Now that I've been working again on my never ending dio, I have two questions for the group;

1. I have an Italeri M4 Sherman with the wading exhaust stacks. How diffiucult would it be and what would I need to do, to change it to a tank from the 741st Battalion?

2. Where can I find color reference materil for the boat crews that ferried the troops to shore?

Thanks in advance,
Wolfe

The italeri M4 "Marines" is actually a late M4A3 75w, with a few parts that partially can convert it to a late M4A2. Neither of these served in Normandy. The front plate is the 47 degree hull, not the 60 degree type that was around at the time of D-day.

Kits you should consider would be the Tamiya M4 early or a conversion of the Sherman III by DML. Or you could go the resin route.

Rob

The italeri M4 "Marines" is actually a late M4A3 75w, with a few parts that partially can convert it to a late M4A2. Neither of these served in Normandy. The front plate is the 47 degree hull, not the 60 degree type that was around at the time of D-day.

Kits you should consider would be the Tamiya M4 early or a conversion of the Sherman III by DML. Or you could go the resin route.

Rob

Only M4 and M4A1 tanks were landed with US forces at Normandy to simplify the spare parts situation (they were mechanically identical). The M4A3 appeared during the Normandy breakout in August.

Thanks for the Sherman info, looks like I'll have to shop around for another kit

Is there any color reference information on the boat crews??

I'd check out "Spearheading D-Day" by Jonathan Gawne. My copy is packed in storage. PM me if you can't locate this book anywhere. I can't promise there's an exact color photo of that uniform, but there are a number of color photos in it of all kinds of D-Day support troops, including Navy. And a number of b/w pictures of 741st tanks too.

John Antkowiak
Manassas, VA

John,
Thanks for the reply, I picked up a copy of this GREAT resource book recently. I'll look through for the navy and Sherman pictures you described.

I've actually decided to go with a sherman from the 743rd TB that landed on the Dog Green section of Omaha.

Thanks again,

What ho Chap !!,
Do`nt know if this si any help but here in the u.k. a magazine called Tamiya Model magazine ran a feature about omaha beach in an issue using just figures,it looked fantastic !.
They do have a website and this is avalaible in the USA so perhaps it might give you some ideas.