I've got an idea for a fairly large diorama displaying a couple US Shermans just heading down a road in the Bocage country sometime during June-July 1944.

I'm planning on using the Tamiya M4 "Early" along with the DML M4A1 "Early" which I already have in the old stash, since I believe those two tanks are good starting points, and I like the idea of showing the two types together for visual interest.

Now, the big question(s):

With the Tam M4, other than filling the sponsons, are there any other "must correct" problems with the kit to make it into a mid-summer '44 example?

And

On the DML M4A1, other than fixing up the turret leftovers from the Firefly, is there anything else that absolutely should be done in the accuracy department?

Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

On the Tamiya, you should either replace or modify the bogies with ones that do not have the upswept return roller arms. That would be one of the most important items for the time frame you want to model. As for the M4A1, I can't really think of anything offhand as when I built mine about 10 years ago, I built it as a Pakistani M4A1E4 for the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. I'm sure some of the others will chime in with some other useful info.

Chris "toadman" Hughes
Toadman's Tank Pictures

Hi Dave,

Try this for the DML kit:

http://www.enjoy-models.com/Specials/M4A1-tips/M4a1-tips.htm#To%20build%20British%20early%20M4A1s

Daniel

Try here for some good "tweak" lists for those Sherman kits.
http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/articles.html

And here's a hot link to the site Daniel suggested: http://www.enjoy-models.com/Specials/M4A1-tips/M4a1-tips.htm#To%20build%20British%20early%20M4A1s

Gday David
The idea of the 2 types together is a good one, as they were mechanically similar and were often mixed together in units...
The Shermans would generally have been refitted in England with the 3 applique armour plates on the hull, and also over the thinner section of the turret at the front RHS (Both kits include these, showing different weld patterns I think...) No sandbags or 'soft armour' as of this time fram, but some personal stowage. Should be all over OD before Operation Cobra (The 'breakout' of the bocage, where OD and black was used on 1st Army AFVs) You could have a Cullin device for either of them, which were fitted to many for ramming through the hedgerow into fields. Many variations, used scrap steel from the D-Day landing barricades.
As Chris said, you need straight return rollers (arm for top wheel is level with top of bogey housing) Either type of wheel can be used (spoked or solid pressed , but I guess the later solid ones would be more common due to refitting?)
The enjoy models link suggested is a good one, as is USarmy models... Have a peruse, and then with some further research, you could do the parts you think are most 'vital'...
Hope this helps some
Cheers, Brad
P.S. PM me with any more queries, as I am currently lifting a bocage dio off the backburner...

A good place to find a horizontal arm suspension for the Tamiya M4 is to swap with the Academy M10 'Duckbill', just make sure that you cut the mounting pins off one side as the Tamiya pins are at different heights on either side of the hull to make sure you can't fit the bogies on backward (though people do!).

The M10 (or the 17pdr version) both could have the raised arm bogies, so it's a win-win situation

My M4 and Sherman IC both have Academy based suspensions, the M4s is gradually being assembled from spare Academy bits with Dragon additions

Dave's suggestion of the Academy Duckbill as a source for VVS for your M4 is a good one. Another good source is the Academy M4A2 76w Soviet Sherman kit. These mostly had the upswept arms but Academy chose to supply the horizontal ones. This kit begs to have its VVS swapped.

Or even the M4A2 US Marines

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/academy/acd13203.htm

which has new, and better, suspension arms for the road wheels (the originals look like they represent an unloaded tank)

Cool, thanks for the tip! Down at the bottom of my stash are the Academy M10's (and Achilles), so I'll have the suspension covered. I haven't looked at those kits since I bought them, and hadn't realized which suspension arms are included.

And thanks to everyone else who's responded too. I've been out at the usarmymodels site in the past, but haven't been there in a while, so the correction/update articles there will help as well. (Did anyone else notice that the posting on enjoy-models.com and the article on the DML M4A1 at usarmymodels.com were virtually word for word duplicates?)

Now that I've got time to build some models again, I'm nearly giddy with excitement! :-)

Remember to breathe!! :-)
And no, have only read the enjoy models list, but have perused most everything else on USarmy models...
Cheers
Brad

Hi,

If you need some more online references for Shermans you can check this topic Sherman references



HTH

Thanks Jose'!

I've bookmarked your topic for future reference!