Hello, I'm getting quite confused by this Sherman so far. I see that my transmission cover doesn't have any "casting" markings, how do I know what exact casting marks are needed for my tank? I don't have a clear picture of the transmission cover of the exact tank I'm building, all I have is that it's from the IDF's 1st company, 52nd Battalion and that it's registration number in the IDF is 75276. Is it even possible to figure out the exact numbers/letter I would need to apply?

Also, is there any other method/company that makes these apart from Archer?! I would really like to add this detail to my model but at 18$ it's a little too much for me.

Thanks in advance and kind regards, Sven.

The US Army did not assign the markings to particular vehicles. The markings identify the castings only. Assembly plants used particular foundries as their suppliers so new tanks from a particular plant would have a limited set of symbols. The IDF tanks have been through three or even four owners so the differential housings might be three years newer than the hull. The best you can do is identify the maker of the casting in question and choose appropriate markings for that casting.

There are PE foundry symbols out there but they are probably about the same price as the Archer set but with fewer marks. People have scraped numbers and letters off sprues and added shaped marks with stretched sprue, if you are up for that.

KL

http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/

Gary

From your earlier post, you were building the Tamiya M51 with the late tranny housing. These were usually marked on the underside, between the towing eyes. If you have access to some Slaters plastic lettering, or surplus casting letters from an Academy M10/M36 kit, you can piece the markings together easy enough (photo below is on an old Italeri kit). The key info is the drawing number (E8543 in this case), a serial number for the part (may start with a letter), and the heat-treatment batch ID. Sometimes you get the foundry symbol too, but as any/all of these could be on the inside face of the part, it can be hit & miss as to exactly what you see, and where. Hope this helps!

$18 does seem high -- I hadn't realized it was that much. I bought several sets a few years ago and they've lasted me. However, know that one sheet will cover many projects. If you consider that -- $3 per model isn't a bad deal, in my opinion.

Hello everyone, thank you so much for all your answers. I looked at some pictures and at the article Gary kindly provided and figured out more or less what symbols/number I'm going to add.
I wouldn't have a problem with buying the archer set if I was going to build another Sherman soon, but unfortunately there isn't a Sherman planned anytime soon so I would like to direct the money towards something else.
I think I will try and source the numbers from some spare sprues I have and try on a spare piece of plastic and see how that goes, if that doesn't work I'll try with the Slaters set Tom was talking about.