My Interpritation of "Weenie One" using the Dragon M4A1 kit. Modifications include tow cable guides, Front towing lugs, drilled rear lugs, replaced molding around bow machine gun, horn electrical cable, light guards from foil, drilled headlights painted silver filled with acrylic, modified commanders sight, removed hole on left top of turret, pistol port lowered, Various iron bar stowage "cradels" added using the photo in Squadron Sherman in Action photo as a reference. 2 pressed wheels on the right side (I know the photo shows 4 but I only had 2 to spare and figured it is possible that they were swapped out at different times, pressed idler on left side, .50 cal from verlinden with Eduard PE handles. From the 1ST Armored Divisions website:
The fall of Sicily in the summer of 1943 cleared the way for an Allied Invasion of the Italian mainland. As part of General Mark Clark's Fifth Army, the 1st Armored Division crushed enemy resistance in an assault landing at Salerno on September 9, and led the drive to Naples. The city fell on October 1, and the Allies pressed onto the Volturno River.

In November, the 1st Armored Division attacked the infamous Winter Line. Although breaching the line, the Allied advance came to a halt in the mountainous country near Cassino. To break the stalemate, the Allies made an amphibious assault well behind enemy lines at Anzio on January 23, 1944. Beating back repeated German counterattacks, the 1st Armored Division led the Allied breakout from the beachead on May 23, and spearheaded the drive to Rome, liberating the city on June 4.

The 1st Armored Division continued its pursuit of the enemy to the North Apennies where the Germans made their last stand. Rugged mountains and winter weather now stood between the Allies and the open land of the Po Valley. The 1st Armored Division broke into the valley in April 1945 and on May 2, 1945, German forces in Italy surrendered

Hi Mike,
Very nice. Really impressive paint job. The finish/weathering is very subtle, but very eye pleasing. I'd go .
Joe

Hi Mike,

Lookin good sir, like the camo scheme, nice and soft/worn looking.

Good job, I take it you still working on the stowage, needs some rope to hold the tarps etc down.

Excellent work Mike, will it be a stand alone or in a small dio?

Cheers

Al

Gday Mick
This is the first I've seen of the DML kit being built and finished as per one of the kit versions, and I have to say that it looks much better than I imagine it would have!
Great job here, and by your list it looks like your research has paid off
Hard to say, but is the turret front lifting ring square? I'm only going by the last pic, and it may be an optical delusion...
Cheers
Brad

To make Alan happy:



The photo of the tank shows only a tarp and perhaps a camo net on the back deck, 2 logs and an antenna case? are visible on the right side and some type of bag/pack on the front near the lightguard. This is the only photo I have found. While the bag/pack/sandbag is not really identifyable I've chosen to leave it off. The tank appears to be in a rear area so it's possible that not much stowage was necessary.

Brad you were right the lifting ring was about 10 degrees off

Mike

Looks nice!
Is it an old model? It does not seem as detailed as the most recent issues...

Having built this kit as "Weenie One" (with 3 more in the stash) I can only applaud the build and the paint job. I think I'll go home now and hide mine in a closet somewhere!

Very nice. I like the subtle weathering.

Hi Mike,

Similar thinking going on here. Here's a picture of the one I based mine on. It is also in the rear in a REME Wksp and I have similar thoughts :-) :-) :-) :-) I plan to have the stowage mostly on the ground with a crewman on top of the engine deck, some flimsey cans around it and some tools. At least that's the current plan :-) :-)





Cheers

Al

Very nicely done. Cam pattern really stands out and the weathering is very subtle. Excellent job.

Doug

Mike,

Looks really nice. Only nitpick I'd make is you probably should have puttied up the seam between the part that has the shell ejection port and the turret itself. This should appear smooth, without a distinctive line there. Other than that, it looks great.

I'm planning to build mine as a 2nd AD tank in Sicily, and am curious what paints/colors you used for yours. I think they look great. Please share. Thanks.

Rob

Nice looking Tank Al,
Rob! damn you're right I'll have to fix that ejection port. I used model master OD ana 616? and middlestone heavily weathered along the bottom with raw umber, dark earth, dark tan and us army/usmc armor sand as a general overspray. I might even add the welds to the lift rings? Who knows?

Thanks Guys

Mike

This was one of Dragon's earlier Sherman kits, but it isn't "undetailed"--the early Sherman variants were just simpler. No guards over the periscopes or stowage brackets for the machine gun on the turret rear, for instance.
Early issues of the Dragon kit had some problems with the turret shape--the turret front opening for the gun was too high, and the shape of the turret base under the bustle overhang wasn't round enough. Reissues may benefit from improved molds.
This particular build is very well done.

How's this Rob?

Mike,

Better! I myself find that are a real pain in the @$$ to work on, and it's hard to really get the way it should be. Of the 6 Shermans or so I've done, I'm only really happy with the way it came out on one of my M4A4s. Otherwise, I always feel they could be better.

You did a good job of doing it after all the painting and then redoing all of that work. Fine job. And thanks for the info on the paints.

Rob

Hi Mike,

Looks the business. You did a good job on the fix for the pistol port, a real pain sometimes. Just need a wee touch up in the turret MG barrel. Th spray gun does give a very neat soft effect, something I can never achieve by hand. Like the rope too lol lol

Nice one, thanks for sharing.

Cheers

Al

Is this the same unit that got a bit of a slap by Rommel at Kasserine?

Mike,

Very well done!

Very well done. Nice to see a Sherman in something else than overall olive drab.

Thanks for sharing.