PSC 15mm Shermans

Just to prove that I don't spend my entire time playing and/or re-writing rules by Neil Thomas, here are a few of my Triples purchases finally painted up. The Memoir 44 Normandy campaign games have rekindled my interest in NWE and I wanted to beef up my holdings of Allied tanks so I picked up a box of the PSC 15mm British Shermans. As with all their offerings these were exquisite models with tons of detail and whole boxfuls of different options. In the end I only made up one Firefly as that is all I need for a full squadron/regiment (depending on game scale) with what I already have, but I kept a spare Firefly turret 'just in case'. My ignorance of Sherman version is boundless, so I made these up to look similar to my Peter Pig ones (with the wide mantlets). No idea if that is right or not, but hey ho, they look alright.

One of the standard 75mm Shermans with turret .50 cal and a commander. I really like the moulded on applique armour.

All five of them, one Firefly and four 75mm with a mix of commanders and turret MGs.

A troop of three, various configurations of track and spare wheels on the front.

Firefly and 75mm,main hull difference from the front is the blanked off FF MG port.

From the rear the huge FF turret counterweight is visible, as are the rear hull differences compared to the standard Sherman.

Side view of the group of three.

Side/rear hull of another 75, this one has a bit more stowage on the rear.

These are great models, although I did  notice that they are slightly smaller than my PP and QRF Shermans (which are both identical in size), so maybe these are actually 1/104th and not 1/100 scale? The same seems to be true comparing my PSC Stug IIIs with my Peter pig ones. At some point I'll measure and see. The models are supplied with a ton of external stowage options - track links, jerry cans, spare wheels, tank commanders etc. Honestly, I think PSC have provided me with enough jerrycans and TCs for an entire division sometimes. I arranged some of these artlessly on the vehicles.

I deliberately painted them fairly plain with no tac markings etc and just the odd air recognition star, and in fact I went back over my other Shermans and painted out the divisional insignia and tac markings as I wanted to keep them as generic as possible. My trusty pot of Humbrol Army Green (old style) has finally run out so I was forced to  figure out how to paint them in khaki drab using Vallejo. In the end I went with Russian Uniform over  black base with a wash of Bronze Green to darken it a bit and I was quite pleased with the results as it is subtly different to OD.

The running gear, lower hull and tracks were very heavily drybrushed in mud and the whole vehicle highlighted in pale tan (Iraqi Sand), and I then just highlighted the tracks in dark steel with a dark brown inkwash. I've pretty much given up painting tracks as a seperate thing, real ones are just covered in mud, so mud seems to be the way to go.