A number of years ago, while drooling my way through Hunnicuts “Sherman, A History of the American Medium Tank”, I ran across a couple of pictures that intrigued me.
Now most everyone has heard of the “Mothball Fleet”, where the U.S. placed a substantial number of capital ships into a mothballed condition for future usage. Little known is that the U.S. did the same thing with the Sherman so that it could and was in fact used in future conflicts.
Over the years I considered building one of these “Canned Shermies” and recently I jumped into it.
Only having 2 pictures to work with made the build rather interesting but so far I am pleased with the results.
Here’s the 2 pics that I used for reference for this build.
The kit that I chose to use for this build was the Tamiya M4A3 105 with the HVSS tracks from AFV Club. These tracks are listed as workable … notice I say listed as. The only thing workable about these things are the amount of work that goes into them to make them stay together. [:(!]
The dust cover is tissue paper soaked in white glue / water
All structural work is sheet styrene and engineering plastics.
A few more odds and ends and she’s ready for the paintbooth.
Here’s a couple of pics with the “house” on
And a few more with the “house” off (the tracks are just set in place for these photos)
And just to complete this photo array, here’s a couple of shots of the “twins”, just about ready to go in the booth too. Just a few more bits to add.
This next shot shows the detail on the dust cover with strips of brass cut from a sheet and bolt detail from Grandt.
Hope you enjoy these progress pics.
All comments and critiques welcome.
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Please forgive my obvious intellectual ineptitude, Mister Shermanfreak. Are you planning on doing a “Sherman in a Can” build?
Also, I had thought that hundreds of Shermans were sent to the bottom of the Atlantic after WWII. Is this the same idea?
Finnally, if you have so many extra shermans that you are experimenting with canning them, could you please send a couple my way? I need plenty of practice.
I’ve also got a question,
the Sherman in the Bulge exhibit on this page, http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/main.htm is it a WW 2 sherman? I think it is pretty close to the twins your building
Hiram - the reference to a “Sherman in a Can” is just my tongue-in-cheek way of describing this build. The way that the Sherman was encased in metal to seal it for future usage.
The tanks that were dropped in the ocean are ones used to create artificial reefs I believe. Not only Shermans were used for this. So, no, not the same thing. The Shermans were mothballed in Detroit for future usage. Many were used in Korea.
As soon as I run out of Sherman variants to build, I’ll send you whatever is left over. [;)]
Will - The picture on that site is either an M4A2 or and M4A3 with HVSS suspension. If it’s an M4A3, then yes it was a late comer to the war. If it’s an M4A2, it’s in the wrong place. The Russians may have recieved some on lend lease, but the commonwealth troops didn’t and the U.S. never used them there.
Excellent build. I love this unusual subject matter and of course your build is top shelf as usual. So much better than the usual tank in mud subjects that everyone does.
Interesting build Robert. Another fine project in the works for sure. When I read the topic i thought it was a build you had put up a while back and forgot about.
I was thinkin the same as Dwight there Robert.The twins look good can ya tell me where yo got the HVSS from I cant seem to find a ny kits out that contain it. I did finaly come across a sherman with the rounded cast hull…up to 6 shermans now [:D][:D] and I got to tell ya thesherman in a can is pretty cool. Strange how they do that, so do you need a electric or manual canopener or is it the new pull tab style to open it…hahaha
Congrats on the 5G!
That is a very interesting build. Maybe you should make about a thousand of 'em and do a “Raiders of the Lost Ark”-style storage warehouse diorama!