I’ve been interested in Operation Market Garden for a long time and the release of Hell’s Highway and A Bridge Too Far gave me a push to paint up some more Sherman tanks to support my US Paratroopers. Saying the tanks are painted as Irish Guards is a bit of an untruth. I’ve not painted on Guards or squadron markings as I’ll probably reuse the tanks in different situations.
Anyway, they’re very easy to paint – I sprayed them with Army Painter Green, base coated them in Vallejo Russian Uniform, highlighted with a small amount of Bleached Bone added, painted the tracks with Boltgun Metal, and then picked out the other details with browns and beiges. I used Army Painters Dark Shade as a paint on dip, applied the decals and then sprayed them with the Army Painter Matt Varnish spray. That sounds like a lot of work, but when you’re painting 6 tanks at once you fly through the steps. Here’s a close up –
I’ll consider weathering them at some stage, but will probably wait until I have a larger force. Between them, my older Shermans and some US Paratroopers I can field a small Irish Guards army. My intention is probably to us a Paratrooper army with Guards support.
I’ve also been adding to my Late War German army. More on that later.
Owen