"Appliqué armour for M4 Shermans in 15mm?" Topic

I know some manufacturers make spare track links, etc, as add-ons for 15mm Shermans.
Does anyone produce the Sherman's appliqué armour?
I am referring to the two right-side plates and one left-side plate which were added pre-D-Day to protect the ammunition panniers and the extra plate fitted on the turret sides.

Large scale example here:
link

If I cannot get a model version I may try to cut some from very thin plastic card or else thickish paper.

B

Yup I went the sheet plastic method myself.

Battlefronts plastic LW British Sherman's have applique armor
already on them

@VonBlucher:
Unfortunately I already have the kits standing by (and have had for a while). Now I am ready to do them I see that they lack the appliqué and look distinctly 'middle war'.

@dmebust:
While plastic card might suit the hull sides I am concerned about bending it around the turret sides, hence thinking about thick paper. Any advice??

B

You can safely leave the armor off the turret. In April of 43 the new cast turrets began to appear and the applique armor was no longer needed on the turret. So you will see turrets without applique armor while the hull sides had it. Also remember that for many tanks the applique armor was added in depots overseas and indeed makeshift in the field.

@ Marc33594:
To confirm at least part of what you say, one of my Sherman books shows a field full of Shermans sporting the new appliqué plates on their turrets.
These tanks had clearly been painted with large white turret stars BEFORE the appliqué was added as the stars appear partly covered by the dark shape of the newly-arrived armour which had been placed over them. It is an odd visual effect and, I assume, the stars were subsequently repainted over the new armour.

My late father's unit (86th Anti-Tank Gun Regiment, Royal Artillery, part of British XII Corps) had two batteries equipped with M-10 tank destroyers and two batteries of towed 17-pounders. All sported white stars for D-Day – the regiment actually landed around D +11 – but the stars very soon 'disappeared'. The crews, especially of the M-10s, felt the stars were large aiming marks for the Germans and within a few days of starting combat mud, dirt, kit, canvas, anything ended up on the white stars to tone them down or obliterate them.

The few stars to survive, for example on Cromwells, were on the turret roofs or rear decks and were intended to identify friendly tanks for Allied aircraft.

Barry

Here is, hopefully, a relatively well known picture of "Hurricane", which came ashore on D-Day, undergoing maintenance. As you can clearly see it has the side hull applique armor but the turret, which should be one of the newer castings, does not have the cheek armor.
link