Hi guys Its me again, On my marines Sherman there is a depression on the top of the left sideturret(viewed from the top)its quite deep and looks like it should be there in fact it looks like a hit from a A.P.round I have checked my reference photo's but they are only M4A3's serving in europe.Should it be there or is it a kit error. I stand in the shadows of your superior knowledge, many thanks in advance I will by more reference books honest .

That should be the 2" smoke mortar opening. A flare gun looking mortar was inside the turret and fired from the loader's position. Look at picture #12 and 14 to see the smoke mortar and the location where the hole sticks out of the turret.

Yes that is it many thanks, I never knew Shermans had those morters,bye the way that is an excellent site what is it. Im going to be cheeky with another question,What do you guys use for tank arials?. all the best

That site is AFV Interiors hosted by kithobbyist.com. I use their free e-mail system when posting on the various forums. That account picks up a generous helping of spam. I still visit the site regularly since I was the lucky winner of their Tamiya 1/16 scale R/C Tiger I kit (as well as a couple of other kits).

I use stretched sprue as antenna (heating it over a flame and pulling).

For my Tank Antenna needs, I use R/C antenna wire primarily. If I run out of that, then I use Minimeca Modelismo stainless steel wire.

Gunnie

Thanks for the help guys, this site never lets me down .all the best.

I too like to use wire for antennas. As for the Sherman smoke mortar, the late high-bustle turrets like in that Italeri kit had them for sure. Other earlier turrets sometimes had them and sometimes not. Also, some end users modified earlier turrets themselves to add teh smoke mortar. And last but not least, OTHER users (including some post-WW2) removed the mortar and plated over the hole! So there is lots of room for variation.

I've also noticed that no two kits are alike in how they represent this mortar opening; that's fine. There is so much variation in Sherman turret configuration that just about anything is bound to be correct for some vehicle in that 49,000-strong production run...
Greg