Great Sherman's i epecailly like the second sherman with the add on armour

should be intereasting how you turn this diorama out

Awesome Shermans! Nice to see some more Pacific Shermans with plenty o' extras!

Thanks a lot guys! These have been a lot of work, but it's a labor of love.
I see lots of ETO shermans, but few PTO's. I guess it's just a special place in my heart for these guys considering I was one once. I wish the model companies would start making more PTO items. I'd love to see some good Aussie and Brit figs, as well as, some new Japanese figs.
Regards, Ed

Hi Ed,

These are a great series of builds you have going on. Excellent work.

Al

Excellent looking Shermans Ed. Looking forward to seeing the 4th finished.

I'm not much of a Sherman fan, but these look awesome Ed. The 4th Batt Sherman has a cool looking Camo scheme, it really is different. I like that the tanks have distinctive field modifications, it gives them character. The paint and weathering is nicely done.
How about a photo feature on these guys?

Rob

Hi Rob, how do I go about doing that? I've never done it and it would be nice to see them up there. Like you, I'm not a shermie fan either, but I'm more and more interested in Pacific theatre as I get older. I'm considering selling some of my stash kits off so I can afford to buy some of the resin PTO vehicles that are around. (Not many unfortunately)
Thanks for the kind words, best regards, Ed

Sorry about being late on my comment,

3rd TB Iwo Jima, Alice, remove the headlights and siren, plug the holes and add an upside down triangle on the leading edges of the wings of the stars (Color is the question, I believe it’s yellow) and you have an absolute winner. Excellent job on the tracks and some really excellent weathering. I didn’t find any specific reference for Alice so I am guessing some artistic license is needed as to the specifics.




4th TB Iwo Jima, Beauty, I also didn’t find any specific reference for this tank either. Generally it looks like you nailed it perfectly. Of course the obvious finishing touches. The only thing I can think of is that they dropped those stacks as soon as they could so that will be reflected in your final weathering, those great muddy tracks will look kind of off on this one, unless you drop the stacks. I really like the way you did those tracks on Alice. Great paint job. I also would like to know how you did the cages on the hatches. Those turned out perfect. Can’t wait to see it finished.
Bob

Hi Bob, I rarely try to model a specific tank from any Company or Division. I try to glean as much information from my references as possible and then build a representative version of that vehicle.
Both of the Shermans I have built so far are correct in what the Battalion's were doing with their respective tanks. If you go through pictures from the battle, you will find inconsistancies in markings and details with the vehicles even in their own companies. You can call it artistic license, and I guess that is correct. While neither tank is perfect they each are correct in the manner in which the Battalions set up their vehicles.
I've found several pics of the tanks coming right out of the LST's looking absolutely filthy. My guess would be very little time spent to clean them up before the next invasion. I left the stacks on these two as I wanted to depict them on the first day. My build I will be doing for the Fifth Battalion will have the stacks dropped and some battle damage.
It seems you have some real good ref on these babies and since I haven't started my 5th Batt. yet, any help would be greatly appreciated.
I intend to build small dios for each of the tanks with a few figgys and a small container of Iwo Jima sand that a friend of mine gave me. A friend of his went back to the island for a reunion and brought the sand back with him.
I will stash the photos and detail uodates you gave me in my archives for my next 3rd and 4th Batt. build! Now that I've started building PTO shermies, I'm hooked!!

Thanks and regards, Ed

Oh, almost forgot, the cages were made with leftover Fruil track wire. I laid out marks on the hatches where the holes would be for the wire ends. I then drilled the holes and bent each cage wire to fit the span. One at a time, I put the cage wires in their respective holes and bent the inner ends over and CA glued them. This won't work for an open hatch as the inside of the hatch is criss-crossed with wire, but it does make them very sturdy and able to handle brush work without deforming or knocking loose.

"If you just want an Iwo Jima tank, do a 5th Tank M4A3; you can leave off the nails if you do a "generic" vehicle, since not all had them. The markings should be simple, just the division tactical symbol (a square) with the unit embarkation code inside. The fancy markings from the Italeri kit were applied only in the last days of the campaign --- in chalk." Quote from Ed Gilbert in a post from missing-lynk

Depending on what you want to cover you’ll have plenty of choices.

A Book I highly recommend is "Tank Warfare on Iwo Jima" by David Harper, excellent coverage of all the TB’s.

When you decide on what exactly you want to place on the 5th TB tank you’ll be constructing let me know and I’ll see if I can find some detail pictures for you.

Really like the 3rd and 4th Tanks I think you have them perfect. I have run across some photos with the headlights and siren on for 3rd TB but only a couple. So it could be exactly as you say.

This is Adder from 3rd TB just leaving the LC (Yep looks like they welded it together on the way over)





Wow, excellent work on those hatches, very detailed. I think I’ll stick with the ones from Hardsorpsmodels, which I just noticed they don’t sell anymore. I have 2 sets so I’ll try your method on the 3rd one.
Bob


I also wanted to mention the fact that you are covering some great details on these tanks that a lot of people haven't noticed so I just wanted to say just what a great job you're doing.

Thanks a lot Bob!
Dave's book was my inspiration for building these, I'd been trying to gather internet info and then his book came out. I think I broke the spine on my second day, perusing every page over and over. I have two of Finemolds Tanks to make as knockouts for other Iwo dios, but I want to finish my shermies first.
Thanks again and regards, Ed