Sherman Firefly (part three)

Over the past few weeks I have found an evening or two to dabble more on this model. Most importantly I have made the decision to add a highlight layer to the Sherman Firefly. Although this layer wouldn't exist in real life, it looks right on the model and helps pull out some detail when one looks upon it.

I used a color from an old Epic paint set, called Jungle Green, and it works very well with Tamiya Color Olive Drab 2  (TS-28) spray paint. I applied this somewhat thinly, to hint the highlight more than to overwhelm the Olive Drab coat.

These two pics show these results up to this point. Not obvious in these pics are the detail that I painted on the bottom of the barrel, which I assume it a sort of camouflage to disguise the true length of the barrel, so that at first sight, the tank might be mistaken as a standard Sherman tank. 

And yes, you can see in the next pic, the construction of my infantry units is indeed taking place! They are sure to earn their own post soon.

These next pics are some real-world examples I found online. I chose these as the inspiration, or justification, for where to place the decals on this model. And to also justify my choice of painting in solid colors.

Photo swiped from Wikimedia Commons

Another photo swiped from Wikimedia Commons

Those are just two of the photos I found, but the next few pics show the decals going on. Also note that I chose to take these next few pics in natural lighting as I was finding that the harsher light of my painting table lamp was distorting the color a bit, and you can now see in the pics below that the model is painted in a darker tone closer to the real thing.

This last pic shows the completed model!
(Yes is it actually happens).

I dry brushed some Sandstone brown to to dirty up the tracks and the lower hull, and satisfied, I stick the proverbial fork in this model.

The next Bolt Action project will be the British Infantry...tally ho!

Bonus: Here is a great historical overview of the Sherman Firefly: -guide-sherman-firefly.