SPA Modeler

Wondering,could this one be used as a base for an 'Oddball" Sherman

Not really. Oddball's Sherman was a late production M4A3 75mm wet, with the second style of 75mm turret, not the T23 turret, upgunned to a 76mm. And it had the VVSS suspension. Tamiya, Dragon and Academy all make a good kit of the basic tank and then you just need to get a 76mm barrel and swap it out. Plus add their own peculiar movie mods.

Thanks for the pics.That formations conversion is out again,but it is a little steep,and I do have the Jaguar figures..Maybe some day.

You can use one of the old Tamiya M4A3s and swap out the 75mm with a 76mm barrel. Although technically that kit has the later high bustle 75mm turret with a loaders hatch. The low bustle turret with separate loaders hatch like in the photo was not very common. I don't know if anybody like Tank Workshop makes a resin aftermarket one. But only a serious Shermaholic Kelly's Heroes fan would notice if you used a high bustle 75mm turret...

I was looking somewhere online that some Shermans - particularly Firefly versions use different threads styles or possibly Russian tank threads?

Here's a Sherman Firefly kit by Dragon with 2 options of thread styles:

https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagorie ... =a&era=5,6

I understand quite a few Shermans were Lend - Lease tanks; but what was the purpose of the changes? Better traction? Lack of available replacement threads?

VVSS Shermans used several different track types, which also had sub types, any of which could be fitted to any of the M4s without modification. There also was a single pin track developed for the Canadian Grizzly tank that could be fitted to any Sherman with a new drive sprocket. And there was a particular type of "duckbill" extension, fitted to improve floatation over soft ground, that had the extensions on the inner and outer end connectors, but that type required modification to space the suspension away from the hull as well and was more time consuming and labor intensive to install and remove. All that being said, there were tracks more commonly seen on particular Sherman's, such as the Firefly, but not exclusive features of that variant. And yes, certain tracks gave better soft ground or cross country traction or better hard ground or on road performance, which really depended upon the area of operations. North Africa gave different terrain challenges, as opposed to New Guinea, as opposed to Northwest Europe in winter 1944/1945.

looking at the link, those are both the same tracks type, but one has the "duckbill" extensions fitted to the outer end connectors to improve floatation on soft ground. The model company goofed though and put on one track set backwards on the model there with the open center portion of the steel chevron towards the bottom instead of the open portion towards the top as was supposed to be done. On both of those examples the chevrons should be oriented in the same direction with the only difference being the added duckbill end connectors.

I never knew that. Thank you stik for the education on Sherman tanks and track threads.

How do you mean the duck-billed threads on backwards? Are they supposed to be facing inwards? Or did they have them illustrated on wrong side?

JimD wrote: Must have been.........wait for it.......the Dragon instructions.

wrong emoticon my friend

BlackSheep214 wrote:I never knew that. Thank you stik for the education on Sherman tanks and track threads.

How do you mean the duck-billed threads on backwards? Are they supposed to be facing inwards? Or did they have them illustrated on wrong side?

OK, here is a quick rundown on Sherman VVSS track types

Rubber Chevron,AKA T48 notice the open portion of the chevron is towards the top- these things work best when installed directionally, whether steel or rubber chevron type.



Steel Chevron

T54 type


T62 type (more curved chevron and studded)


Steel Cleat

T49 type


T56 Type


Rubber Block

T41 (reversable)


T51 (non reversable) (top ones have duckbill extended end connectors)



WE210 "double I" (non reversable)


Canadian Single Pin type (note the different sprocket teeth pitch) These will be seen only on Commonwealth service M4 family AFVs as they were not a US produced type in the US supply system


Extended End Connectors AKA "Duckbills"
Inner and outer (requires spacers away from hull on suspension components)


outer only