1/72 D-Day wading Sherman

**rockpaperscissor** · #1 05-01-2019, 02:32 PM

The theme at this year's US Army Heritage Days at the USAHEC in Carlisle, PA is D-Day +75 years. The event is only a couple of weeks away, and as usual I'm cramming because I didn't have any models that are D-Day specific, and I tend to leave things to the last minute.

I have a few small projects in mind, and the first to be completed is this wading Sherman tank, nicknamed "Cannon Ball". It came ashore on Utah beach 06/06/44, and promptly floundered in a submerged bomb crater. Despite displaying its vulnerable underside all day long, the tank lived to fight another day. A detailed history and photos of the actual tank, and some images of the tank deftly modeled in plastic can be found here: The Sherman in 1/72: M4 “Cannon Ball,” 70th Tank Battalion, Utah Beach 1944 | WWII in 1/72 Scale

With the time constraint, I decided I'd better keep my D-Day builds simple, so I started out with Rawen and Paran's 1/100 M4A3, and enlarged it to 1/72 scale. I borrowed the wading trunks from Bestpapermodels 1/35 M4A3 Pacific Sherman, and reduced them to 1/72. The rear lower trunk didn't fit the R&P Sherman, and had to be redrawn.

Using Photoshop I repainted the kit bash to match model photos and illustrations of Cannon Ball. The tank's upper hull was made from smooth armor plate, but the lower hull and turret were cast armor, so I used some texturing methods to try to highlight that difference.

I'm very happy with the recolor, but the model itself - not so much. The shape of the turret and lower rear wading trunk just aren't correct, and in my haste I created a twist in the right side track section. Definitely not my best work, but to the uninitiated, it should display well enough.

Praying for dry weather this year. Paper models and dripping wet poncho'd viewers don't mix well at all.

**Don Boose** · #2 05-01-2019, 03:23 PM

Looks terrific, Don. Can't wait to see it.

Don

**Vinalssergio155** · #3 05-01-2019, 04:50 PM

It looks very good Don.The result is great.Very well done!

**PacificWind** · #4 05-01-2019, 04:52 PM

Really nice work for this scale!
Will this Sherman be available to download somewhere?

**rockpaperscissor** · #5 05-01-2019, 06:10 PM

Thanks for your kind words, fellas. Kacper, I won't be offering the model for download. The R&P Sherman kit might be free, but I wouldn't be able to make my modified model available to others without Rawen's express permission. The wading trunks, although altered and recolored, were taken from a purchased kit by Bestpapermodels. So, I'm afraid this will remain a one-off, but I appreciate your interest.

**Brent** · #6 05-01-2019, 06:14 PM

Great job, I like it a lot.

Brent

**Harry Bier** · #7 05-06-2019, 04:22 AM

Hello Don - a really great model !!

**rockpaperscissor** · #8 05-06-2019, 05:06 AM

Thank you for your comments, Harry and Brent. I made things much harder on myself by kit bashing two models of widely different scales. At the time I was unaware that Paper Tiger Armaments offers an OD Sherman in 1/72 scale that includes wading trunks (and a hedgerow cutter). It has a nicely detailed 3D undercarriage, too. Oh well. My plan now is to obscure the lack of detail by placing the Sherman in an LCM-3 landing craft. Yikes, I have a lot to do before the USAHEC event in mid-May.