Sherman Conversions

I have been really busy this week but in my spare time have added two more customised Sherman M4A3's to the convoy of armour on the workbench. The first is an Armourfast M4A3 hull with added sandbag improvised armour from Early War Miniatures, which is designed to glue onto the sides and glacis plate of the standard kit. I was a bit dubious about this at first but I think it looks pretty good, especially with a bit of filler to cover up and gaps. The turret is from the Italeri M4A3 (76) kit, which fits the Armourfast hull with a little sanding of the central location hole, although I haven't fixed it permanently yet to make painting easier.

The second tank is another M4A3E2 'Jumbo' using the Armourfast hull sanded down as a proxy for the up-armoured assault tank, with the turret from the Italeri Jumbo kit added instead of the standard M4A3 equivalent. I have also up-gunned this one with a 76mm barrel from the Italeri kit, so that it has a bit more firepower. This was often done in the field using spare guns from knocked out or worn out M4A3 (76) tanks. I like the overall look of the M4A3E2 models but I still need to add some  stowage and gubbins to give them more of an 'on campaign' appearance. I now have an M4A3 (105) and two M4A3 (75) models to build, using Armourfast turrets and the leftover Italeri hulls, then it's on to the Plastic Soldier Company M5A1's!