] I thought I was almost finished and could dig into my Panzer IV next week!

hi, games workshop do a yellow ink ,just paint it over the white and it will make it yellow,any surplus just soak up with a tissue
regards cliff

Don't feel bad....this kind of thing has happened to me more times than I care to recall [] . Could you maybe just "tint" those neat markings with some dilute watercolour on a slightly damp Q-tip or piece of make-up sponge ?

The lettering is yellow now, just need to find time to do the top turret star and do the dullcoat. Thanks for all the suggestions, guys....it helped!

I'm still not done, but it is as far as I can go until I get my order in. Here's some pics....

Panther F, when you working in a museum, the ONLY consideration is accuracy both in the artifact as well as the history behind it. By former curator placed an M-278 CEV on display with the gun to the rear. [:'(] The CEV's 165mm demolition gun was only 3 feet long. Tthe only reason a gun is carried over the back deck in travel lock is to prevent damage to the mechanism and prevent accidents of ramming it into anything. CEV NEVER carried the gun to the rear...his purpose was to "show off the boom", which at any rate, was more visibly predominant hanging over the back deck and the tank would have looked like a combat vehicle with the gun in it's normally carried position. He also wanted to apply "Mogas" decals on gas cans, although they were never there....he said they look good. Like wise, he put bumber markings on a jeep that were backwards, ie; company #s left and division and Bn ID right...wouldn't admit his mistake and never checked regs...and still marked wrong. Over 20 artifacts are terribly misspelled or mis labeled.....for over a year and still not corrected, in spite of my work of editing and giving him a correction (& translation) of all of them. The museum has a cavalry saddle given to him by someone who told him "their great grandfather used it in the conferderate cavalry"....he has been told many times that both the saddle type and make were not around during the Civil War. The rifle in the saddle holster he has been infomed by two weapons experts, was never used by the confederacy, but he says, "it fits and looks good". He's so hung up on the confederacy, that anything that might interest the unknowing visitor makes him happy. He has put items out for open display, totally incorrectly labeled or misrepresented...Ie: M-2 grease gun or an M-1 Thompson SMG when the gun was an M-1928. Telling people that the Japanese Ni Mortar was fired by placing it on the knee...yeah right. A number of GIs captured them and misunderstood the name....they all had terribly fractured legs from the sad experience. .

Fact of the matter is that you can have 100 artifacts displayed...99 are correct, however one has a couple things mislabled or incorrect...what effect does that have on the credence of all the rest of your data? An artifact in a museum should be presented AS IT WAS USED AND SEEN, not as you would like to portray it. I have a reputation in several museums that ANYTHING I bring in or researched for them , has been researched and cross referenced with the references listed and documented. Running my own museum or being "the boss" has absulotely no relevence, It is a simple matter of integrity and honesty. Museums are institutions of education and misrepresented or BS to hide unknown or unresearched facts is spreading lies. [>:] I now work at Fort Jackson Museum and my work is never questioned, and if it is, I can readilly present viable substantiation.

use a yellow highlighter...it'll come out ok. [X(] Marine yellow was a pale shade, so didn't really flash around. .