Axis of Time Super Sherman

[ANovaScotian]

Greetings fellow Whiffers!  This thread is going to be a double whammy. Not only is this my first posting on Beyond the Sprues, but it will also be my first Work in Progress thread.  A big shout out goes to The Big Gimper who introduced me to this forum.  Without gilding the lily any further let us get down to why we're all here.

If you haven't read the "Axis of Time" trilogy by John Birmingham, then I strongly suggest you do.  Based upon a similar plot to the movie "The Final  Countdown," It is chocked full of What If inspiration. Buzz Bomb over on the Sea Forum has built one of the ships from this series.

 Without giving too much away, the story involves a semi futuristic US led "Multinational Force" being sucked through a wormhole from 2020 to 1942.  As you can imagine this has far reaching consequences.  Just to wet your appetite...[SPOILER ALERT]... imagine the 7th Cavalry being airlifted to the Normandy invasion in UH-1 Hueys and being escorted by missile armed Sabres -OR- M1 Abrams' charging through Japanese lines on Australia -OR- the purpose of this thread, Super Shermans of the 761st Tank Battalion...

"There was a strong push in the army for scrapping the Sherman and going straight to the Pershing...But in the end, momentum won the argument...Thirty thousand Sherman chassis already built by ’43... It made more sense to go with what we had. Anyway, the M4, your classic Sherman, she had a few problems. Even I have to admit that. A low-velocity seventy-five-millimeter popgun, wafer-thin armor, and a gasoline engine that just loved bursting into flames. In the long run I would have recommended discontinuing some of the Sherman production and switching over to the M-29 Pershing heavies... And that’s just what’s happening with some outfits. But there are quite a few mods that can be put in place on the Shermans, since we’ve been churning them out so fast...We got some slat armor...We redesigned the turret to accommodate a high-velocity hundred-and-five-millimeter gun...The whole hull’s been revamped with appliqué armor...There’s a more sharply angled forward slope, side skirts to defend against RPGs, and some composite shielding beneath that and at the rear... We switched over to a diesel engine, too."

When I first read this, it sounded quite a bit like an Israeli "Super Sherman" and in fact that is exactly how I pictured it in my mind, however, being the creative person I am, I immediately fired up Paint and started working on something better...

[ANovaScotian]

... And its even colour coded for your convenience (my apologies to the color blind among you).  I've taken the description from the book and modified it to what would theoretically have be feasible in our 1944, so... I've chosen the Sherman Jumbo hull and turret as it had the thickest armour of the Shermans to see wartime service, married that to the HVSS suspension as I've always thought it looked better, not to mention that it was stronger, and had better load carrying ability... and on the business end, the 90mm M3 gun as fitted on the M36 and the Pershing..  Seeing as how the Sherman was able to mount a 105mm howitzer, it didn't seem out of the realm of possibility of mounting a 90mm gun.
My choice of kits was simply based on what was on the shelves of the my local hobby shop (www.wheelswingshobbies.com)

Thoughts, comments and suggestions are welcome.  Criticisms can be directed to the complaint department...

[GTX_Admin]

Nice entrance - great to have you here. 

[Kerick]

This sounds like quite a project! I'm looking forward to watching this develop.

[ANovaScotian]

Here's progress so far on the Super Sherman.  The Tank Workshop resin hull has been cleaned up and fits surprisingly well on the Dragon lower seeing as how its meant for the Tamiya Sherman.  All the turret needed was little sanding to smooth out the cast texture a little bit.  Hatches have been temporarily fitted; hull hatches from Italeri and turret from Dragon (another surprising good fit).  The Academy 90mm gun has been glued together and taped onto the gun mantlet for demonstration purposes.  Suspension bogies and final drive/transmission housing are underway and will be seen in the next posting...probably.

[Kerick]

I like the look of this! Still plenty of work cut out for you yet.

[Buzzbomb]

A fellow fan of Axis of Time is always welcome here. So much good fodder out them thar books.

looking forward to seeing the Sherman Evolve.
If you are interested I also have another Birmoverse build on here, the AASLAV Bushpig of 2 Cav
http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=4247.0

[ANovaScotian]

Looks good buzzbomb. My only concern is, it doesn't look Australian enough.  I've always found that Australian equipment has a certain "I don't give a wallaby's ass what you think" look.  It needs some horns, or befitting of the Bushpig title, some tusks.  And as for fodder, you are quite right, there is so much good stuff in those books.  I've had half a mind of doing a missile armed Sabre with invasion stripes at some point.

[Feldmarschall Zod]

Welcome to the site. A great choice for your first build here.

[ANovaScotian]

Can everyone see my pictures??  If your answer is "no" or "what pictures" please let me know.

[GTX_Admin]

No problem seeing the pictures from my end.

[Rickshaw]

Interesting.  Those books are a favourite of my son's but I've never bothered with them.

In RL, they may have found they needed to enlarge the turret to accept the recoil length of the 90mm gun, just as the Israelis had to when they shoe-horned first a 90mm and then a 105mm into their Super-Shermans.   They managed it by both moving the trunnions forward and also cutting the back off the turret and fabricating a new one.

Otherwise, it's looking good.  Are you going to use anything from the Italeri  M4a3?  Your colour coded diagram didn't seem to show any red on it.

[ANovaScotian]

Today's Progress:
Hatches glued on turret and hull
Gun barrel mounted to mantlet.  Removed the molded on (insert name here) and attached a new one made of styrene tube to accommodate the larger gun.  Mantlet has yet to be properly attached as I'm unsure as to how I'm eventually going to pose it, and I'm still figuring out how I'm going to create a mantlet cover. (foil perhaps?)
Transmission/Final Drive attached to the front of the lower hull. This was taken from the Academy kit as the Dragon one wouldn't meet up with the upper hull, not to mention it looks a little better as it has molded on casting markings, in addition the sides had to be trimmed back about 4mm to match.  Fortunately the Academy kit comes with two transmission housings so I can still make the M36...eventually. 
Suspension bogies, idlers and drive sprockets have been assembled and the wheels have been cleaned up (some rather thick sprue attachments for a Dragon kit)

Next on my list is to finish sanding off the molded on weld seams between the hull and the add-on armour applied to the Jumbos and possibly replace it with some Archer decals, or try my hand at making my own with styrene strip. Next will be to locate the mounts for the return rollers as Dragon don't give you a definite location, just dimensions from other points on the hull.  Once I give everything a good cleaning and locate some of the fiddly bits, I'll mate the upper and lower hulls and get things ready for some paint.

To answer Rickshaw's question, The Italeri M4A3 is mostly just for miscellaneous parts which is why you don't see much on my plans.  The turret from it will be mated to the upper hull from the Dragon kit at a later date to make some version of a Canadian Sherman; at least that's the plan anyway.  In regards to the gun, turret problem I say this... They developed advanced short-stroke, high capacity recoil cylinders which reduced the recoil travel of the gun as to not create problems with utilizing existing turrets to facilitate field modifications.  If that's not good enough, I might add some sort of box on the rear of the turret, depends on what kind of mood I'm in. 

[Kerick]

Isn't there usually an extension to the back of the turret to counterbalance the weight of the larger gun barrel?

[Rickshaw]

Isn't there usually an extension to the back of the turret to counterbalance the weight of the larger gun barrel?

It usually acts both as a counter-balance, to balance the turret so it can rotate easily and to allow the greater travel of larger calibre guns.  The Israelis, as I mentioned, both moved the gun forward and added a counterweight extension at the rear to provide sufficient room for first the 90mm and then the 105mm they installed in their Shermans.   ANovaScotian has supplied a more than adequate answer to the problem of recoil...

[ANovaScotian]

"ANovaScotian has supplied a more than adequate answer to the problem of recoil..."
 

[ANovaScotian]

Here's one for all those learned in physics/statics (such as myself, except I can't bloody well remember)
Solve for x so the moment is zero

[GTX_Admin]

depends on what kind of mood I'm in. 

And that is all that matters. :)

[Weaver]

Here's one for all those learned in physics/statics (such as myself, except I can't bloody well remember)
Solve for x so the moment is zero

Okay, I think x = 3656.46 lb, but since I'm only barely learned, I'd prefer somebody else to verify that, rather than you take my word for it....

Nice project and welcome aboard by the way!

[GTX_Admin]

I only just found out that John Birmingham released a 4th book in the series…guess what I might read shortly:

[ANovaScotian]

I only just found out that John Birmingham released a 4th book in the series…guess what I might read shortly:

Looks interesting.  Then there's the sequel: "Stalin's Sickle" and after that "Stalin's Sick" concluding with "Stalin's Dead" 

[Weaver]

You realise you could put this into the Book/Movie/Game Group Build? Hint, Hint....

http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?board=55.0

[GTX_Admin]

You realise you could put this into the Book/Movie/Game Group Build? Hint, Hint....

http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?board=55.0

Good point.  Do it!

[ANovaScotian]

Happy New Year!  Hope everyone isn't too hungover from New Year's Eve. 
Unfortunately I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked on the Sherman, however I have gotten a few things done.  I have a few more odds and ends glued on; MG mount, antenna base, fenders, headlights, bow MG, etc and for your viewing pleasure, I've mocked up the suspension bogies...

[ANovaScotian]

In one of those rare moments of inspiration, a new name for this beast came to me after looking through some pages of aircraft nose art and finally seeing the model on its wheels.  How does M4A7E8 Sherman "Big Easy" sound?  It's "Easy Eight" lineage is still quite apparent, and with the "Jumbo" modifications making it a "Big" Easy Eight, it just sounds natural.

[elmayerle]

Sounds good to me, possibly used by a unit home-based in Louisiana?

[Kerick]

Sounds good to me, possibly used by a unit home-based in Louisiana?

That monster would sink in the swamps down there!
Great bashing!

[GTX_Admin]

Maybe give it some night vision equipment? 

[elmayerle]

Sounds good to me, possibly used by a unit home-based in Louisiana?

That monster would sink in the swamps down there!
Great bashing!

I was thinking more of "The Big Easy" being one of the nicknames for New Orleans.  It would probably have to be based out of Northern Louisiana where the ground is more solid (say, up around Baton Rouge).

[ANovaScotian]

Here's some concept art utilizing the new name.
I'm considering a .30 cal Browning a la Fury on the turret, any thoughts?

[Kerick]

Easy eight sounds perfect. .30 should work too. Lots of folks chose .30 over .50 so that they could carry much more ammo.

[Buzzbomb]

Like where it is at and the .30 would not go astray

[ANovaScotian]

FINALLY got some paint on the Big Easy. Well, primer anyway.  One coat of grey primer, then applied the Archer Fine Transfers resin weld bead decals, which by the way if you haven't tried, you should, these things are great.  A little expensive but really nice. This was then followed with a coat of Vallejo Olive Drab primer which is also the first step in the Vallejo AFV Painting System for US Olive Drab.  Now I'm not all that hot on some of the more labour intensive painting and weathering techniques, but I figured I would try it out.
If you look really close at the pictures you should be able to make out the weld beads.  These were applied along the entire perimeter and down the corners of the tank to simulate the applique armour.

[Logan Hartke]

That's lovely. Very nicely done.

Cheers,

Logan

[Buzzbomb]

Roger so far.

[ANovaScotian]

Allow me to apologize first for not doing any paint progress pictures.
To review the Vallejo paint set, I'm not entirely impressed.  If you decide to follow in my shoes, I suggest you skip Step 4, unless you want a very brown tank.  Vallejo Model Air Olive Drab is a very nice RLM 81, however, it is a pitiful Olive Drab.  So after the first attempt which followed the Vallejo instructions and resulted in a rather ill looking tank, I did what I should have done in the first place, summarized as follows:
Step 1: Spray Yellow Olive along panel lines and in recessed areas.
Step 2: Spray US Light Green in middle of panels and exposed areas.
Step 3: Spray US Dark Green (which is actually a nice olive drab color by the way) in light coats over entire model.
That looks better! :)

So, as it stands, the Big Easy is preshaded, painted, futured, decalled, washed (the dirty kind, not the clean kind) and is set aside to dry.

[Brian da Basher]

If this beauty is any indication of your work, I know I'm going to really enjoy your posts, ANS!

Looks wicked, even sans paint!

Brian da Basher

[ANovaScotian]

If this beauty is any indication of your work, I know I'm going to really enjoy your posts, ANS!

Looks wicked, even sans paint!

Brian da Basher

Thanks Brian.  Just for you, here's a little sneak peek at some of my other stuff...

[Brian da Basher]

Now with wings!

Talk about some enviable skill! You have a talent for camo! The canopy framing on those birds is superb!

The second one is my favorite. The mottling is wonderful!

Brian da Basher

[ANovaScotian]

Thanks for the kind words Brian!  I'm primarily an aircraft modeler... this build here is my fourth and a half armour model (the half was a new paint job on an old model rescued from the garbage).
Since my last post I've been busy weathering the Big Easy using a Mig Jimenez DVD for tips and inspiration, and it has been going quite well.  I've also picked up a set of Fruilmodel metal tracks and have both runs put together after about three or four hours.  If these things weren't so expensive nowadays, I would probably get some for the rest of the armour in my stash.  All I really have left to do to the Big Easy is to finish off the weathering of the tracks and suspension, glue on a few last odds and sods and to make this thing look like a real Sherman; have everything but the kitchen sink hanging off the back.

The keen-eyed among you will notice that the Big Easy has a TD serial number. Don't worry, I'm working on an excuse.  :)

[Brian da Basher]

I'm too dense to get the serial number thing, so I appreciate you pointing it out.

This beauty looks perfect and the weathering on the wheels is just spot-on!

Brian da Basher

[ANovaScotian]

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages. The Big Easy is officially done.

M4A7E8 Sherman "Big Easy"
Developed from the "Easy Eight" Sherman, it featured a slightly longer hull to accommodate the larger diesel powerplant and the same armour as the M4A3E2 "Jumbo" Sherman. It was armed with the 90mm M4 tank gun; A modification of the earlier M3 gun, it featured improved short-stroke high capacity recoil cylinders to allow it to fit and be fired in the standard Sherman turret.   Unfortunately this necessitated the removal of the coaxial .30 cal M1919 Browning machine gun, however this was often retrofitted to the turret roof to maintain the same volume of fire.
The first examples were shipped to Northwest Europe under great secrecy after the first encounters with the King Tiger and Jagdtiger.  These first vehicles were given tank destroyer serial numbers and referred to in communications as TDs in order to trick German intelligence into believing that they were more vulnerable Tank Destroyers and not full fledged battle tanks.
Although much slower than earlier Sherman variants and carrying less ammunition, the "Big Easy" as it became known, was nonetheless popular among American tankers who valued the increased protection and harder hitting gun. 

[ANovaScotian]

Please forgive the crap quality of my pictures, they were taken with my phone.  My phone of course being a telephone first, with camera coming much further down the list.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Very nice back story and your Sherman looks damned nice!

[Logan Hartke]

Fantastic! Great work!

Cheers,

Logan

[Buzzbomb]

Just a bucketload of goodness, right there.
Nice job

[finsrin]

Build just oozes with Shermaness :)