1/48th Blitzkrieg Miniatures M4A4 Sherman (76mm) Tank

 I'm currently working on a 1/48th scale Sherman  with a 76mm gun from Blitzkrieg Miniatures.  The completed model will be used by Ernie (Architects of War) as a demo piece for shows.  This is my first experience with 1/48th scale as all of my WW2 stuff is in 1/56th (or 28mm).  My  overall impressions of the model is it's very high quality (as are all Blitzkrieg kits).  The model comes in four resin pieces: the hull with tracks attached, the turret, the main gun barrel and the hull machine gun.  The stowage on the rear is part of the resin cast.  I added some brass rod for the radio antenna.

 I've been debating how much additional stowage to add.  I like scratch building stowage items but don't want to end up with a model that confuses a buyer as to what's in the kit and what's not.  Given this model is intended to be used for display, I think I'll keep any additional stowage to a minimum.

I did experiment with a new way to add mud to the tracks and hull and was pleasantly surprised with the results.

The mud was created by taking a bit of Liquitex "Blended Fibers" medium and mixing in two drops of Vallejo Model Colors Flat Brown (70.984) paint.  The Blended Fibers medium is super easy to apply and gives a nice 3D effect to the "mud" which I think looks much more realistic.

I've used this medium for some figure basing also and have really liked the results.  From a cost basis, it's not really cost effective to use to base large armies but for command stands and vehicle modeling this stuff is rising very high on my list of go-to products.