hi all

I am making Italeri's m4a1 76(w) and I am loving it. I've textured the hull etc...but in my searches I've seen cast hull shermans with and without applique armour.

From what I've read the Italeri M4a1 represents a wet stowage sherman, but would they still apply extra amour just in case ?

If they do use applique, does anyone know where I can get dimensions for size and position of the additional plates?

thanks all

keep up the good work, lots of cracking models coming out recently!!

Jon

Hi Jon:
None of the three earlier applique plates was added "just in case". The safer wet stowage bins reduced the hazard of fire in case of armor penetration. Therefore 75mm wet gun tanks did not redundantly put applique. (That's why the Tamiya M4A3 applique plates are total bunk!)

Also (and more importantly for your M4A1 76), the bins were shifted from the sponsons to floor bins beneath the turret in all 76mm gun tanks.

Applique would be historically inaccurate for your kit.

That being said, GIs would shore up perceived weaknesses by field mod armor upgrades. There are pics of M4A3s with entire slabs of armor on their glacis and hull sides. Concrete, wood, sandbags, cut off armor from other tanks, etc were all used. But these were definitely field level upgrades and nothing official. See period photos for these features.

I am aware of modifications to the turret basket to allow access to floor ammo lockers from when I was researching some interior details.

I was more focusing on the point-of-view you mentioned in your last paragraph, about them adding what protection they could.

Either way, I have no applique on the model so I haven't caused myself any heart ache. The M4a1 in question will have just took a penetrating hit to the flanks anyway, so if it had been appliqued - it wouldnt have worked!!! :-)

thanks for clearing that up so quickly though