Gunnytank;

I’ve been thinking about building an M4 “Ronson” tank-M4 Sherman equipped with Navy Mk 1 flamethrower-similar to the one you constructed. First, I want to construct a static 1/35 scale model and then, once the 1/35 model has been perfected, modify one of Tamiya’s 1/16 scale RC tanks to produce the same model.

I’ve been attempting to gather information and pictures of the M4 Flame tanks used of Iwo Jima and elsewhere in the Pacific but have had minimal luck doing so, despite sending letters to the Library of Congress and the Marine Corps and Army historical departments. Additionally, I have purchased Steve Crawford’s “Tanks of World War II”, Neiman & Estes’s “Tanks on the Beaches”, and Oscar E. Gilbert’s “Marine Tank Battles in the Pacific”.

Furthermore, I have located a video of an M4 Ronson on Iwo Jima (link #2) and the iconic picture of a Ronson on Iwo Jima on the Internet (link #1).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Ronson_flame_tank_Iwo_Jima.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-7JZIHsRN0

While this information is helpful, it does not give me nearly enough detail to produce a model as detailed as yours.

I was wondering what additional sources you might have found and used to produce your model.

Also, the tank #40, the tank in the video and the only color shot I have of an M4 Ronson, doesn’t appear to have snorkel attachment on the rear of the hull. I noticed that your model of tank #44 possessed such a snorkel.

Assuming I am unable to locate any additional pictures of Ronsons, I will likely attempt to construct #40.

Since this tank also appears to have wood armor on the sides, I was thinking that I should use the same Italeri kit as the base for my model (replacing the plastic wood sides with balsa of course. Before I do this though, I would need to know that I could easily construct the kit without the snorkel attachment. Do you remember if is possible to NOT attach the snorkel or snorkel attachment when constructing this kit???

Thank you in advance for your help.

~Tyler~

Tyler,

I have several of that Italeri kit and have built most of them without the snorkel. They are just extra parts that you need not attach. Indeed, this kit is the same exact kit as the Italeri M4A3 Sherman with Calliope, except instead of the Calliope rocket launcher it has the snorkel parts and a few other parts (spare tracks, etc.) specific to these Marine vehicles. You can usually find these for under $20 on ebay, including the shipping.

Rob

where's the marshmallows? very convincing, Don

Rob;

Thank you for the information on the Italeri M4 kit.

I’m hoping to begin building this model as soon as I find some more detailed pictures of the prototypes. If any of you would know where I could find some more detailed pictures of M4 “Ronsons” I’d definitely appreciate you telling me where I can find them.

there is a tutorial on how to build flame in the "/features" section of this site.

This is really good Don - the wood looks real and the flame really adds interest. I've always wanted to do a tank/vehicle in honor of the Iwo campaign. One thing the japanese were definately afraid of was fire!

Charlie

Hi don,

Must have missed this one first time round. Excellent build the tanks looks terrific. Really neat ob on the flame, very convincing.

Nice one

Al

Excellent job!

The tank is nice and the flames are superb!!!

Gunny -

That is one fine flame tank. Any chance you will make an M-67 stable-mate for it based upon the M-48 tank? Wikipedia has a pic of one doing its thing in Vietnam.

Sempre Fi,
Dave

David,
I have thought about building an M-67 but I have found enough reference pics to identify the differences between the M-48 and M-67. So far it looks to me like you could build an M-48A3 and put the markings on it for a M-67 and call it good. But like I said I would need to research it further.
Don