I’ve looked through as many books and pictures as I could get my hands on, but I can’t find a photo of an M4 Sherman with it’s top engine compartment door open. Does anyone know where I can find one? I wanted to see how the door stayed open. I’ve seen drawings with it up, but to remain open was there some kind of pole or something that was needed? The same with the vent cover. Did it stay open on its own?
~ Thanks
~ Garth
Welcome to FSM Garth … I just looked through some pics I took of an M4A1 which had the same configuration as the M4. From these pics (and from my sometimes dodgy memory), I don’t believe there was anything on the tank itself for holding these 2 itmes open. I believe they were just opened all the way to allow access.
Hope this helps a bit.
Enjoy the forums !!!
The only thing I know that held the door open were two small steel block on the M4A3. They were there to keep those large doors from opening to far and putting undue stress on the hinges which would break them. They can be seen in photos, one is in among the pioneer tools and of course the other is on the other side.
[#welcome] to the forum
thanks for the advice guys and thanks for the welcome. how do you think it would look if i had the standing figure from the (i think it’s verlinden) ‘track trouble’ set standing on the back corner of the hull leaning up against the open door looking at the engine? i was trying to think of a creative way to display the engine compartmet (or most of it) without leaving the entire top off. maybe like a maintenance diorama or something like that.
Unless he’s going to be opening or closing the engine door, because when the doors are fully opened they lay flat. What you could try is Tamiya’s Greman Tank Engine Maintenance Crew Set. It has 2 Greman machanics it coveralls change the heads and Presto you have 2 US machanics. Just an idea.
BTW the Track Trouble figures are a nice set I used them on my Sherman group build project.