I was not going to post these recent builds yet but after doing some talking with Treadhead I decided to post them. The left tank is a kitbashed M4A3 76mm. It was made from an Italeri USMC Sherman less waders, with a T23 turret swapped from an Italeri M4A1. The sandbags are from the Verlinden Sherman stowage set as is the first aid kit on the rear rack. The rear rack was the standard shelf but with a railing made from unfolding and reshaping a paperclip. The tip of the 76mm barrel has been camouflaged revealing only the length of a regular 75mm barrel.

The M4A1 75mm on the right is the leftover upper and lower hull of the Italeri M4A1 use in the swap. The wheels are Tamiya but the turret is not the Italeri USMC 75mm turret. It is the leftover DML/Dragon M4 Hybrid 75mm with cast in cheek armor instead if the welded cheek armor. The damaged rear storage box was taken from a DML Firefly and the T49 tracks are AFV club rubberbands. Because of the number of spare parts used to build the M4A1 75mm I named her Frankenstein.

Nice Mate, very nice! weathering is great!
cheers

Go Sherman.
The Sherman is the most Beautiful tank of all time and you show it here! Nice

ShermiesRule! I agree

I love Shermans!! :-)

I that case you guys should know I'm nearly done with a M4A3 105mm just for the hell of it.

I am also in the planning stages of another USMC Sherman but instead of the kit wading stacks I am going to use 55gallon barrels as the stacks. This was a common improvisation on PTO Shermans because most wading kits were for the M4A3 variant, not the M4A2. Therefore the Seabees and engineers made their own stacks from sheetmetal and oil drums!!

I have in my reserves, another 105mm for the possible Ardenne Offensive Campaign

they look great, thats cool u did some kit bashing.
keep up the nice work

Howdy Alan,

Geee, I've never felt so guilty, or so honoured.
Mighty glad to see you decided to share your superb work with the gang over here. It's a line-up that deserve's some appreciating eyes.....but speaking of line-ups, how about the rest of the ShermiesRule 'Posse'? I just know your deck handrail is holding at least two more of these buggers!

Come on!......pan the camera to the right a little, or is that left?

Tread.

Oh.....and don't forget to expand on the three 55 gal. drums mounted on the rear deck.

Always great to see more Shermans on here ...I have just rediscovered this tank after a 15 year love affaire with german equipement ,but I have seen the light and have 3 Shermans all lined up to build ..I think this site might just have something to do with that ..keep up the good work....just a little note ..the commanders hatch on the 76mm turret looks like it is lying too flat and should be at the same angle as the 75mm's..

Rick

very nice work you ve done with the Sherman one question did the gaz barrel had the same color of the tank or is it mistake from me

Bear that is actually a funny story. I had the hatch at the proper angle and leaning against a box while the glue dried. Somehow the box was jostled out of place and the hatch moved positions and dried in it's current position.

Tread. There are actually about a dozen more tanks on the rail. https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/31442&page=1

The 3 55gal drums is just something I threw up on there to be different. They are three regular Tamiya drums.

RIMA, the gauze on the end of the 76mm was wrapped around the barrel wet and painted olive drab but the tea leaves are unpainted.

ShermiesRule, let me tell you something... while looking at your works, man!!! I'm tempted to finish my 75mm and 105mm Sherman for the Ardennes! Must resist! Must resist!!! :-)

I like them very much

Hey, Lot of allied vehicle. That's great!

Hi ShermiesRule. Great looking Shermans !!!!
I love the Sherman too
A question for Shermanholics: the second Sherman, the M4A1, has the big hatches hull and a 75 mm turret (seems a high bustle one with the new comander cupola and loader hatch), did this combination exists in WW2 ?

Very nice job

Actually no it didn't officially exist. I built it using all my leftover spare parts without buying anything new. I'm sure but without proof, that such a combo existed because some guys at the repair depots would have done exatly like me, get another working tank out in the field using available parts.

I don't understand. Finish the 75mm and 105mm now. When it comes time for the Ardennes Campaign just buy two more kits

Problem solved...

Howdy fellas,

I completely and totally agree with ShermiesRule (can't wait for Hollowpoint to shoot a hole in my tyre on this)! I am a voracious reader (kinda like HalfYank) of intel and information on a subject. And one of my 'pet peeves' is that it seems most Upper scale modeler's will not model something that doesn't have a picture attached! Meaning...if a photographer (of which there were bloody few), didn't happen to have his camera at the ready to 'capture' a particular version/variant/episode/happening, well then...apparently it really didn't exist!!.........PLEASE!!....this position literally screams 'short bus' to me.

Anyway....back to the "reading" part of my post. I feel that ShermiesRule is completely, and firmly based in his interpretation. Men who were there have tried to get the information out to the masses......we all just have to read it.

Tread.

Gee Tread, I do a guy a favor and now he's ready to put me on the "short bus"

I don't think I've ever said there was no such thing ... it was more like there is very little proof. There is some proof of the conversion Shermie built (or at least very close): http://mmcalc.tripod.com/Shermans/Large_Hatch_75mm_M4A1.html

BTW, I agree that we can all learn a lot from reading, but watch out for taking those veterans' accounts as the gospel truth. Even Belton Cooper's acclaimed "Death Traps" book is full of errors (i.e., he can't tell an M4 from an M4A1 from an M4A3) and he was an Ordnance officer. The old vet recollections tend to be laden with technical errors, but hey, it's his war story and he can tell it any way he wants to.

Oh No, no, no, no, no, nooooooooo. Please don't 'misinterpret' me! My 'jab' at you is because you are so 'accurate' about most things........that's all.
My (hopefully) general opinion is that most of the 'Shermanaholics' out there are 'tried & true' rivet-counters, and subscribers to the church of "if there's no photographic evidence, it didn't exist" train of thought.......................my bad.

No, no Hollowpoint. I value your input on Sherman's most highly!.............so, don't start getting 'sourpuss' on me!.........O.K.?....

Besides....Radar told me your feet smell, and I didn't say a thing about that!

:-)

Tread.

As I stated Frankenstein was built purely based on the parts I had on hand and not for accuracy. I believe the only thing that really might be questioned is the cast applique armor on the sides. I don't even have the welded applique.

The single hatch was my own extrapolation. It is my understanding that the periscope cupola and the split hatched cupola were the same fit. I have a photo where the loader's split hatched was replaced with a periscope. Therefore I just made the assumption that some crew would have wanted the periscope to replace the commander's split hatch.

Since it was supposedly a field expedient model I figured that it made little difference if the parts were early or late. It was supposed to be scabbed together anyway.

hehe, gotcha!

Shermie -- No rip intended, my friend. I fully understood the concept behind the Frankenstein Sherman. Just thought I'd share Mr. Canaday's page for those who may be thinking about making a similar conversion and perhaps could use a little extra reference.

I wish I could crank out Shermans as quickly as you, but I do tend to get bogged down counting rivets. Still, for me, that's part of the fun.

Right now, I have in my possession a complete, unraided Italeri M4A1 kit. I was planning to build it AOOTB (that's almost out of the box) with a Rubio barrel and some replacement tracks, plus a little PE and all the fiddly bits I like to fabricate and replace. Now I'm tempted to do a M4A1 big hatch 75mm with the cast-in armor ... I have long wanted to do a DD tank, but can't really afford the Resicast kit and there aren't any other decent ones out there. This could be the closest I come for a while.

I gotta be honest: I love this thing between Treadhead and Hollowpoint. It makes me laugh everytime. I know everytime I see Treadhead respond to something, everytime I scroll down the screen and look, yep, theres hollowpoint responding in kind. It really uplifting to see a forum with many members across the world (albeit Kansas and Colorado aren't really distant places) talking and having a good time as if they knew each other from their hometown. Keep it up. You make me laugh every day.

Hey guys I just thought this would be of interest to a few of you ..When you say anything goes or almost ..

this was taken from a post on missing lynx ..but I really thought it was worthwhile seeing here ..notice how the commanders hatch opens too the other side ...btw this is a very early small hatch M4A1 ..

Rick

Well at least it shows that my M4A1 with periscope cupola on a low bustle does exist!!!! Now if we can solve the large hatch question....