Flames of War: Painting US Sherman tanks

 I finished two of my six M5 Shermans and I am really pleased. About halfway through painting them I was really unhappy with the direction they were going until I added the highlights and added some shading. I painted the tracks a rust-brown color to add some interest and to contrast nicely with the green of the tanks. From the research I did beforehand, I found that the tracks seem to be black but I wanted a bit more color and I think the result is pretty good. Also, in following the advice of some other 15mm games, I didnt use metallic painted for the metals. I guess metallics really dont look right on such small models and after testing this theory before settling on the nmm, I would have to agree.

 I suppose some people might be interest in how I painted them. If not, well then I have a reference for painting tanks in the future... Anyway...

I started by priming the tanks with flat black spray. I then airbrushed all of the tanks with Vallejo Brown Violet paint. (The color is called brown Violet but as you can see by the tanks, it doesn't look anything like a brown or a violet.)

Next up I washed the entire tank with very watered down Brown Ink, making sure to get the wash into the recesses and crevices. The brown creates nice and subtle shading for the olive green armor. I have a pot of GW's old Brown ink but any sort of brown wash will do. (I dont know how Agrax Earthshade would look because It tends to be too dirty and dark of a brown.)

After allowing the wash to dry completely, I then layered Brown violet over the tank, but this time I made sure to avoid the recesses and crevices.

Next to make the tank really pop, I used Vallejo Green Gray to edge highlight the tank. This as you can see really makes the details stick out without looking over the top.

To paint the treads I mixed Scorched Brown with a little bit of Macharius Solar Orange. These colors dont exist any more but any sort of dark brown-orange mix should do. You just want a dark, rust brown color. 

I then washed the tracks with nuln oil but again, any sort of black wash should do. After the wash dried, I drybrushed vermin brown on the tracks to brighten up the edges a bit. As this color no longer exists, any sort of light orange-brown will do.

For the metal like the AA machine gun on top and the tools strapped to the hull, I mixed black with vallejo Black Gray for a very dark base coat. I then layered black gray over it while avoiding the recesses. Finally I used Codex Gray(a medium gray) to highlight edges of the metal.

Below are more pictures of the completed tanks

 And that was that. Im going to get a hold of some US tranfer sheets to add markings to the tanks later. Overall I am super happy with the scheme and look forward to getting more armor to paint up. 

Until next time!