Greetings all,

Some more stuff, here's my attempt at weld seems!!!

edit: Photo removed for gallery space.

Sorry the pictures are not great but you'll get the idea I hope.

Any thoughs.

Cheers

Al

Fair enough there is a differing of opinion here, but I think there is a time and a place for petty name calling, especially as their intentions were good... Seems there is only one person with one right answer here? Maybe respective sources show something different? Hey, you may be right mate. But there are many ways of going about it tactfully. Maybe there's some clown who doesn't know any of these routes?

Gday Al
The inside of the split hatch ring should still be green until below the padding, according to a reference picture I sourced off the internet
Oh, and although the last pic is a little far away, the weld seams seem to be of the right height at least:)

Hi Brad,

Haven't gotten around to finishing painting the turret ring, just a sort of first coat so to speak, but point noted.

Any thoughs on the ties on the right hand side? They must have used something, have to say I rather like them. :-) :-) :-)

I've looked at the picture David posted a few times now , I can still only see six so there must have been differences?? These were only little welded on brackets to strap kit to, so like eveything else with Shermans there was probably quite a bit of variation.

Sorry it's a poor picture of the welds, they seem about right to me. feel right when I run my fingure over them.

I agree, I think Roberts reference to a 'clown' was pretty inappropriate and the picture tells me differently.

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers

Al

Firstly I agree with Bradley on the name calling - no need for it.
Tie downs
If you look at this long shot of the same M4A4
that David posted I’d say that there are only 5 tie downs on this particular tank. I had a look at my references on the M4A4 and it seems there are usually eight. I couldn’t find any wartime photos showing tie downs on the other side and I wonder if that had anything to do with British Shermans sometimes mounting external smoke mortars on the right (If you’re inside) of the turret.

Copyright IWM
I did however find this
example
and
here
showing tie downs on the right side of the turret (–wonderful thing the internet) but they may have been added post war.
Nice work on the welds by the way Alan.
A great walkaround of an M4A4 can be seen on
prime portal
here
The welds show up particularly well as they haven’t rusted at the same rate

Note: the smoke mortars on this one are a post war addition nice aren't they

Hi Pat,

Thanks for those links, excellent viewing. Being British Shermans I think it's quite possible they had tie downs on the right. The M4A4 had a smoke discharger thing on the back, which I believe is what that odd box affair is and units were inclined to have their own SOPs regarding vehicle stowage.

From past experience it was quite common to take your vehicle down to the LAD and get something added on if you got on well with the SSgt and bought him a few pints in the mess, all things are possible.

Anyway, we shall se what else turn up before I get the knife out and remove them. I think the number would depend on what was available when the vehicles were being kitted out in the Wksps. If you get to the last 10 vehicles and don't have enough for 8 then you probably fit 5 or 6 whatever is available.

The smoke dischargers do look cool, I have hopes to do one like that yet.

Re the welds I looked at the links you posted, do I need to do them on the front slightly sunken sections also? Hadn't thought about that.

Thanks for the feedback - great

Back to some Sherman viewing then,

Cheers

AL

PS did you pick up on the Skink Sherman AA - very unusual.

Edit, there's an interesting example in there with a large steel plate welded over the front.

Hi

I went back to Hayward's Firefly book last night and had a look at the official stowage diagram for the Sherman IC. That showed a 'Net, camouflage' stored on the LHS of the turret secured by three vertical and one horizontal straps. Nothing on the RHS as the diagram showed a tank fitted with 4" smoke launchers.

If you can see through the rust, this very battered VC from Prime Portal shows seven of the eight loops on the LHS quite nicely.

Loops

Returning to things smoky (appropriately as one of co-workers set fire to the skip in the yard at work this morning) the presence/absence of smoke launchers on the turret side may be linked to whether or not the tank has the 2" smoke mortar fitted inside the turret and firing through the aperture cast in the turret and visible in the photo in the link above.

David

Hi David,

Thanks for that and thanks for the link. Easy enought to add two more loops. Good thoughts on the smoke discharger.

Out with the knife then!!!

Cheers

Al