Hello to the Sherman experts. I am thinking of building the upcoming RFM M4A4 sherman, but I have a few questions.
-Can I build it as a British sherman in Normandy, and if so which units, other than the decal option. I have been checking photos, but can’t find any of British M4A4s with no pistol port, and thickened cheek armour. Any information on numbers used, units etc. would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Paul
The M4A4 is known as a Sherman V and so should be fine but I do not know the exact date they came in
This would be very rare. The tanks with turrets no PP and thickened cheek armor would have been a full restoration/remanufacture. The normal M4A4s were completed prior to the introduction of the no PP & thick cheek turrets.
Going by the box art, the RFM M4A4 kit is just that, though: no pistol port, but with periscope guards.
Page 337 of Son of Sherman (second edition) has a photo of an M4A4 with no pistol port in American service, in the 527th Ordnance Company (Heavy Maintenance) (Tank); this was part of the Chinese-American joint 1st Provisional Tank Group, a unit that was supplied from British stocks. What I mean to say here is that there were definitely M4A4s with a turret that lacked the pistol port, and some (all?) of those were supplied to the British.
Three pages earlier is a photo of a Canadian workshop in Belgium in May 1945, in which a Sherman V without pistol port is also prominently visible.
Further, since all M4A4s were produced in 1942 and 1943, these tanks would have been available in time for the Normandy landings, so I wouldn’t see a problem with building/painting the RFM kit as one in British/Commonwealth service there.
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An interesting discussion.As for U.K units well there are a few units.
11th Armoured division used Sherman Vs with the bull division badge.
Guards armoured division,Irish,Coldstream guards,Grenadier guards.
79th Armoured division,Although they were primarily the funnies they had Sherman Vs prior to D.day,43RTR trained these crews before D.day.
Bison decals do a nice selection of U K Sherman decals.Also there were a number of Direct vision Sherman Vs used by U.k.Particularly Command versions used by officers.(Often dummy guns and more radio sets).
Hope that helps a bit.
Richard
Also as command tanks in Crab units, and not with dummy guns.
79th Division Sherman V flail tanks served with any units that requested them including American units and so opens a wide number of options.
Useful link:
As already mentioned, 11th and Guards Armoured had Shermans (7th being entirely equipped with Cromwells, save for Fireflies so that doesn’t concern us here).
As for the Independent Armoured Brigades using Shermans:
4th Armoured
8th Armoured - primarily DD but I believe the ratio was only 2 x Squadrons’ worth (per unit) the remainder being “normal” Shermans.
27th Armoured (again DDs as per above)
33rd Armoured
Plenty of great information from the guys.Plus Canada and Poland had fair share of Sherman Vs in Normandy.It would be great if there was a Direct vision Sherman V in styrene.I know Jakko and myself would welcome that.I have the Resicast Direct vision Sherman V hull and that fits the Tasca/Asuka model.Might plump for the Border Sherman V when its available in U.K.
Richard
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I wouldn’t mind one, though I also wouldn’t think twice about grafting an M4 or M4A2 DV hull front onto an M4A4 to make one if I really wanted to build one 
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Would the hull even fit with the lower hull being extended on the M4A4?
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Think we spoke about this on another forum.And guess who has gone and ordered some Asuka Spare sprues to do this hehe.I bought 2 m4a2 D.V hulls and an M4a4 hull.Gently ,Gently with the saw but i guess it beats beggering about with resin hull on say a Firefly hull or the Asuka Sherman V.But it would be cool to get a D.V Sherman V but i think im being optimistic.
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An M4 or M4A2 upper hull wouldn’t, but what I meant is to cut off the entire front hull — say, down the middle of the turret ring — from both, then stick the DV hull front to the M4A4 engine deck. Doing it like this, you would have to transplant the M4A4’s antenna mount too, BTW.
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DGS Military Hobby has a sheet covering Sherman V and Firefly
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Hi Jakko.
Would it be a quick fix by say just cutting the entire glacis off say the Asuka m4a2 and graft that onto the M4a4 glacis?.Off the top of my head i cant remember what aerial pot the Asuka M4a2 DV has.Im guessing Baldwin.Will try and find the sprues i bought from the wardrobe of modelling junk.
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You might be able to do it by just cutting off the whole glacis along the weld line, but I suspect it’ll be tricky to get the hatches right that way. The antenna mount on the Asuka M4A2 is definitely the wrong shape for an M4A4, which makes all of this a bit trickier. Oh, and of course you might want to alter the weld patterns on the glacis to match those of an M4A4, too.
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For a DV A4 hull in plastic the best bet would be to grind out the later hoods and then graft in the DV hood sections, thus preserving the structural integrity of the hull. It requires some effort, and of course all the welds need fixed.
I built one once using the Dragon A4 hull and cut off the hood fronts to rebuild to DV with Evergreen, but that was a real PITA. And then I had all the other fit issues that came with the Dragon kit…
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