SUGGESTIONS - The Next Allied Stowage Set

[Pinky]

Is that an air ID panel between the exhausts on the ammo hoarder?

Apparently it is - by this time there was a risk of attack by British and American aircraft, hence the US-style panel.

[ripley]

Yes air ID panel . Under the panel is a semi standard stowage box which quite a few T-34/85s ended up getting . You can sometimes see the 4  mounting brackets around the transmission access hatch . Will try to find picture

[ultravanillasmurf]

Is this what you mean.

At the Tank Museum, Korean war.

[ripley]

Thats them , you beat me to it 

[Jimmy_P]

What about having some tank crew in the stowage set....? Not quite as many as the PSC stowage set perhaps, but would be a way to get some crew for kits that don't have any (and take advantage of your improvements in figures too). Particularly something like EW Russian crew for your T34 kit, etc?

[ultravanillasmurf]

Personally I would prefer crew and stowage to be separate (the PSC set is the reason writ large).

Crew sets make more sense as individual blisters otherwise you would end up with a lot of unused figures.

[ultravanillasmurf]

Having assembled the M4A3E8,  I am now trying to decide about stowage.

One thing I am short on is spare HVSS wheels.

For the VVSS Shermans individual track links for the turret.

[somtec]

Having gone through the other replies i would like to suggest the following., some have already been mentioned. Mostly US stuff
 Spare hvss road wheels
Individual 30 and 50 cal ammo cans as opposed to a bunch, some could be have open lids with ammo exposed
Few lengths of above ammo.
Spare tools such as sledge hammer,axe,shovels etc
US pioneers tool rack both empty and full of tools.
Some tank ammo 75,76,105 loose rounds maybe an open box with rounds.
Wood tank round boxes.
Ration boxes
Radio sets
As mentioned air cooled 50 cal.
And any equivalent British stuff such as radio set , open ammo boxes with round lewis ammo mags, 17 pdr ammo etc

[ultravanillasmurf]

A bit of threadomancy.

As anyone who has looked on my thread, I have been working on a pair of M4s recently (aided by research by Ripley and others).

A number of bits are coming up that would be useful.

British fire extinguishers, I am "borrowing" some off my Sherman V kits.

Three link track racks.

Smoke dischargers (I have not managed to make a nice one yet).

Those ammo boxes.

The Sherman V style box (found on the back plate on Sherman Vs), that are sometimes found on the glacis of Sherman Is and hybrids. It needs to be scaled to fit between the mudguards.

[ripley]

I have to agree with UVS , we do need those pieces in a Brit themed stowage set . Until then , it should be easy enough to make our own 3 link track rack using the Sherman track from the Allied stowage Set and some plastic strip and rod . Just a matter of trail and error  I did  a pair  for a buddy's 1/72 Sherman , well I think I ended up making half a dozen till I got 2 that looked right . Some of your Sherman's might not need the external smoke dischargers smurf , here's a picture of your M4 from a few posts ago , the hole circled is the internal SD mount ., so it wouldn't have an external one

Hopefully Rubicon make a variety of single piece stowage . While the large pieces of stuff like the resin bits for the LVTs look cool , they look all the same on the engine deck of your tank . Single pieces let you mix and match to give each of your tanks a unique look  . IMO , less is more when it comes to stowage



And while a tank covered in track like this one looks neat , the other 3 in the platoon would not have the exact same stowage in the exact same place

[ultravanillasmurf]

I have made the spare track rack for my first Sherman V:

It is a bit of a faff because the donor is a six link run. I did not put the rack on the first Sherman I (number 21) because I had put stowage in the way of the "standard" location (plan then glue, repeat mantra...).

The built in smoke discharger was a later addition, though they were added to earlier turrets in the field. The external smoke discharger pair is noticeable on a number of Normandy photographs (more noticeable than cheek armour). The cast in armour, no pistol port and internal smoke discharger all appear to have been issued together (Minutia on turrets).

That is the Hybrid with the box photograph. I did offer up a spare Sherman V box but it does not fit.

Good point on the variance of stowage.

There is a nice photograph of 2nd Armoured Regiment (Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), 5th Canadian Armoured Division), taking part in an inspection and marchpast, Eelde, Netherlands, 23 May 1945. Lots of spare track.
http://silverhawkauthor.com/royal-canadian-armoured-corps-34ironside34_316.html

[ripley]

Those track holders don't look too bad .  If they bother you a bit because you don't think they're perfect ,you could cover them with a tarp ( tissue , white glue / water ) , you would still get the outline of the tracks without them standing out (  tarps hide a multitude of sins on my builds ) . Here's a couple of pictures of the same tank ( found on 2 different sites , months apart ) .



 And while the extra track stowage looks awesome , I wouldn't want it released as a one piece add on . If I added it to all 4 Shermans in my squad , they would all look the same . And we know most crews had they're own ideas and methods of adding extra armor .



Some of the 1/35 resin companies have sets with large pieces of detail bits  , thankfully you have a dozen or so companies making sets to choose from so your  tanks all look different , we are not so lucky in 28mm so single pieces of add on bits would work better IMO

[ultravanillasmurf]

Yeah, for that sort of thing, having individual links helps you can get it to lie flat.

Interesting to see how the amount of track varies over time.

The track rack came out okay (YMMV), I buried the dodgy bit under the stowage as you can see.

I will add some more of them to the next M4 I build.

[ripley]

If you get a BA plastic Churchill and leave the track guards on you can use the upper track runs on your Shermans  ( about 8 inches worth ) . I used my spare bits to add track on the CHill nose and 3 link sets on the hull rear sides . I didn't get as much spare as I removed the center track guard exposing some upper track . , The BA metal Allied stowage track bits are IMO the rubber with the V grove type , while the Rubicon stowage set track can be used as another styler rubber V grove , and they also match an all steel type as well  Company B makes as set as well but in longer 8-9 link lengths IRC , so lots of variety available , just not in one spot    Just a thought , could you use a miter box and cut out the offending amount of plastic so your stowage box fits the front hull ? You might have to sand down and replace the lid but it looks do able