I've been wanted to build a model of "Fury" for awhile. The tank used in the movie was an M4A2 Sherman tank named RON/HARRY (T224875), lent by The Tank Museum. It was meant to portray an M4A3E8 from early 1945 for the movie. I thought it would be more interesting to create the actual tank used in the film. This build will involve converting one of our Company B M4A2 tanks.
1.) First off I'll need some decals. It's time to fire up the vector program and draw the markings!
2.) The font for the name looks to be hand painted. Luckily, there are enough stills from the movie to make a good reference file. I also decided to add a little battle damage to the star markings to allow the olive drab paint to show through. T
Once that is done, time to order those from the print shop..that will take about a week..so plenty of time to build the model while I wait for those to come in.
3.) The turret on the movie tank is the T23 late model 76mm turret, with the oval loaders hatch. We do not offer this model, so we needed to create a CAD file of the turret. It's a pretty simple task to have our CAD artist Shane make some adjustments to our Early T-23 turret. The parts are all separated out, and its now ready.
4.) Once the CAD was done, we just needed to order a print. Along with the turret print I ordered a few more parts we already had set up. Prints are ordered of the left and right Easy Eight fenders, spare HVSS track, spare wheel, jerry cans and a sprue of German helmets. The main hull is taken from our M4A2 kit and is shown below with the 3D printed parts. All parts are printed in frosted detail from Shapeways. The main gun is a modified metal 76mm gun from our sherman kit, with a turned brass muzzle brake.
All the parts gathered up.
5.) Initial assembly of the main components. This model is going to be a real hodge podge mix of resin, metal, hand sculpted and 3D printed parts.
6.) Close up of the details which are just loosely fit for now. Plastic plank, printed Spare wheel, metal spare sherman tracks and the printed German helmet are fit in place. Additional stowage will need to be sculpted from milliput and green stuff.
7.) Stowage and bedrooms are now sculpted in milliput on hull front. The helmet is also blocked in to sculpt the gas mask later.
8.) Bedrolls are Also added to the loaders side. Additional details are also sculpted on, such as the canvas mantle cover frame, and shell eject hatch.
9.) More stowage is now added and sculpted onto the model: Pewter Jerrycans, Ammo boxes and crates added the back
10.) Additional Bedrolls and Packs sculpted from Milliput are added to both sides of the turret.
11.) Additional bedrolls and stowage is sculpted, and the gas mask face is added via milliput. I then add the first base coat of primer colors for the hull and bedrolls.
First coat of weathering to the Olive Drab tone is played down, and the first layer of black camo is added. Custom decals added for the barrel.
Log armor added using some branches from outside. I chose to leave them as is...unpainted. I may hit them with some washes after clear coating. Rigging string is also used to tie down the stowage.
Links to parts used:
What brand/color of paint did you use for the main color for this tank?