Ford built M4A3 Dry Storage Sherman

[bigjohn]

Dicky, Thanks, If I can do it, you can do it

Wouts, Nice to have you drop in! The Dry refers to an early Sherman with a Dry Storage ammunition arrangement. Later Shermans had a Wet storage arrangement, The ammunition was stored in bins that had water or some sort of anti freeze around the ammunition. This was done in an attempt the keep the ammunition from burning and exploding in the event of a hull penetration.

Hope that helps

[bigjohn]

I’ve been staying busy on this one all weekend, Doesn’t seam like I have much accomplished, but there has been a lot of work going into this.

I’ve been working on the weld beads on the hull. The beads were created by gluing .010 X .020 styrene strips down, let it dry, then go back and soften the styrene with extra thin cement and sculpt the bead. The welding work still isn’t completely finished yet as I have some clean up and touch ups to do.



I also made a start on modifying the turret. I wanted to represent a turret manufactured in the spring of 1943 so I deleted the pistol port and created the relocated check casting. Again, still not finished with this yet. This involves a lot of filling and sanding, inspect, refill and sand until I’m satisfied with the shape.







That’s pretty much it for this update, I’ll continue to weld, shape, and sand!

[Deleted]

nice work John shaping up to be another cracker

[wouter]

Again a great update mate, nice shots of the effort you did. And thanks for the explanation.

It were the Shermans that were called Tommycookers, right? Was that because of the dry storage or the fact that they used highly flammable petrol? Or am I mixing up stuff?

Cheers

[robbo]

Very neat work you've got going on in here BJ ........... as usual

[bbd468]

Good Grief John, i didnt know you were doin this here, silly me.....D'oh! Great build brother!

[bigjohn]

Hey Thanks fellas! I’m glad you all are enjoying it!

Wouts, You are correct sir, it was a combination of both the dry storage and gasoline. The Germans call them Ronsons. Ronson was a cigarette lighter popular during the war, Ronson’s slogan was “lights every time”. Same with the Sherman, it usually “light” every time a round penetrated its armor.


Oh, and thank you brother Gary!

[bigjohn]

After posting the last round of pics, I noticed the cast cheek armor didn’t looks right, so some more filing and sanding and filling and sanding was in order. Here’s how it looks now with some Mr. Surfacer primer on to blend it all in. I must say that I’m very pleased with how it came out as this was my first attempt at trying to make my own modifications on cheek armor.

[Teabone]

Big John

It is always a pleasure to watch the work of someone who knows what they are doing, you are doing some mighty fine work here on this one with a make over into a correct vehicle.  I have over the years often thought about concentrating my efforts on one subject but the nearest I have gotten to that was doing Allied stuff.  I can see from your fine work that having that strong knowledge of the correct vehicle makes for wonderful build.  Of course your skills with styrene goes a long way to make it look right.

Thanks for the link on Shapeways who I had never heard of.  Also I really like you engine cover and its three dimensional appearance,  Seems like most Sherman kits just give you a two dimension look.

Bones

[bigjohn]

Hey Thanks Bones! I really appreciate the complements!

[bigjohn]

Thank you Sir Richard!

[Teabone]

Jan 12, 2014 13:11:57 GMT -5 bigjohn said:

Hey Thanks fellas! I’m glad you all are enjoying it!

Wouts, You are correct sir, it was a combination of both the dry storage and gasoline. The Germans call them Ronsons. Ronson was a cigarette lighter popular during the war, Ronson’s slogan was “lights every time”. Same with the Sherman, it usually “light” every time a round penetrated its armor.


Oh, and thank you brother Gary!

Big John

Not the first time I heard the term but the first time I encountered written reference to the "Ronson" nick name was in the book by Belton Y. Cooper which I found to be overall strangely written, but he was there so he should have known and Ambrose gives his book a glowing recommendation.  Just a lot of his statements did not ring with truth but one can not argue with the fact that gasoline powered vehicles were certainly susceptible to fire.  Even the German panzer's had that problem but were better protected with heavier armor.

Bones

[TomN.]

Looks great John, blends right in and the texture looks perfect!

Tom

[bullardino]

Oh, my, this is a true masterpiece... The turret looks perfect even without OD...

[bigjohn]

Hey thanks fellas!!!!!!!!!!!

[406 Silverado]

Mighty fine work there BJ, can't even tell...smooth brother.

[bbd468]

Oh, thats nice right there bro! Tha Shermanator at his best!

[wbill76]

Nice weld progress and your cheek sculpting (admit it, you used a Bowflex!) looks tight.

On a side note to the 'tommy cooker'/Ronson name, I recently read Steve Zaloga's 'Armored Thunderbolt' and he made a point of the fact that the dry ammo storage was the biggest factor in Shermans lighting up after a hit because the vehicle's fire suppression gear was ineffective due to the ammo propellant containing its own oxidizer. He also mentioned that once a Sherman started to burn, the crew had only about 30 seconds to make their escape. It's a great read for anyone interested in the Sherman's development without it diving too deep in the technical aspects.

[deafpanzer]

WOW! Great work correcting the cast. What the heck! I have few Sherman kits I am sending them all over to you now...

[wouter]

really like the texture BJ, I tried the Mr. Surfacer texturing as well, but didn't achieve a result as cool as yours

Cheers

[rbaer]

Sweet cheeks!
May I ask what filler you are using? I've previously used Aves 2-part putty, liked it a lot but I can't find anyone selling it at the moment....
I can see (I think) a styrene insert at the front of the "bulge", but whatever you've used to blend and carry it around the side looks good.

[Tobi]

I love it!

Cheers,
Tobi

[bigjohn]

Thanks fellas!

Rbaer, First I glued down the basic shape of styrene, this gave me the hard edge at the bottom. then I used a multitude of rubber bands and clamps to hold it tight against the turret while the glue set. Then I feathered it in with Milliput, The white stuff. Basic shaping was done with a course file. Final shaping was wet sanded in the kitchen sink. Final tweaking of the shape was done with squadron white putty, again wet sanded.

[Teabone]

Jan 12, 2014 21:03:18 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Nice weld progress and your cheek sculpting (admit it, you used a Bowflex!) looks tight.

On a side note to the 'tommy cooker'/Ronson name, I recently read Steve Zaloga's 'Armored Thunderbolt' and he made a point of the fact that the dry ammo storage was the biggest factor in Shermans lighting up after a hit because the vehicle's fire suppression gear was ineffective due to the ammo propellant containing its own oxidizer. He also mentioned that once a Sherman started to burn, the crew had only about 30 seconds to make their escape. It's a great read for anyone interested in the Sherman's development without it diving too deep in the technical aspects.

The Soviets had the same complaint about the M3 Lee, I think the name there was a grave for 5 brothers or some such thing.  The dry ammo and having it high in the vehicle certainly contributed to the problem.

Bones

[sabre]

Nice work Big John, the modification came up a treat and the weld bead technique is going straight into the black book.

Thanks for sharing .

[bigjohn]

This doesn’t seam like much of an update, but there was a lot of work done to get to this point.

The Tamiya M4 kit has the wrong return roller brackets. The kit brackets are of the up swept variety and should have the straight return roller bracket. To correct this, I chose to use the Dragon suspension from the parts box. The Brass return skids are from Lion Marc Model Designs.

Here is a shot of the finished suspension components.

[bbd468]

There is never a bad update bro.....well, unless somethin went awful bad!   Ill be joined in on "Shop" business myself soon.

[Leon]

Nice rework on the turret John,coming along nicely.

[deafpanzer]

I remember how much you love Shermans because of those wheels... they look great!!!

[bullardino]

Those wheels look fantastic, John. I will probably join in soon too...

I will need your help, tho