Sherman M4A1 with cast in appliqué armor using photogrammetry

[Ecam]

I did not say swimming, nor have we started yet. Still in the parts gathering and designing stage.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

"A working DD Sherman...." Tee Hee: you thought that was a hint--but how would I even know? It was a figure of speech, a trope, a non-literal bit of, unh, gas.

[Ecam]

While I was on the mill, I decided to mill a pocket on the top of the turret where the part number of the turret (D50878). The placement and some infos vary from a manufacturer to another, once again, like the hull, I chose the turret made by General Steel.

download/file.php?id=118949

Pocket milled :

download/file.php?id=118947

I'm sure you are wondering what's the point with that ?

Let me explain, I filled the pocket with milliput then I used a stamp of the casting number I designed in 3D and that I 3D printed :

download/file.php?id=118950

While reading this thread for the forth time...

The above section stood out. The work going into this build just to get casting numbers on the build. Some of the parts created include the numbers but one that didn't...

The work to mill a pocket, design and print a 3D stamp (complete with mirrored numbers and grooves to create a raised casting) far exceeds anything I have come up with in any of my builds.

Mr. Tox, impressive and inspiring work!

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Ecam: The once-and-again excellent volumes Son of Sherman show and explain photos of quite a number of such casting part numbers and manufacturers' symbols. Son of Sherman is at least briefly available again at: https://daviddoylebooks.com/us-military ... whg2-588x7 Hold onto your hat on for the price. (I have both the far less expensive first edition from over a decade ago and the less expensive, expanded second edition from a year or so ago. Doyle is not at all gouging: it is shockingly costly to produce such a book.)

Monsieur Tox, do you have the book? The detail and quality of your work suggests you might be using Son of Sherman as as supplement to your own photos.

[Ecam]

Mike has a set, I'm going to ask that he puts me in his will for that. The Sherman Minutia site http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/index.html also covers the casting numbers in great detail.

[MonsieurTox]

A working DD Sherman, that they have already built and will spring it on us, on the 6 June.

I'm betting a working crab !

Mike.

Now that's 2 Shermans I'd like to make someday ! Always loved the funnies and the tanks with special attributes (like the Churchill AVRE ou Crocodile !).

While reading this thread for the forth time...

The above section stood out. The work going into this build just to get casting numbers on the build. Some of the parts created include the numbers but one that didn't...

The work to mill a pocket, design and print a 3D stamp (complete with mirrored numbers and grooves to create a raised casting) far exceeds anything I have come up with in any of my builds.

Mr. Tox, impressive and inspiring work!

Thanks Eric, creating the stamps with mirrored numbers and grooves is actually pretty simple and it's in fact one single operation, so it's 1 seconde of work !

M4A1_83.jpg (260.54 KiB) Viewed 55 times

What is the most time consuming is the research and actually create the letter and numbers from scratch, using reference material. I don't want to use off the shelf fonts as it doest look right to me. It's funny to see the different style and shape of fonts used (not the same from a foundry to another), the way they put them (sometimes crooked, sometimes the 8 number is upside down). It can take several hours just to get one serial or part number right. Then I have to create the thickness and the taper (most of them has them, but not all of them, depends on the height of the letters/numbers).

Here are some examples :

M4A1_79.jpg (306.78 KiB) Viewed 55 times

M4A1_80.jpg (284.21 KiB) Viewed 55 times

Here are some more (some won't be used on this build as they are turret part numbers too but from another foundry) :

M4A1_82.jpg (372.19 KiB) Viewed 55 times

Ecam: The once-and-again excellent volumes Son of Sherman show and explain photos of quite a number of such casting part numbers and manufacturers' symbols. Son of Sherman is at least briefly available again at: https://daviddoylebooks.com/us-military ... whg2-588x7 Hold onto your hat on for the price. (I have both the far less expensive first edition from over a decade ago and the less expensive, expanded second edition from a year or so ago. Doyle is not at all gouging: it is shockingly costly to produce such a book.)

Monsieur Tox, do you have the book? The detail and quality of your work suggests you might be using Son of Sherman as as supplement to your own photos.

I wish I had it but it's darn too expensive for me !

Fortunatly as Ecam said, the Sherman Minutia site is awesome and is a must read if you're planing a Sherman and don't have Son of Sherman (and maybe if you have it too !).