I found my Asuka periscope guards in the spares box and attached them, then sprayed a gloss coat to prep for decals and oils. It really darkened the paint 
Also working on some Value Gear tarps and Formations tow cable/eyes…
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One of the reasons I try not to use coats of varnish on my models if I can help it …
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Don’t sweat it; a flat coat will lighten it up again.
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The stowage on the back deck of Churchill is now painted:
The photo isn’t particularly good, the contrast between the colours is much too great but I couldn’t get it more accurate without making the photo look even worse 
I’m still painting the stowage for the hull front.
When the rear deck was done, I applied the decals:
Before doing that, I first repainted the circles of the squadron markings (on the turret) dark green with a fine brush, because the pictures of the real tank show that it was lighter in tone than the letters “HQ” inside, and Mike Starmer said the circles were probably green.
Some of the kit’s decals aren’t historically correct. In the yellow text on the right front sand shield, the H is too large (it should only be in front of the first line), the name Churchill is in a wrong typeface (MS Comic Sans, if I’m not mistaken …) and the same goes for the War Department census number (that’s in Helvetica, which didn’t exist yet in 1943) so I cut the hook off the 1 to make it resemble what was on the real tank a little better.
On the lower hull, I painted matt black over the bolts for the bogies, idler wheel, etc. because the photos of the real tank show it had black stuff there to waterproof the seams. Once dry, I drybrushed it with Light Mud to make it look like it’s beginning to wear off.
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Looks great Jakko
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Outstanding paintwork. This one is really coming out stunning.
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Thanks, guys. Now it just remains to wait until I ruin it all when I add the weathering 
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Finally, the stowage on the front is done, too:
Inside the rack under the spare wheel are four track grousers, which could be installed on the track for better traction. I don’t know if that’s what was in the rack on the real tank, but whatever it was it kind of looks like grousers in the photo so lacking more information, this is what I settled on. They’re from a set of T48 track by RFM, which gives you 102 of the things when IRL, thirteen were to be fitted per track 
I also altered the markings a little to make the Hs appear more like they were on the real thing, by first painting over parts of them with the camouflage colours underneath and then altering the letters with yellow. Except yellow is always so damned transparent that I’ll have to add another layer at least
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Here’s something to quicken the hearts of any tank modeller: when you discover you miscounted something for the tracks … I had distressed some blocks to make them look damaged, but only enough for what would be on show, and then worked out where they should go. And now it turns out that I was about eight links out with the number of blocks between the damaged sections. So:
Remove eight blocks from the underside, then split the top run and splice those eight blocks into the track again. This is where I really would have liked to have Panda Plastic tracks instead of MiniArt, with which I could just have pulled a few end connectors off — but that’s not possible here, so I had to cut through track pins and make a couple of new ones from brass rod.
Spot the differences:
Top is the modified track, bottom one with the count wrong.
Now I’m hoping that it’s not going to break when I put it onto the model …
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I don’t know where my mind was when I put together the tracks last year, but:
The track is about three blocks too short At least I have plenty of spares:
Out with the jig, then:
… so that the ends do meet:
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Measure twice, cut once!
Or, “I cut it twice, but it’s still too short”…
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Decals are on, much less painful than an F-4 Phantom! I also gave the tool handles a base wood color and added retaining straps from masking tape. Oil weathering next…
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The difficulty with measuring here was that I only added the bogies after painting. What I should have done is taken a built Asuka Sherman off my shelf and held the track up against that to work out where to put the damaged blocks and how many blocks I needed.
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Life’s all about learning from mistakes. With the number I’ve made over the years I must be a certified genius by now!
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Which is why I don’t try to hide the ones I make on my models
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Aside from fitting the tracks, which even after the above still kept struggling against me but eventually did end up on the tank, I gave the model an overall wash of a pale sand colour, followed by drybrushing with the same paint. This gave, I think, quite a decent effect of dust.
Then I discovered that there was a number in a circle on the nose, but it’s not really clear what it was, exactly (and it was totally missed by the decal designers at Asuka). I suspect it’s a bridge classification of 30, all in yellow, so I painted that on. Making a neat circle isn’t that easy, until I hit on the idea of using a piece of plastic tube as a stamp:
And then some work with a brush:
It doesn’t look that great, I admit, but I next added a fairly thick layer of dust (as above) and it was nowhere near as obvious anymore
After also painting the commander (not very well) and stippling some matt varnish over the worn paint, which didn’t really want to lose its shine until now, I think I’m done …
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Sorry guys…..I was posting some questions and pictures on 2 dedicated threads…..and forgot to post here…….I changed my 1/16 IDF Shermie from 1956 to 1961.
I had to cut the rubber tires off because I switched colors after the bogies were assembled…….I hid the seam behind the housing.
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