Need opinions on customizing a Sherman.

Ok I am in the finishing stages of my M4 Sherman. I have fabricated a hedge chopper from a tank barracade set and I am debating on whether or not to attach it onto my Sherman. What do you all think? All opinions are welcome and helpful.

The bigguy.

Depends on which Sherman you are building. If it is an M4A1 76mm, probably not. If it is a late war M4A3E8, also not likely. I’m not normally a fan of the hedgerow cutters since they were used for a short period until they cleared the “Bocage” country.

It is a Tamiya M4A3 75mm late production model (Breakout). I chose the later production single hatch instead of the double hatch for the turret as well as the later version of the 50 cal. machine gun mount.

I’m surprised shermanfreak hasn’t seen this topic yet…

I was wondering where he was myself… [;)]

I will also have an M4A3 Sherman (my first) in the works pretty soon and was going to ask for his advice.

I really didn’t have to put my 2 cents in here. Major Rob has given a pretty good assessment on the usage and time frame of the Cullen Device.
Shouldn’t be a problem using it with the M4A3 75 at all bigguy.

After watching “Modern Marvels” on the history channel, I learned a lot about the Cullen Device. I was under the inpression that there were a lot of tanks with these devices placed on them. However there was great difficulty fabricating the devices and there were only a few that accually made it into service. The program showed a lot of variations on the original. I think it would be fun to research more in depth and place one on the tank. That is the type of stuff that makes this such a fun hobby. If it were me, I would spend some time on the old internet, find the coolest variations and adapt them into my own device. Again just my opinion.

I just had to check-in and make sure the ‘shermanfreak’ respondede to this post…

Murray

I have to say that the show on the History Channel was right making the Cullen Device, or mor affectionatly know as the “Hedge Chopper,” is quite difficult to build. I have a cut or two on my thumb from trimming the Tamiya Tank Barricade I-Beams down to look like the original. I used two of them, one to fit onto the tank and another I cut into four eguil lenght peices to glue onto the long I-Beam. The four small peices I trimed to top off the “i,” then I trimed the bottom of the “i” into a point on one end. It was difficult working on smaal peices like that but it look great. However I am hesitant to attach it to the first Sherman I have ever built, especially because of all the work I put into it.

Oh by the way you all are giving me great advise. You are helping me out a lot with this.

Thebigguy