I was wondering if I could pick the brain of a few of you wonderful shermaholics here. I'm building up the dragon M4A1 76 kit and thought it would be interesting to use the polish markings. Just a couple of quick queries

1: would the polish tank use the rear stowage shelf as supplied in the kit or would it have a stowage box like the firefly's

2: The osprey book shows this tank with a white band under the end of the barrel, similar to the paint given to the firefly. Would this be correct? I haven't seen any other reference showing it, but it does look interesting.

Thanks for any help, any other pointers on changes to polish armour would be appreciated.

I built one of these about a year ago. I consulted many refs.

The wavy camo under the barrel like on some fireflies seems to have been pretty common.

As far as the stowage box goes, most of the pics I've seen show the firefly style rear hull stowage box mounted within the luggage rack usually found on an M4A1. It could NOT mount right to the hull, b/c underneath that luggage rack was a hole that the starter crank fit into.

Some also fit the standard commonwealth TURRET stowage box to the back of the turret, mounted onto the .50 cal MG racks.

Email me at biggsgalassi AT yahoo DOT com and I'll give you all the ref pics I have.

Rob

The rear stowage rack was installed at the factory. The long box seen on M4A4s and Firefly VCs -- I've never seen them on anything besides those and Firefly ICs. I'd stick with the kit "luggage" rack for the Polish M4A1 76W.

HTH

Roy,

I already emailed Eric some pics of M4A1s with the long stowage box on the hull rear. However, as per my description above, they are mounted into the standard m4A1 luggage rack, which makes them sit higher up compared with the upper hull rear. It makes for an interesting look. Let me know and if you want I can send you some pics as well to add to your collection.

Rob

Eric, here you have some photos of "Flying Cow" + profile drawings. As you can see from pics, the b/w drawing is not the best reference and may be treated only as a general guide.

Thanks guys, as for the stowage rack even if it wasn't official It seems to me that it would be a logical field mod. If you had all your stuff sitting on a rack, in the rain and sleet, and there was a pefectly good box just sitting on someones tank. *yoink*
anyway it seems a cool idea to break things up a bit and add a point of interest, and I have an ultracast rear stowage box that needs a home.

Thanks again for the help, now I best not blow this one.
Hope to post a couple pics in a few days