The Model Gallery, Post 1

Friend of the site Bill A, has put together a very nice M4 composite hull Sherman, based on the Tank his father operated in WWII. Bill Dad served with the 44th Tank Battalion in the Philipines when we took them back late in WWII. This kit is Dragon #6441, and I think Dragon makes a very nice Sherman for the price.

Look at this amazing M4 composite hull. It gets the composite hull name because the front of the hull is a large casting, while the center back is all welded. These tanks confused with M4A1s all the time.
As you can see, this composite hull has a original style 75mm turret, but with a loaders hatch. These tanks would have had all around vision cupolas for the Commander but there was a shortage, so they only went on 76mm Shermans.
From this angle, you can see why it would be confused for an M4A1, since you can not see the rest of the hull.

Really nice build Bill! My only comment other than you did a great job with the kit, would be, its just to darn clean! In real life, they tended to get real weathered, your looks like it rolled off the showroom floor!

Here are a few more shots of the M4 Composite in action.

5 thoughts on “The Model Gallery, Post 1

  1. I just got into modeling again after 25 years. I found that at this age I was interested in armor. I started with the M4 Sherman (black magic) variant. I would like help with a thought experiment. How could today’s technology improve upon the Sherman to make it the most advanced and even possibly dangerous again. How would it look and what materials would be used? Impractical as it may be to do, I am interested because I have developed some form of attachment to the Sherman being American.

    1. same my grandpa was a sherman gunner.saw action in france north africa and germany.

    2. That was more-or-less done in the 1960s by the Israeli Defense Force, with the M51HV “Isherman” with the French CN 105 F1 105mm gun. HVSS suspension, Cummins diesel engine, and in late examples night vision systems.

      The F1 type gun made as a smoothbore could fire modern APFSDS “rod penetrator” rounds. This would make it a credible threat to most tanks designed before about 1980, which still account for about 95% of tanks fielded by armies worldwide.

      The principle advantage of such a Sherman today would be that at under 40 tons combat loaded weight, it would be air-deliverable by modern heavy transport aircraft such as the C-17 or Airbus 400. Modern MBTs like the Abrams, Leopard 2, or Challenger II are essentially a sealift-deliverable-only proposition at an average 65 tons + each.

      Given the choice between an improved M51 equivalent with a modern smoothbore gun and a Striker Armored Gun System in a rapid deployment force unit, I’d probably go with the M51.

      cheers

      eon

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