Sherman Flail tank accessory by Lanmo Model

This part, in the red circle:

The front is more or less in the correct position, but it should be rotated a bit so it’s oriented fore-and-aft rather than diagonally. You would really want to drill the whole thing out at a 45-degree angle into the turret, because the hole is for the barrel of the 2-inch bomb thrower that was fixed at that angle:

But as I said, it was not necessarily present on Crabs — “mine” didn’t, for example — so you can also just cut it off the turret again. The hole should be 1.5 mm, BTW, not 3 mm.

As for tracks, the Asuka Sherman V kit has soft plastic tracks in two pieces, which should be the correct length for your model. Anyone who has one of those kits but replaced the tracks should have a set they might be willing to send you (I’d offer to send you the ones I had left, except I already gave them away some time ago).

If the box is absent, check if there are remains of deep-wading gear on the tank. Using another Sherman V from my area as an example, the bits marked with arrows are all related to the wading gear, which often remained for a while after landing — until the crew had time to properly remove all of it:

  • Yellow indicates the air exit chute, which is easily visible in any photo from the rear if it’s still present.
  • Blue is the release gear (to which the intake and exhaust ducts were connected by cables or tie rods, so they could be released from inside the turret), which sits on a little bracket on the rear roof of the turret so that it’s almost horizontal. The Dragon kit doesn’t have that part, AFAIK, but it was present on all or nearly all British Shermans, and the bracket stayed on the tank after the gear itself was taken off.
  • Red is the base for the air inlet duct. It’s the rectangular bit in front of the normal “hump” in the engine deck with the radiator filler cap, and it sat on top of the grille in front of that hump.

If you can see any of these items in a photo, you know the tank had recently had deep-wading equipment fitted. And that explains why it won’t have a stowage box on the back of the turret, because the air inlet duct is this close to the rear of the turret:

In the photo of the real tank above, you can also see the brackets that held the stowage box on, BTW: a horizontal piece of angle iron near the bottom edge of the bustle and a bit of strip high up on on each side of the bustle.

The Crab in the background of that photo, behind the petrol pump, is the one whose photo was posted earlier in this thread, by the houses. It’s in the exact same spot here as in that photo.

3 Likes

i know the ‘Crabs’ were used during operation infatuate so there may have been changes to the design and layout of these tanks since DDay.
the flail tank at Bovington is set up as operation infatuate rather than DDay. i don’t think DDay versions had to do much swimming and were probably delivered to the beach on landing craft but again i need more information on this.

my picture from Bovington

in other news the flail kit has arrived early

4 Likes

Bovington Crab seen

from the right rear

from the left rear

straight from the rear

Spoiler alert: No box, only brackets

2 Likes

Robin many thanks for those pictures, they also show the brackets that hold the “follow me” poles.

i really appreciate you sending me these images and i have downloaded them to my phone until i get my new computer which is being built this week.

1 Like

Community service :wink:

3 Likes

Wellllll … not really :slight_smile: The rack on the side is different than any in Infatuate, it’s lacking the lane marker boxes that all but one of the Infatuate Crabs had, there’s a machine gun on the commander’s cupola that none of them had, etc. :slight_smile: (This may be a good point to mention that I can by now recognise on sight and name all six Crabs that made it ashore in Infatuate :wink: )

I’m nowhere near an expert on Crabs in Normandy, though, but AFAIK there were no real major differences. All vehicles in Infatuate II landed from LCTs, none did any major swimming to get ashore, especially not the tanks.

1 Like

There are a lot of idiosyncrasies between Crabs as evidenced in photos. Take this pic I posted above, which according to the Imperial War Museum is one taken prior to Operation Goodwood July 1944. The vehicle shows, what seems to be, the storage box attached to the side of the vehicle but has the mounts at the turret rear. The tank has T49 track links and where the station keeping equipment usually is, this vehicle has the fire extinguisher - plus no mounts for any of the marker boxes or pole device on the hull rear sides:

And a still from the Tank chat video showing another tank with the box on the side:

Some video that may be of interest about 1 minute in for each

4 Likes

Very much so. No two in the Infatuate II landings were exactly the same, for example, they all differed in the types of racks, bins, and other items fitted. This is great for the modeller who just wants a generic Crab, because you have a lot of leeway and you’re probably not wrong as long as it’s plausible. Or pick a real one that you have some good photographs of and copy its details, of course.

4 Likes

Community service means something completely different in the UK unless Sweden had introduced working on an internet forum as a form of punishment that i wasn’t aware of lol

4 Likes

Service to the community.

Our modern egocentric society may see it as a punishment :wink: :grin:

2 Likes

The Swedish word is “samhällstjänst”, samhälle= community or (national/public)society, tjänst = service.
Can indeed be a punishment …
BUT
" Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation.[1] It can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed on a voluntary basis and may be compulsory."

1 Like

ok well i have a small update for you all, i have added the upper engine deck and rear to the upper hull section and have married this to the lower hull witb the help of some masking tape.
those who have built this tank before will realise i havr not added all the greeblies that go on the rear of the upper deck just incase i lost them.

on hindsight i see there is a Sherman campaign, i suppose i should have joined it, i guess it’s to late now lol

4 Likes

Why not join? Should have enough time.

3 Likes

yeah i will shoot PM to Michael and see what he says.

1 Like

I’m pretty sure that you started this after the Shermania Group build started, so there shouldn’t be any probs.

3 Likes

things are starting to take shape and the basic hull outline is clearly visible, i just need to start adding the greebles.

5 Likes

December 31, 2023 7:00 AMJanuary 1, 2025 6:45 AM

3 Likes

I’ve added all the greebles to the rear deck accept for the fire extinguishers as i think they need to be relocated to a new position due to the addition of the follow me lights.

4 Likes

The fire extinguishers can go in their normal positions. The brackets for the lane-keeping devices go just behind them, and on the very edge of the side armour:

3 Likes

I’ve just noticed something, after the event I’m afraid. Dragon’s instructions have the upper vents facing forward instead of rearward.


2 Likes