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Sheridan Walkaround

The following are photos of the Sheridan at the US Army Museum located at Fort Lewis Washington. Sheridan production ceased in 1972, so virtually all Sheridans started life as M551s and were rebuilt to later standards. This Sheridan is a rebuilt M551A1/TTS (Tank Thermal Sight) vehicle, but retains the eight early smoke grenade launchers of the M551. The vehicle has the "notch" cut and welded into the right turret cheek to accommodate the gunner's TTS sight, the narrow lens of the gunners sight, and a port for the "slave cable" just to the front left of the driver's position, which was a modification made to some rebuilt M551A1sn the 1980s. The vehicle also has a late (1980s) cargo rack to the rear of the turret. Of note to modelers are the steel rims on the inside of the road wheels; the rubberized fabric covers for the floatation screens; and the folded front swim vane with two windows. Also of note is the black rubber cap for the bilge pump outlet cover mounted on left hull just below the smoke grenade launchers, the heater exhaust to the driver's right on the upper glacis, and the small grated bilge pump openings at the rear of the hull. The searchlight, the long perforated barrel of the co-axial machine gun, and the bore plug with a "lifting eye" are spurious. The markings are also spurious, as the vehicle is painted to resemble MERDC vehicles which were assigned to the 1st Cavalry Regiment in Germany in the 1970s. I believe this particular vehicle was displayed at 2-1 ACR in Germany, and was transferred with 2-1 ACR when they were reassigned to the 4th BDE (Stryker) of the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis in 2006, which is how it came to be at the Fort Lewis museum. Interesting for modellers is the review, also from Russ, of the RFM kit available clicking here.