Pete's Place

[Hoth_902]

OMG pmskaar, Your Shermans are beautiful. I have 10 that I have not touched yet. You are inspiring me to want to pull them out and paint them.

[pmskaar]

This weekend, I finished up 3 remaining M4A3 Shermans for my WWII American forces for NW Europe. I have 1 more M4A3E8 and 2 more M4A3 75s. I now have a total of 33 American Shermans of various types.

I will be painting some more M4A1 75mm soon in order to have a full company of that type.

[redleg]

Amazing work, Pete! on a historical note - was it common to have a lot of variation in a unit? Like, would you get some tans with split hatch in a company or battalion, and then replacement tanks have single piece hatch, etc?

[pmskaar]

In addition to my recently completed Shermans, I have started back up on my BTR-60s which I started about a year ago. Here are some WIP pictures.







Although these are earlier GHQ sculpts, the detail is still very good. I am painting a whole battalion (9 BTR-60s) for Fistful of TOWs 3.

[chrisswim]

Very nice tires, APCs, AIFVs. Great look. A nice dirty.

[panzergator]

Very impressive Shermans.

Yes, a mix of types would be natural, especially in war. A point was reached when their were no tanks of a certain type available and the next type was issued. Even in the 60s and '70s, a mix of M60s and A1s could be found in the same unit.. In peacetime, tanks could suffer damage that required replacement, rather than repair. Some attempt was made to keep the tanks compatible. Uniformity was restored when the battalion's fleet was turned in because a mileage milestone was reached or for an upgrade or if a tank could not be upgraded along with the other tanks of that battalion. Upgrading M60A1s to RISE/AOS eliminated any remaining M60s, because that upgrade was for M60A1s. All M60A1s were turned in when units got M60A2, and again when the M60A3 came out. In the case if M60A1s and A2s, you might see a mix if a cross-attachment took place in a combat order. In 3ID, I believe the A2 battalion was cross attached to A1 units, creating three battalions with a mix of two A1 companies an 1 A1 company each. I don't know if that was done in garrison though. Maintenance and logistics, in that case, would have been an everyday nightmare. 3AD did not do that with their two battalions.

[redleg]

Thanks for the feedback on mixed units, guys! Now if I can just get my vehicles to look like Pete's! Love the BTRs!

[pmskaar]

Thanks very much, Chrisswim, Panzergator, Cama, and Redleg. I really appreciate it.

Cama - Your BTR-70 in the catalog looks great! I have about 10 myself that I may get around to painting one of these days.

You would typically find a mix of Shermans in units, particularly if they had been serving for a long time. There is a picture of a battalion of 1st Armored Division all taken together in a plaza in one of the Italian cities near the end of the war. Quite a variety of Shermans in that mix.

For my M4A3 unit, I currently have 3 M4A3E8s, 5 M4A3 76mm with a mix of new and older style T-23 turrets, 10 M4A3 75mm with 9 having the split hatch and 1 having the commander's cupola. The 9 were modified from the GHQ late war British Sherman turrets by cutting off the rear stowage bins. I also have 2 early M4A3 75mm which have the applique armor on both the hull and turret.

I am also working on an M4A1 unit. I currently have 6 M4A1 76s and 5 M4A1 75s. The 75s have a mix of applique armor and turret bulge on the turrets. All of the ones I have so far have the 3 piece hull transmission cover. I just received 20 of the new GHQ M4A1 75s and these have the single piece transmission covers. I will be painting some of these soon to round out my company. I admit I was pleasantly surprised that the new M4A1s came with the single piece transmission cover so now I can have both types.

[pmskaar]

Here are a few pictures comparing the new GHQ M4A1 #US118 to #US97. The newer version has the single piece transmission cover while the older one has the 3 piece transmission cover. I personally think it is great that GHQ has sculpted both types and I will have some of each in my M4A1 Sherman units.









This last picture is of a #US97 I painted over the summer and adding the M34A1 turret with applique armor and split hatch.

[redleg]

The sign of a true master: when you zoom in real close and the tank looks even better! Amazing!

[panzergator]

Yes! Fine sculpturing. Great models. Wish the M48 series had been done the sane.

[pmskaar]

Thanks very much, Redleg and Panzergator. I would have to say that overall, I am happy with GHQ's Sherman series so far. Of course there are a few nits that can be picked. Here are a few.

1. UK16 An older sculpt but not bad. Main thing here is lack of typical British stowage bin on the back of the turret. If they ever resculpted this one, I would love to see them keep the spoked type roadwheels.
2. UK58 Nice sculpt overall but I am not sure why it has the sandskirts. The vast majority of pictures I have seen show the sandskirts removed.
3. US23 An older sculpt that probably could use an update. I just painted 6 of these a couple weeks ago. Not bad but with the new US118 hull, perhaps a new one could be considered to bring it in line with the rest of the Sherman fleet.
4. US74 I wish they had gone with the split hatch turret rather than the less common commander's cupola. I remedied this on mine by getting some extra UK65 turrets and removing the rear stowage bins.
5. US96 I wish that GHQ had done a newer sculpt for the turret. The one that comes with it is from US1 the M4A3E8. I used some of these plus some from UK23 to represent the earlier and later versions of the T-23 turret. The older sculpted turrets are not quite as crisp as the hulls which are newer.

The new 75mm Shermans do not have the guards at the base of the gun where it enters the mantlet. I am not sure what these are actually called but these were present on all 75mm Shermans except for the really early ones.

For the future, I would like to see GHQ continue with even more Shermans. There more to do including an early and late M4, a Russian M4A2 with applique armor on the hull and turret, later type Russian M4A2s both 75mm and 76mm for late war, and a British Sherman III with 3 piece transmission cover, sideskirts, split commander's hatch and rear turret stowage bin.

Despite my nits mentioned above, I think GHQ is doing a good job on these overall.

[panzergator]

I would encourage GHQ to get copies of R.P. Hunnicutts' series on US armored vehicles. They feature reliable pictures and drawings of US armored fighting vehicles. Having a good reference would solve a lot of these issues for at least US AFVs.

[pmskaar]

Hi Panzergator! I admit to not being familiar with that particular book but it certainly couldn't hurt. Mostly GHQ does a good job of getting things right .... except when they don't, as in the case of your M-48 series. As stated, I am pretty happy overall with the Shermans they currently have. On the other hand, the "new" Panzer IV series needs revamping. The work on the tracks and roadwheels is excellent but the drive sprockets on all of the new models are totally wrong and have no teeth. There also seems to be something a bit off on the overall proportions on these as well but I am using my Mk1 eyeball here and not an actual calipers. Since the Panzer IV was the workhorse of the German Panzerwaffe, it is sad that this very common tank was not done correctly.

Their Panthers on the other hand are works of art and they came out in the mid 1980s. Of course I admit to being a bit of a tank nerd so I am a bit picky. Still, GHQ makes the best overall models in this scale.

[panzergator]

Hunnicutt has the definitive book on the Sherman. His books can be pricey, but they are worth it. There are some great references out there on German tanks, as well. Check Amazon. Search on "R.P. Hunnicutt books."

Your Shermans are excellent.