swathdiver

Howdy fellow tankers! This will serve as the build page for our #2 Sherman tank, "Founding Fathers". It's 76mm gun tube has been christened, "Sons of Liberty".

This tank has run flawlessly since new and has yet to be opened up. The stock paint was joined by Polly Scale black for camouflage shading and weathering washes using Polly Scale Earth Red and Dirt were applied after marking up the crew areas with some dry brushing. Oily Black paint was also thinned into a wash and poured over the fuel tank caps and allowed to spill naturally all over the back and sides of the tank. Then Tamiya weathering pastels were used to pop out the details such as the casting numbers and foundry symbols.

The first modification was to make a Culin Hedgerow Cutter, also known as Rhinos and these were made from styrene I-Beams in my parts bin and then painted in rust and weathered to reflect the fact the only days before they were in the surf at Normandy Beach having been placed there by the Germans to tear the bottoms out of the landing craft that arrived a month earlier on June 6th. It was made to fit in between the tow mounts on the differential cover and was secured with RTV for ease of removal. First outting in high grass ripped it off so unless the plans are to run it on more or less "scale" terrain, they'll stay off.

Next project was a bucket. Came out nice but promptly fell off and was lost while chasing a cat in high grass. Made 3 more, 2 from styrene and 1 from brass as will be shown in the days ahead in accompanying photos.

3/16" hobby plywood is used so the crew can pile up their personal belongings on the outside of the tank in front. Shermans had a nasty habit of brewing up when penetrated by the explosive filled shells of the Germans. One solution was to move all flammable items to the outside of the tank and that's why in the later war years you see all the crew gear hanging on the Shermans when in earlier times they were relatively free and clean topside as it was stowed inside.

Next project was to make the 10-in-1 Rations that were common to ETO Tankers. 10-in-1 was 10 meals in 1 day or for a tank crew, 1 box would feed the crew for 2-3 days. Founding Fathers' boys are well stocked with 3 cases on board! The other 2 tanks in the Company have 2 each! The file was given to me by a fellow Shermanholic and expert from the 1/35 community and I scaled them up and printed them out 4 at a time on a manila folder with the printer on it's best settings. You can e-mail me for the file but you'll have to resize it as the big one is 45mb. I cut them out with the hobby knife, painstakingly folded and glued them together and used black electrical tape to mimic the straps.

Many Shermans drove around with at least one and sometimes 2 5 gallon drums of 50W oil. Since this would be potentially fatal to the tank if it caught fire on the rear deck, they were often stowed on the front fenders. Should one get shot up and catch fire, there's nothing nearby (hopefully!) to catch fire and they'll fall off. I found some 30 year old Tamiya 1/35 drums that I'd made as a kid and put one on each tank after cleaning up the seams, adding some detail and repainting. Not exact but pretty close to scale.

Bill wrote asking if I had any German Jerry cans one day. I found one, then 2, then a bunch more US ones. Painted them up and put them on the tanks. Did the same with all the helmets. Each one has the Division and Regimental insignias on each side.

Founding Fathers liberated a shot up road sign near St. Lo and the crew placed that below the 5 sleeping bags made out of an ace bandage and rubber bands. The TC also got himself a little souvenir, a nice NAZI beer mug! Can you see it on the rear of the turret?

As we speak the crews have dismounted and are raiding a nearby wine cellar to go with their "liberated" French Swiss Cheeses!

Here's some pics:

Dmon1996

Sounds great! So, where's the pics?

pattoncommander

Very nice job James. What unit....was this a Marine tank? Normally yellow was a Marine marking. Great weathering and stowage.

killick64

Swath, you are the virtuoso of washes, the sultan of shades...!

You probably don't need these but here are some patterns for "stowage" items in 1/24 scale that I posted a while back. Multiply the dimensions in mm by 1.25, and you'll have the 1/16 equivalents. For scale "fabric" Whitewolf McBride recommended "bandana" or hanky material dyed, if need be, with cheap diluted acrylic hobby paint. (He also mentioned that "Candle wicking" makes great rope. )

YHR

A battle weary veteran. Looks good James

swathdiver

Bill, the 32nd and 33rd Armored Regiments used yellow speed numbers on their turrets when they landed shortly after D-Day until sometime in August when they painted them over with OD as German gunners had a nasty habit of putting shells through Allied stars and markings.

These tanks are depicted shortly after issue for "Operation Cobra"; July and August 1944 timeframe.

Killick- Thanks for the file! I'm making another one, we made our musette bags with more detail. Going to make some duffels, barrack's bags, shelter halfs, tarps and the all important air recognition panels. Can't have a Sherman without an air panel! After perusing a couple craft stores I figure it'll be easiest to just paint fluourescent yellow onto thick aluminum foil and trim the edges in OD rather then keep searching for the perfect material.

Thanks Dan! Here's some pics that were taken earlier. Ohh, and yes Founding Fathers came from Pressed Steel.. err China with that bogie on backwards!

philipat

No Marines in the ETO and to the best of my knowledge the first Shermans the Marines got were A2s for several reasons, not the least of which was that diesel was easier to get from ship's stores than MOGAS.

On that note: any plans for an A2 in the future?

I like the stowage gear and the weathering. You did a great job with those.

Viper54

My Feedback: (1)

very nice build hope to have 1 or 2 in the future

torpedochief

That is fantastic! The attention to detail really brought it to life!

Great Job!

Don

pattoncommander

James, Build-a-Rama has some really nice stowage items....duffels, rolled sleeping bags, tarps....1;18 scale, but they look really nice. Your hand made stuff is great, but its a time saver. Thanks for the history lesson on those units. Nice to know the "exception to the rule" activities.

killick64

The Soviets loved their diesel-powered A2's because they were much less prone to "exploding" when hit. Also, the relatively quiet egines made stalking German Armour much easier...especially when the Shermans were "moving against the wind"... !!

swathdiver

It's a myth that Shermans primarily burned because of their gasoline engines. The main reason was ammunition fires. When wet stowage was introduced in this model Sherman and others, tanks "brewing up" after being penetrated decreased by over half. The numbers might have even been higher had the crews not crammed every nook and cranny with extra ammo outside the protected bins. This is one reason why so many crews began stowing all their personal gear outside the tank so it wouldn't contribute to an internal fire.

chinito_03

swat..

nice one.. show us some vids..
jehehehhehehe..
two thumbs up!

bandana? theres alot of those in the philippines when i went there...

swathdiver

[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoAghV6qX1w]Running the Diamonds - Quick and Dirty Video of the Sherman.[/link]

killick64

Right, as usual...the Soviets probably came to that comclusion after seeing their Shermans survive hits that would have vaporized a T-34. It was the more stable American ammo that should have gotten credit but the US Reps who travelled with all the Sherman brigades didn't feel like "disillusioning" anyone. Myths CAN be useful....

I hope you're gonna post a slug of pix to the MatoMart gallery!!

swathdiver

Work on the stowage continues. Today's completed project are two AL-141B Air Recognition Panels. These were used on Allied tanks in the ETO and issued in 2 colors for American forces, Cerise and Fluorescent Yellow. The opposite side of each panel was in Fluorescent White. Airborne troops and some Commonwealth units used Orange. Fluorescent Blue was used for soft-skinned vehicles like the CCKWs.

These panels were 12 feet long by 30.5 inches wide and came in the CS-150 case with straps or snap enclosure. The cerise panel was designated AL-140B. Later, these were issued in 6 foot lengths also 30.5" inches wide with an integral case and designated, VS-9/G for Cerise and VS-10/G for Yellow.


These 2 panels were made from heavy duty aluminum foil folded to 9 inches x 1-7/8 inches so that they have double thickness in the center and quadruple on the ends. Holes are placed in the 4 corners and just off center in the middle with "straps" 2.25" long on the the center and one end as determined from pictures.

Not willing to pay $7 for Fluorescent Yellow or wait 2 weeks for a little bottle from China, I bought a can of Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Sun Yellow at Wally World for $3 and used up the last of some ancient Testors Gloss White. The perimeter of the panels and straps were sprayed with Polly Scale Olive Drab.

These will be folded and secured to the rear deck of "Big Gee" and "Founding Fathers" once the tarps and shelter halves are done, hopefully before Thanksgiving.

What do you all think of the cheese and vino?

Flyn Chris

The panels lookg great, worried about that cheese melting from the heat of hull MG muzzle

YHR

Looks good James. I am also going to use the air recognition banner on my Shermans.

I saw a photo of a tank(it was a low bustle 75mm) that had a big bottle of wine strapped on to the front fender. Good job recapturing a moment in time.

Duca

LOL I like the cheese round. NICE................................Duca

killick64

Nice touch...! Could you use any of these??

You didn't leave room for the Limburger and Bratwursts...

kagero43

Simply FANSTASTIC!!!!! Thank you for sharing. I like the fact that you are depicting a specific vehicle. WOW!

swathdiver

Notice: This tank is available now.

MAUS45

Are you getting out of Tanking James?

swathdiver

No, just thinning the herd.

MAUS45

Glad to hear you are just thinning the herd!!!