Shermania84

Reason for asking is that in 1953 distributorship was assigned to a particular factory and given the year you state with your Jeep it could be one of the first ones produced there.

I should have probably mentioned the factory is likely noted on the VIN tag.

Show me what it says on the firewall tag for the production factory and I may have something interesting for you.

Having built up a nice stash of 1/35 Sherman models a somewhat important question is looking to be answered: at which point in production did the small circular covers start appearing on the rear part of the sponson plate, same for the weld beads running perpendicular to the vertical hull plate indicating what appears to be a two-part sponson plate?

Interesting that the plates covering the sponson tanks go all the way to the firewall on this M4A4, I have seen this differently where the plates stop just a bit short of the firewall partially revealing the fuel tanks.

This topic was the reason I got drawn to the HMVF forum because of the quality workmanship visible in the pictures and ultimately made me register. In fact your work has been of great importance to my scale 1/35 M4A3 build as the repaired sponson section on your M4A4 showed me exactly how thick the sponson plates needed to be in relation to the plate thickness of the lower hull section.

When you have time could I ask for a picture of the rearmost part of both sponson plates? Looking for the presence or absence of a weld seam running perpendicular to the vertical hull plate and a small round cover.

I am fortunate to have one of the surviving Jumbo Shermans, it is need of total restoration but has been identified as #77 of the 254 built and carries serial # 50402 and according to Don Moriarty would have had USA registration # 3082999. It is featured on page 139 of Pat Ware's M4 Sherman workshop manual. She is in tough shape but after seeing what Roger Condron has been able to do with #254, I have hope that one day she will roll again. I have simply been aquiring parts for her for about 3 years including a low mile and running GAA,[ATTACH=CONFIG]82953[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]82954[/ATTACH] all NOS suspension as well as lots of internal and external parts. If anyone has info on the whereabouts of any "Jumbo" specific parts I would really appreciate the assistance.

People have been wondering about the "Jumbo" so here is a brief update...I have to thank Don Moriarty for his help

Do I sense a movie tank reference here

Does anyone know anything about the Yugoslavian M4A3E4's that they wouldn't mind sharing? Particularly looking for interior configuration, which radios were used and where those were placed. Scoured all over the internet but so far this particular subject has proved to be sort of a needle in the haystack.

Ok my newbie bad, just discovered there is a research section where this topic would have a better place.

Is it from 1950 exactly or from a later date? If from 1954 and later I'd be interested to know what it says for the factory on the vehicle data tag.

That could be the saddest sight I have ever seen, a vintage army vehicle goldmine for sure.

Thanks for having me on this forum.

My name is Willem, 31.5 years young and just this year I started taking more of an interest in my grandfather's army days with the Prinses Irene Brigade during WW2. What started with a couple of 1/72 Airfix tracked vehicles has now grown into a full blown love of 1/35 Shermans plus a couple of other vehicles that draw my interest. Hoping to learn a lot about the 1/1 side of things and to find whatever reference material (mainly photographic) the books are missing. Currently focusing my attention to a 1/35 M4A3E4 Kelly's Heroes movie build, nobody seems to have any information on how the interior was configured which as of right now is the main point of my reference search.

What may also be of interest is that my other grandfather worked for a Chrysler factory in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) where he built the M38 NEKAF Jeep. Recently I locked up the brakes on my car when at the last moment of driving by one a For Sale sign was noticed on the windshield, sadly it turned out to have a first road admission date of 1960 which means not built in Rotterdam from where production was shifted to Dordrecht in 1958, so no direct literal hands on connection to my grandfather.