Hey everyone it's good to be back.

After taking a summer long break from modelling I'm back with a new kit.
I went to the LHS and bought the new DML M4A3E8 kit. I would like to model the the Thunderbolt 7 tank but I can't find any pictures online. Can anyone help me out.

Thanks, Mike.

I was having trouble finding pictures of the actual tank too. Most are of models. I started building mine in the tank aces campaign thread this past week, and its pretty much ready for paint. I figure the box art is good enough for me, its a sherman in one color paint, the kit armor is an exact match to that particular vehicle, how easy can it get? There ar tons of pictures of easy 8's for most of the fittings, just not Thunderbolt VII.

Don't know of any pics online. In fact, the only pics I've ever seen are a video on the History Channel showing it, and then still from that video in Zaloga's Sherman at War Vol 2. From what I've seen of photos of the kit, it seems pretty accurate to the real vehicle. The one in the video was actually missing the rubber around the left front wheel. It had the round split loaders hatch, the extra .30 in front of the commander's hatch, and also had a .50 rather than .30 in the coax position (Academy makes a nice one, as you'll need the aircraft version, 2 of which are found in Academy's excellent US MG set). That's about all I can remember right now.

Rob

Does anyone know what the fate was of it?

Thanks guys, I just wanted a pic for dio -stowage refs, not for building the kit.

Hogarth- Do you know if the 50cal. stick out farther from the tank then the 30cal? If yes do you know about how much longer?

Kevin- no idea what happened to the tank after the war, although I can't help but thinking there is a Thunderbolt sherman at West Point near the main entrence. I may be wrong though.

Gday Mike
Not exactly sure what you mean, but the pics show the .30 in position over the gunners periscope, and the .50 positioned on the mount in the rear centre of the turret... Hope this helps!
Cheers
Brad

I managed to find a picture of a very good replica of one. Its from someones images from a trip. Scrool to the bottom of the page.


http://www.wedaa.com/eric/personal/2004/2004_12/

Yes, there was a .50 in the mantlet in the coax position. It stuck out quite a bit further than the .30 would have. If you use the Academy aircraft type, with the cooling jacket running the length of the barrel, you want to have enough sticking out that you can just see the first of the holes in that cooling jacket. Take a look at Steve Zaloga's M4A3E8 in the Gallery on ML. This was a pretty common mod. to 4th Armored E8's when they did the uparmoring.

As for the fate of the tank, who knows? There are tanks ALL over the place painted like Abrams'....there's one in Germany I know of (an army friend took a photo for me), one at the Citadel whichever Carolina that's in (a friend took a photo for me on his honeymoon), and who knows how many others. So I wouldnt' go by were one is now in a museum.

Oh, and someone said that the other .50 was on a center mount at the rear of the turret, but Abrams' tank had the split cupola loader's hatch....making the .50 mounted on that as per it's usual location. Plus, an extra .30 in front of the commander's cupola. Incidentally, he probably didn't use this tank very long, as he was bumped up in rank/command around that time, taking over, if memory serves, the entire Combat Command (A or B, I can't remember), and so may not have still be zipping around in a tank at that point.

Rob