What kind of camo net is used on this tank? I would assume hessian, yet no strips are visible, it looks more of a combination of pine branches and some other leaves?
Thanks!
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Looks like a regular net with foliage added.
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None that I can see. Presumably just a net with foliage added according to the crew’s taste. The scrubby-type stuff on the gun barrel could be gorse or similar. Ditto around the turret and other branches as they see necessary.
Stowage is not uninteresting; ammo boxes used as containers – presumably secured – front of the hull and the turret rear – as is what appears to be a white enamel mug, and a kettle. All good stuff for modellers.
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Odd enough, I saw this photo first on some forum with two other interesting items:
first, a M4 turret with gunner’s hatch (late turret), and right track has one metal link (i don’t think i’ll be able to reproduce that one)
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Just an afternote: the foliage is probably affixed to a net, at least around the turret. As for the barrel, either more netting or even signal wire wrapped around the length, and the foliage then threaded through. Alternatives would be chicken-wire, or even string, though the latter may not be robust enough once the tank was in action and firing.
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I can’t get the original photo large enough to determine, but this could be an application of “Sommerfeld Matting”,
which was big chicken wire spot welded to the tank for foliage retention. It was used quite extensively but is not often recognized because it is so hard to see on the tank.
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Summerfield matting appeared much later in the year and appears to have been an American application.
Which is not to say the British might have done some adhoc welding of some chickenwire on their vehicles.
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