Robin and Frenchy,

Job done - what - in around 10 minutes or so? All hail to Armorama.

Many thanks - grenades are clearly flush fitted and I understand would have been pale green. (I should have mentioned that my model will be the earlier iteration with the original smoke dischargers as opposed to the later type fitted for the Gulf War for instance).

Thanks again,

Brian

If you haven't seen it already, this is fun to watch; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY7tV8lUhAA

The training film sure brings back memories--some of them not so good! In reality, we didn't move that slow when loading and firing the rounds. Don't know if you caught the rubber bag being pulled off the conventional rounds-- that's the bag we covered our smoke dischargers with when not in use. Nice clean tanks--I never saw one like that when I was in the Cav-- they were beaten and sometimes worn down to bare sheet metal in spots--especially the sides where we ran them through the brush. Not much if any rust though--these are aluminum beasts. We repainted twice a year, Autumn and Spring.
CARGO RACK: As far as the cargo rack went, we had the same type of rack they show in the film. It was a bar of angle iron, coming out below the rear bustle on the right and left, bent in the form of the rear of the turret, wrapping from one side to another. There was a central support bar coming up from the base of the turret near the turret ring that supported this rack. It had a fabric net that stretched around and over it, which could be clipped into strap hangers at the back top of the turret. If we used it, our gear was bagged or boxed, placed in the netting, and the net was then wrapped over the top of the gear to keep it in place (The Academy kit cargo rack is not standard--it's a field modification from some later model Sheridan I think). Some of our M551s had a section of metal fencing material welded to the underside of this rack, also a local field mod, but it was a little more durable than the netting and gave us a solid base.
DETAILS: We all had commander's "teacups" (which is what we called the armor plate around the cupola. I've since learned other units called them by other titles. It contained the battery for the laser range finder on later tanks. A couple of things I notice that are not in the film besides the armored cupola-- there's no searchlight, and I didn't see the IR box open atop the gun, it had a front plate that hinged down.
MARKINGS-- I remember two types for the 11th ACR, one was used when I got there in '76, the other was directed by V Corps sometime in 1978, the Spring I think. The markings were stenciled in black on a sand colored rectangular background (using the same sand colored paint as in the MERDC scheme), and painted just inside the hull lifting rings at the top of the hull, front and back, in four locations. Early-on, the right side of the tank (your left if you were facing it) was marked with 2/11 ACR, the left with F 36 (my tank). This stood for Second Squadron, 11th ACR, Fox troop, #36--which was the 3rd platoon leaders vehicle (hence the "3" and the "6"--where the "3" was the platoon, "6" indicated the unit commanders vehicle, as there were six Sheridans in a Platoon. The Plt. Sergeant was tank #3 if I recall right). In '78, the markings were changed by V Corps directive to "V 2/11 CAV" on the right side front and "F-36" on the left front. It was reversed on the rear. If you were facing the vehicle the unit marking was always on the left. We had no stars at all, black or otherwise. The only other markings were the serial numbers under a small "US ARMY" stenciled just behind and below the front fold up crew step on the right and left side of the forward hull. We also had a small bridge weight marking-- "17" in a circle just to the right of the drivers hatch. On the forward left side of the hull, below and behind the headlight guards was an inset hole with the fire extinguisher "T" pull handle. The handle was always painted gloss red. sometimes there was a small stencil marked "FIRE EXTINGUISHER" just above the bottom of the hull plate, but not always. I remember a few tanks (including mine) had tiny "LIFT HERE" above the upper hull plate lift rings front and back. There was also a white "half arrow" (literally a line with the right half of an arrowhead) painted on the end of the gun tube at the top, stretching about 1/3 the length of the barrel. This was an aid for the commander to aim (lay) the gun for the gunner while in low light situations--it could only be seen by the commander in his cupola, not from the side.
SEARCHLIGHTS: Our searchlights were the small type, mounted left of the gun, and they usually retained all their markings but were left in the forest green color without camo, but they also all had a canvass cover--it was sacrilege to go to the field without the cover, as the reflector lens and reflector would be exposed-- not good for concealment and bad for the lens, which was easily broken or scratched.
When a tank came from the depot to us, it was always painted in forest green, with the serial markings and the small stars in black, but we'd paint those out right away when we camouflaged the tank during the acceptance inspection/prep. Our philosophy was we really didn't need the stars, because if someone was that close to see them, they were too close. Hope this helps. I remember most of this is because as soon as I could get my hands on the Tamiya kit when I got back to the States, I built one as my M551, and I'm holding it in my hands as I type! It's not a "good" model, but it's kept my memory fairly clear.
VR, Russ

I remember seeing Sheridans in MASSTER when we did an exercise with 11ACR in the 70's. We actually swapped some crew members with them, we were in Scimitars and I had an American gunner for a few days. He was more amazed by the 'Boiling Vessel' than anything else.

Brian, I'm not sure when the laser rangefinder came in, but if the vehicle has the later armor plate around the commander's cupola position, it has a laser. The battery pack for the laser was in the back floor of the "teacup". The commander could scoot back and sit on it. I lost mine at Wildflecken in 1977 when the bolts sheared during recoil, and the back of the "teacup" fell off onto the back deck (boosting me up into the .50 cal in the process. With the battery gone, we had to use the choke sights. The film depicts the early Sheridan without the laser.
VR, Russ

The right chicken shields, the battery and range finder are all in the Gulf War Sheridan kit. It also has a different storage rack which is a modification of the stock one rather than the one off Vietnam one.

I've done two Academy Sheridans (Vietnam and Gulf War) and have one more to go (.ca. 1977) The Vietnam one has loaded grenade launchers since they were used there. The grenade pieces intended for the Gulf War launchers are decent approximations of the loaded grenade. I wasnt going to get crazy with it as the kit is just so off. I squint and just don't ever compare it to the real thing.

Here's a link to a photo of a 3rd of the 11th ACR Sheridan in MASSTER at the border in the early 70s. This was before my time at any rate, as all ours were in MERDC by '76. The commander is wearing the "football" style helmet which was out of use by '76, but he's in a later style cupola with the laser range finder. Note the cargo rack. That's what I remember for sure.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PGlQPLly1gY/Vp3jUnIiZ0I/AAAAAAAAKBQ/NV4dsHW1CE8/s1600/m551-sheridan_6.jpg
VR, Russ