Greetings all,

Here at the first two of my Irish Guards Shermans.

M4A4, Sherman Mk V - "Ardnacrush"
– 2 Tp, 1 Sqn, 2 Bn IG (Armd) – T147470

Crew (5)
233957 Lt MH Chaine-Nickson – Tp Offr
2719910 LCpl Unwin R – D/Op
2720535 Gdsm Swallow F –D/Op
2719127 Gdsm Clarke T – G/Mech
2722184 Gdsm McDermott H – D/Mech

M4A4, Sherman VC Firefly – (Model name Antrim)
. - 2Tp, 1 Sqn, 2nd Bn IG (Armd) – T 212688

Crew (4)
2721802 LSgt Beckworth H – G/Op
2723187 Gdsm Kelvey P – G/Op
2723439 Gdsm Hepbur J /Mech
2719974 LCpl Hall W – D/Mech

Still to add are the tank names, front and side and the Squadron Signs which although stated in the history as being on the turret, from all photos I’ve seen appear to be on the side of the vehicle hull. They will be the St Patrick’s Blue Triangle.

There are no bolt holes in the bogies as I didn’t have a small enough drill bit when I built them. Apart from that both hulls are from the DML VC Firefly, with the turret for the Mk V coming from the Tamiya M4.

Crew are Resicast and Tamiya figures and the stowage is from Accurate Armour.

Decals are a mix of stuff that I had, some from Archer Fine Transfers, the numbers from the Italeri DUKW and the Divisional Signs I think are Tamiya.

I have Coldstream Guards Tank Riders that will be on the back of each vehicle as during the period the models will be set in they were acting as the infantry support.

Also on stowage, from all the early photo’s I’ve seen the tanks carried very little on the front hull. As the campaign progressed the stowage arrangement changed with more ‘protection’ being added as well as additional kit. As my plan is to portray them in the early campaigns of Op Goodwood, I’ve left them fairly uncluttered for now.

I’ve only come across a few tank names for the 17 pdrs, so this one will be Antrim for the county I come from. They will be joined by a Bn HQ tank, either St Patrick, Ulster, Erin or St Colum and a Stuart Mk V1 from the Recce Pl at some point in the future, but less the tank riders they are probably ready for review!!!!! LOL, LOL, LOL.

I couldn’t get up to the MAFVA show at Duxford so this is my contribution!!!

Cheers

Al

Edit and yes, bugger - I've just seen the red tail lights on the Firefly!!! LOL, LOL

What a lovely pair Alan :-)

Ive been toying with putting together a Mk V to go with my Firefly for some time now , seeing yours has got me inspired again


Great work


Ian

Hi Ian,

Thanks for that. If you use the Tamiya M4 turret it's an easy swap of the turret rings and some filling and filing. The bonus is you can then make an M4 Firefly Ic from the Tamiya hull and Dragon turret, again by switching the rings. (David (Drader) told me that and it works and is cost effective).

Cheers

AL

Al, I am starting to get worried that you are developing a fetish for the Sherman tank in all of itys variants

Seriously nicely done and now I know why you were not at Duxford, because you were busy building.

John

Hi Alan ...Nice set of Shermans you got there ...gosh do you ever sleep? I've seen like 5 models from you in the last two weeks ...You've done more than I do in a year...
One thing I've noticed on all your Shermans is the appliqued armour plates..is it me or are they a little too close together on the right hand side ...I think the rear one should be further back a bit but it might just be the angle of the picture ...but on the firefly the left side is wrong there was only one plate on that side and on fireflies these were seen but were rare since the ammo stowage was changed and the plates were useless...

if you need pictures let me know I'll post a few ...
Great job all around ..keep it up ...

Rick

I can't say that the Brits never used .50s but I know they preferred to use the .30. The .50 seemed to get in the way of the hatches in the opinion of the Brits

Greetigns all,

John - Yip, sorry I couldn't make the show, transport person let me down at the last moment. Fetish or obsession I'm not sure which - I see at least another 10 of these being added to the collection over the next year or two. I've 3 Mk IIs pending build, another Mk V for the IG troop then there's the pending release of the new dragon kits MK III and Firefly Ic (will one be enough LOL) and the Sherman Recovery when I get better with resin and PE and one just has to have a Dozer or two around for those emergency situations!!!!! LOL,LOL, LOL - Seriously thanks for your comments.

Richard - I was wondering when someone might pick that up. Part bodge up on the initial build and then I got to thinking - repair or initiative??? The vehicles will be in a setting for operations around Caumont. The operation started on 30 July and was conducted in typical bocage country. The initial engagements at Cagny had given them a bit of a bloody nose and I got to thinking about repairs and initiative. If a hole got shot into the side of a tank, clean up any mess and weld a plate over it??? Be interested to here any views on this or alternatively a bit of individual initiative - add some more protection???? If you think it would be a non runner either way I can always remove it.

I have seen photos where they welded a bit of a commanders hatch over the front driving position so field modification and individual initiative were around.

Re the plate spacing, I don't know if that's an exact science, it might be - I just used the mk 1 eyeball and put them where I thought they should go judgeing from the plans. Thanks for your comments.

re - number of builds - I've had the Shermans almost finished for some time, posting the 2 Mk 1's gave me the kick I needed to get most of the final work done. As a beginner with Shermans there always sems to be something else!!! LOL LOL - Cheers.

Alan - re .50 cal - optional extra, can remove or leave it there to show why they were so unpopular - given the mounting used it would be a real pain where it is, can easliy lift it out as it's not glued in.

Thanks to all for taking the time to post and any comments or thoughts about the repair or initiative issue would be welcome. Should be easy enough to fix if necessary.

Cheers

Al

Alan,

I really like the looks of these two. One thing thought on the Mark V, you have mounted the turret stowage box wrong. The side that is now on the bottom should be the one mated to the back of the turret.

Daniel

Hi Alan

Your builds are getting better and better! And sooo many!

I couldn't agree with you more regarding initiative in the field and 'ad hoc' modifications, I mean, how many troops in Normandy around 'Goodwood' and how many vehicles? I realise the crew would have kept the vehicles in good order and the engineers and mechanics would have operated in the same fashion, but it is a war zone after all and none of the units would have sat around with nothing better to do than measure and ponder in between ops!

Excellent work mate, the sheer quantity of your work along with your passion for the hobby and the subject, always inspires me to get on with my stuff!

Cheers

PS. Erin is my daughters name (Irish heritage - like everyone else!)

Alan, nice work mate! I'm working on a couple of British Shermans for a Normandy dio so it's nice to see someone else doing it! I'm leaving the .50 cals on mine as I've seen pics of British Shermans with them. Mind you having said that they weren't especially popular.

Wow I never knew it would be so simple to build a Sherman V this way.

Love your builds and I can't add much more then whats been said. My only question is what colour did you use to paint them?

Jeff

Greetings all,

Thanks you for you comments and suggestions they were all most welcome. My apologies for not responding sooner I only just picked up the post again, lots of other stuff going on.

Damiel Re: the stowage box I wondered who would spot that. It's actually for the Shermans in Italy but was the only one I had available at the time and will get changed before they are placed in their final setting.

Jeff re the colour: I use Tamiya OD and DG with a squire or two of yellow; Sorry I'm not at home at the moment and can't give you the paint numbers but I'll post again when I get back home. They were then weathered with MIG pigments.

Re: the additional plate armour on the left hand side I opted to remove it based on the initial comments, but I still think it would be a possibility as a repair or just more protection.

Thank you all for you comments, there's a third one still to join them but this time I thought I'd use the turret from the Mk II for a bit of variation.

Again my apologies for not responding sooner but I've been off on hols and other things and had kinda forgotten about the post with all that's been going on.

Cheers

Al



Ps; Matt - Erin it may well be - re the repairs, according to the history the TQMS and others started liberating spare parts form the moment they landed, anthing that ws useful and could be removed from any of their own tanks or any others they came across was salvaged and added to the store as spare parts seem to have been a problem and the situation just got worse as the moved towards Germany.

yes that is a lovely pair mcneiily! I Just love the commenwealth shermans!

I used to think that a Sherman is a Sherman and didn't realise the sheer variety of versions and variations on the theme that there were. Really good to see these two Alan - impressive.

Being able to put names and faces to a vehicle, I think, adds to the attraction of the model . Any idea of what happened to these two Shermans?

Jeff W.

Hi Jeff,

When I start this project just under a year ago I though a British Sherman just had a bin on the back of the turret and that one version had a 17pde gun. :-) :-) So it's has been a steep learning curve.

I agree that linking the build to individuals or moments in time adds a lot to the build. For me this started with wanting to know a bit more about my old regiments role in WW2. I knew the 1st Bn had been pretty much wiped out in the fighting in Italy but that's another story and knew the story of the 2nd Bn's role in Market Garden, in the broad sense. What I didn't know was what happended in the early part of the Normandy campaign.

So I started to do some research, read the History of the Irish Guards and the Armoured Micks and set off down to the National Archives to see what else I could find out.

Well, I came back with a complete listing of all the crew and vehicles that landed in Normandy. Since then I've been adding information from a variety of sources not least of which are two ex Micks from 2 Bn who are still alive in the north of England.

With the help of Kevin Tucker, who got me interested in WD numbers and stuff (and has a lot to answer for LOL, LOL), I have produced a comprehensive listing of all known Irish Guards vehicles and crew who took part in the campaign and forwarded this data to the Imperial War Museum, Bovington Tank Museum as well as RHQ IG and various other interested parties.

I can match the data to the history book so it is possiblle to tell which crew were killed, wounded etc and what happend to the vehicles. In some cases this information already existed from official reports and that is included in the data. I haven't yet added any specific data re vehicles knocked out from what can be assertained from the 'History', time if the main factor here plus I was reluctant to start adding KIAs etc as some of the members of the Battalion are still alive and I wasn't sure if this would be appropriate.

I'm not at home at the moment but re the vehicles Lt Chaine-Nickson was killed by a random shell just before the operation at Caumont. I'd have to check back to give you any more specific details as the amount of information I have is quite extensive and my memory is not as good as it used to be.

I've have only just recently finished adding all the crew members (number, rank, name, trade) to each vehicle (including alll support vehicles/truicks etc) so in about 18 months if I get a quiet few weeks I should have added as much detail from both history books as I can and this will include known vehicle damage etc.

It's like building the Shermans themselves, just takes a bit of time.

The History of the Micks was one of the things that got me intersted in building again.

Thanks for you comments, much appreciated, especially for a newbie Sherman 'FREAK' :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Cheers

Al

Hi Jeff V,

David (aka Drader) put me onto that one. From the Tamiya and Dragon kits you get a fairly accurate Mk V and with the remainder an M4 Firefly Ic - sort of 2 in 1 - :-) :-) :-) and a lot more cost effective than an extra 30 quid to make a Mk V.

Cheers

Al