Saw this pic in the Squadron Sherman in Action book. It's the one with the umbrella.


Yesterday while at a backyard pig roast pool party where they were serving umbrella drinks I just stared at the little umbrellas thinking I could use it as a basis for my model. I took an unused umbrella home and sprayed it white planning to add other colors later. I temporarily mounted it to the only tank I had without an MG where I can use the MG mount to attach the umbrella. Although I will build a new Sherman for this build, what do you think of the idea? I will wait for the DML US Tank crew re-release and put them in the turret hatches.

LOL...this too funny!! You still need to paint the umbrella.

Don't forget to paint it in "scale" colors... nice touch. Was this a serious thing? Or was someone just playing around and it got published??

Although it looks inviting, I don't know if I would want to drink what came out of that "drink".

According to the caption the commander took the beach umbrella to keep cool from the sun. I will probably try and put it on a Tamiya 75mm Sherman later.

I've seen a lot of pictures of tanks in Vietnam with umbrellas and shading devices, so I'm not a bit surprised they did it in W.W.II. Great idea btw.

hahahaha....this is good and funny....

i love it! i'd like to see some drink holders and a margarita or two....haha

but really-i noticed in the book it said the tank was from italy, did they use the hedgerow cutters in italy?? i thought they used those only in france after the normandy invasions??

Nice to see something unusual!!! Well done!!!
Ciao

thats cool that u made that umbrella.
they really did that on that tank.
post more pics when u paint the umbrella.
i think that the sherma tank that was the bar on
tracks lol

The Sherman in the pics is not the one that will be the final vehicle. It is just the one that was handy for test pics. I will build a new Sherman with all the appropriate accessories for sporting a beach umbrella

OK guys here is the plan. I got me a line on an old Nichimo (sp) M4A1 that will be a good basis for a conversion. Will have to pick me up some M3 bogies if can get hooked up.

Back up plan: I am bidding on eBay for the older M4A3 kit. If I go this route it will pretty much be OOTB.

LOL!! That's the best Sherman I've ever seen! No really! I like the way they put it. Very unusual.

Hi,

That photo also made me think doing one with the umbrella.

Your idea of using a cocktail one it's very good.

I'vent understand your idea of making a M4A3 OOTB, the tank it's an early M4A1, with direct vision slots (IMHO), so I think yours first option will be better.

LOL< I was just looking at that same plate yesterday (though I had no intention of building it).
Nice use of a party favor... something to think about for an "X-factor" on a campaign.

Hey, how do you get that nice weather on that side of the lake?

Glad everyone likes the idea. Hope to get the project going soon.

I was not really going to try and model that exact tank "Hang It N". I was just going to use that photo as inspiration for my own creation so the actual kit is more a matter of availability than accuracy. It's not as if small hatch M4A1s are readily available. Hopefully I can score on the Nichimo.

The M4A3 is just a backup and obviously will not come close to the original pic but just a similar and interesting subject.

As for the weather, it was good for just one Saturday and even then it was clouds off and on. Today is nearly perfect.

Crappy pic but here is my latest attempt at the umbrella Sherman (you can see several attempts to scratch an umbrella in the background) using a drink umbrella. It was too hard to paint the exact colors as in the pic so I decided to improvise with different colors for my beach umbrella. Also since I could not get the early M4A1 I decided just to use the first available kit in my stash- an original Tamiya M4A3 75mm. The turret is unpainted.

I might shorted the umbrella shaft a little more.

looks good, though try masking with a pos it, it won't tear the paper, and will get rid of that "choppy" edge.

Airwarrior, what is a pos?

Judging from context, I think airwarrior meant Post-It, but just left the 'T' out. I'd agree with his suggestion, as the adhesive is very mild and won't tear the fragile tissue paper.

Ah! Actually I did mask it when I painted it but because it's paper the red soaked under the tape. I will have to touch it up with white. Might have to paint the whole thing red then mask it off to spray white since I have a spray can of white.

Ciao Shermies,
Excellent. I have the same Squadron book and I always thought that drawing was really cool. You have captured the very essence of it!! Good job!!
Ciao for now
Rob