"Victrix M4A1s" Topic

Excellent work.

What did you use for the base color?

Vallejo Russian Uniform and then that mixed with some Vallejo Iraqui Sand.

Nicely Done!

Thanks, Ed! They look great!

Thanks all.

Here is some neat-O facts with regards to Shermans for my rivet counting friends. This was news to me but makes sense. The M-3 Lee/Grant came first and the US wanted to standardize use of components to the max. It made logistic support easier and speeded up production.

The M4A1 had a different VVSS stack- with the return roller on top of the stack- not angled to the rear. Picture here:

Of course, when the first ones sent to the British in North Africa they slapped on sand skirts so one can't really see which VVSS is installed. I found it interesting that the first produced was the M4A1 (cast hull) and the M4 (without the seeming alphabet following which was the second production model) had a welded hull. Probably the most produced was the M4A3 in many variants. Once in the field (especially in Northern Europe) you can find examples of many with cannibalized parts so if you cannot see the serial number, it's hard to tell which version it is!

Just a bit of fun trivia to share with us tread heads!

link

Tom,

With more workshop mods and minutia on these Mk II Shermans first employed in North Africa -

link

And just to be clear it is the early M4A1 which had the roller on top, later M4A1s had the trailing arm suspension.

The trailing arm is another story as well. It was found that the original trailing arm didnt always lift the return run of track quite enough so a new trailing arm with more of an upsweep was designed. These could replace the originals in the field without modification, simply unbolt the old and bolt on the new. In the interim a "pillow block" was designed to retrofit to the original trailing arm to raise the track return. At any given time it was possible to have the original return arm, the pillow block expedient, and the new upswept arm on Shermans in the same unit.

To add further to Tom and Marc's discussion, here's a pic of some of the workshop bits added to the early British Mk.IIs deployed for Second El Alamein.

Another quick tip from a hopeless Shermanholic. When trying to figure out what British Sherman Mark was what American designation just subtract 1!

The Sherman Mark I is the US M4
Mark II the M4A1
Mark III the M4A2
Mark IV the M4A3
Mark V the M4A4
Mark VI the M4A5
Mark VII M4A6

As far as armament they used a series of letters. No letter meant 75mm, A meant 76mm, B meant 105 and C a 17 pdr.

So an M4A1/75 would be a Sherman MkII while an M4A1/76 would be a Sherman MarkIIB Or simply a Sherman IIB

And stunning work on that Brit Sherman. I hope hope it is 1/35th!

Marc, that's a clever way to remember those British Marks too!

Oh yes, that's someone's great, accessorized model above, a pic which I snagged off the web.

(like look at those foot wear-marks there on the glacis plate – which has exposed the base OD paint below!)

Great work on those M4A1s, Machinehead!

That is good info on the early M4A1, Tom!

That is a very lovely Sherman MkII FlyXwire, even if it is not your beautiful work.

Good info on the British Sherman designations, Marc!

FlyXwire – Great link on history thanks.

Capt. Pete & UshCha, been fun to watch this thread wind its way along, and sure looks like Tom will be offering up a very comprehensive N. Africa lineup in 1/144th scale these couple of months here.

Hey btw, been wondering where Ed (Machinehead) has been lately?

Still above ground, just haven't painted anything for 5 months or so. :D

Hi Ed,

Great to hear from you!