I have finally finsihed the DML Sherman III and wanted to model a tank from the 6th AD in Tunisia. I do have some questions regarding their tracks though and ORBAT.

Looks as thought they used Sherman IIIs same as the DML kit basically. I have seen earlier DV models along with the small hooded variety. They seem to mostly have the early skids, fancy & plate drive sprokets, and a mix of solid and spoked wheels.

It also looks like some vehicles were replacements. These tanks had no turret storage box, POW can holders on front fender & sunshade strips.

The camo schemes are interesting to say the least...... and no I don't have any pictures, sorry. They seem to have (what I see at least with the Mk. I eyeball) black over a Light Mud and oive drab?? Did they paint a stylized troop number on the hulls or this just haphazard patterns?

What made up 6AD from Feb to May 43? 5th Lancer's? 26th Brigade?
Border Horse?
Man the English units have always confused me - I guess I just need more books!

Anyway I griped earlier about the shortcomings of the kit - but I am happy with the end result. I just want to mark it a bit differently. I had even thought about Polish 24th Ulans or 4th Scorpions......

Tanks in advance!
Chris

Hi Chris,I would reccomend 2 books to you,Concord pubs #7062 British Sherman tanks which has a mass of photo's of Shermans,with many variations on the official equipment and camo schemes.The other book is Images of War-Sherman Tank by Gavin Birch,another book filled with a mass of images,but be prepared to drain the old credit card as it certainly made me want to go out and order a couple of dozen DML Shermans as there is a lot of inspiration within the books.
Dave.

Indeed these tanks lacked all the desert fittings because they didn't arrive in Tunisia from the desert with the Eight Army but directly from Europe during op Torch.

But I'm afraid for your project they were Mark V and not mark III.

But you should find many other idea in the two books precited(I recommend the Concord one as the other as also plenty of good pics but a lot of miscaptions)

You could also try Bison Decals.

HTH
Daniel

Daniel, it's not often I would disagree but 26 AB of 6 AD 1st Army in Tunisia were equipped with M4A2 Shermans which replaced the Crusader 6pdrs and the Valentines. I used to think they were V's based on the pic in the Osprey book of what i thought was a 16/5th Sherman V, IWM NA1899, and captioned as a Sherman 1. I'd be happy to be proved wrong however. As far as I can tell from the avail photos most appear to be Cast hood variants. I am uncertain as to whether they had 3 piece or 1 pce transmission covers though.
I concur on the colour being the delivered OD but this was sometimes disruptively painted in Light Mud and sometimes in REAL mud.
Tank Units of 26 AB were:
16/5th Queens Royal Lancers, 17/21st Lancers and 2nd Lothians and Border Horse.
ORBAT info can also be found here:

http://www.armouredacorn.com/Reference/BAM/6th%20Armd%20Div.pdf

Stylised Vehicle numbers seem to appear in a few photos and they vary from quite angular to outright impressionist! The only problem is that it is hard to tell what units are what!

Some good references are Images of War - Sherman Tank - page 57 and British Sherman Tanks Concord 7062 which has a well researched colour plate of a 17/21st vehicle.
A good read on the Div is "Mailed Fist" by Ken Ford.
Al

I finally found a head on shot of 2nd Lothians & Borders M4A2 of 6 AD 26 AB and in it can be seen dv with 3 pce tranny, horizontal trailing arms and cast hood 3 piece tranny m4A2. These are in OD and "bulled" up for the Tunisia victory parade. The picture is in Almark No2 British North Africa by Ken Jones.
Cheers
Al