I had an 'AHA!' moment this morning. I was looking through my reference books for a picture when I came across a page about Patton's 'Dummy' army. I am going to make a simple diorama depicting one of these unsung heroes. It shouldn't be too hard. I am going to take a sherman I built a while ago and use it to caste the inflatable version.

Any idea contribution would be much apreciated!

-Mike

Maybe a tissue paper draped over a actual sherman??? then removed and assembled to look like the inflateable?

That is a good idea. I can probobly try that tomorrow morning. Thanks.

YOu can put some poor camoflauge nets over it or rolled up on the ground with some sound speakers which they would use. Or if you have enougn time you could do a mobile sound truck (basically a duece and a half or a halftrack with sound equipment in the back.

Not sure if this may be related to Patton's dummy army, but didn't some Sherman Fireflies have a mounting rig on them for a dummy truck body that could be added. Wasn't it code named 'houseboat' or something like that? Does anyone have some pics of this?



Bob

I agree with Matt's idea. Use either the Tamiya M4 or the Dragon Sherman III, as a master for a simple "mold" from tissue paper or rolled putty. (Make sure neither sticks to the model while drying.) Afterwards build up the shape of the cast using pics aas a guide. Looking at pics of inflattable Shermans, the shapes are very simple and a bit "bloated".
Looking forward to any in progress pics.

That is what I was thinking as well. I am going to make it a little bigger than I originally planned. I am thinking about building a small motor-pool type structure. I was thinking about using silly-putty as a mold aid. I've used it for painting camo before so it shouldn't be too hard a chore.

-Mike

There is a thread on ML on Dummy Shermans both British and American.

cheers
David

Just remembered this picture I had found. It is done by a member of the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. The event really happened. They were setting up an inflatable tank when these French men rode by on their bike and saw them. They stood their with their mouths wide open and the soldier's response was "We AMerican are very strong."


He is a link to unit info that may help:

http://www.ghostarmy.org/index.php?page=about

Alistair Johnson (Slaphead) did a dio on this subject with an inflatable Sherman being pumped up by a scratch built compressor. I can't find the photos now but I thought they were displayed on this site (anybody remember?)
I think he set the finished Sherman in the oven until it just started to droop then added putty to "soften up" the detail and make it look more like a dummy. Brilliant diorama
Cheers,
Charles

Drats... well there goes originality! Well I was thinking of a new direction in the build phase. I remember a high school shop class I did. It had an emphasis in drafting so we did models and alot of drawings. I remember we used these foam blocks the make cars. They cut easy but are somewhat delicate... I think I may go check that out. It would be far easier to cut one out of a block than to cast anything.

I made a small drawing of my plan. I will post it later.

-Mike

PS- Thanks for all the info and pics. If I could get a picture of the other dio so that I dont plagerize anything it would be great!

Alistair?? You out there? Please run some photos of your inflatable Sherman again. Can't find the others anywhere on the net.

Cheers,
Charles