Hi all,

A friend send me this image of an interesting camouflage scheme on a late war M4A3E8 Sherman. The image is based on an actual photo of a M4A3E8 of the 781st Tank. Btln, 100th Infantry Division, France, March 1945.





Now I have my doubts about the image. There are two possibilities:

- The tank had a camouflage scheme of earth brown with black as shown on the image, which could be possible in theory, but it is unlikely
- The person who made this image was mistaking olive drab for earth brown. So the tank was actually painted olive drab with black camouflage.

What do you think? Could the image be accurate? I do hope so as I love these colours for the Sherman!

The outcome of this thread will probably have great influence of the look of my 1/16 Sherman in the near future

Thanks,
Martin

There is no 'doubts' whatsoever this is particularly well-documented. What is however correct, is your doubts as to whether it's earth brown or black. Personally, i'd go with black...Jim

Funny but I thought the text described it as OD with Black bands. I could be mistaken but I'll check the original tonight. The vehicle is OD with Black Bands BTW. Possibly if it describes differently it was from older research since found to be innacurate. I know Steve Zaloga (I'm fairly certain that is from one of his Osprey titles) has revised some of his original research based on other information that came to light.
Cheers
Al

I believe the brownish color in the illustration is intended to represent dusty No. 9 Olive Drab. The darker areas are flat black. This would be one of the commonest schemes in NW Europe.

I have pics of Shermans just completed being fitted with the sandbag and racks in their original OD being sprayed black by work crews. The question I have is are the sandbags still burlap color or have the been sprayed over with OD before the black?

The pictures I've seen of an engineer unit finishing up a sandbagged Sherman appear to indicate that they welded together the frame, loaded it with sandbags, spray painted the frame and the sandbags Olive Drab, and then sprayed bands of black over that. For a field modification, the rule of thumb would seem to be, "if it's done, it's beautiful." Other units might have painted the frame first, then loaded it. I doubt there was any set rule.

Ok so as I expected the camouflage scheme is OD + black.

Can OD be as light and brownish as on the image?





Also, is there anyone aware of any interesting, odd, rarely seen painting schemes for WW2 M4A3E8s?

Martin

Gday martinnnn
This being a late war Sherman there was probably not too much time for too much fading of the OD... Therefore to replicate the image I'd go with a heavy dusting maybe?
Bear in mind that looking at the photo the shade difference between the transmission cover and the front of the turret top... They have been printed in the same shade in the image though!
Get stuck in...
Cheers
Brad

Looks like Steve Zaloga's artwork to me, and presumably taken from one of the Osprey books he's written.

There's not much doubt that the camouflage scheme should be black stripes over OD. I too remember the photo of an engineer unit overspraying black stripes onto a sandbagged M4.

In earlier works, Zaloga went for field drab over OD, but he has subsequently revised his opinion following documentary research. Kudos to him for not sticking with the 'known' and none to Osprey for recycling the old Vanguard on the Sherman into the new series without revising the content.