Small Scale Military Headquarters

hot on the heels of my very successful Sherman Crab flail tank ( ) i have another bright idea. After playing with my S1 sherman i discovered that it floats......it even floats when you fill it with water...albeit a bit wonky. I remembered that DD shermans floated with their turret tops just at the surface of the water and after adding a tad of styrofoam in the driver's hatch and turret hatch.....so did mine!

So....now i have to come up with some bright idea to make the canvas looking boat part that goes around the tank.....add a commander figure steering it, re-adjust the ballast for the extra weight and voila......i'll have a duplex drive sherman that really floats!

A great use for the S1 sherman which otherwise is kinda dreary..

* CooL ! * ... Just don't forget to add the propellers to it. *


Mitch v MG

Are you taking your XD in the bath Aferg? Just don't run the RC models while you are in there...

Great idea on the DD tank though.

Aferg,

Shrink tubing works well for the inflatable inner tubes that support the canvas. Slipping it over wooden dowels will give it good support and it's already the correct color. Heavy cotton material sprayed with waterproofing compound like you use on hiking boots will give you a good canvas that you can shape around the dowels before it dries. Hope this helps.

Mark

Aferg,

Shrink tubing works well for the inflatable inner tubes that support the canvas. Slipping it over wooden dowels will give it good support and it's already the correct color. Heavy cotton material sprayed with waterproofing compound like you use on hiking boots will give you a good canvas that you can shape around the dowels before it dries. Hope this helps.

Mark

When you are playing in the bath with this new creation, be careful not to slosh about much, cause the DD Sherman can't take rough seas!

i realized i have a problem: the boat part that surrounds the tank has to be more than just for show.....it has to be water tight to keep the water out of the upper hull/turret area of the tank. Otherwise, even though my sherman will float it will not look very realistic with the entire tank covered in water. I suppose from a distance it wouldn't look too bad but it would be nice to make it more like the real DD.

So, my newest idea is to find a plastic rectangular box, of suitable dimensions and sandwich the upper and lower hulls in between the bottom of it; this will keep the water out of the upper hull/turret area and provide the structure onto which i can add suitable canvas looking material to make it look more realistic.

So now i'll have to add a lot of weight to the tank as it will float way too high with the plastic box 'boat' added to it. But that should be easy.

The tough part is going to be finding a plastic box of the correct dimensions. I've investigated plastic shoe boxes and small plastic storage boxes and they seem close, so maybe something will turn up..

update: i found a perfect plastic shoe box....it even has two bands molded along the sides in the same place the canvas seams are on the real DD.

It's a 1/2 inch too short, but i've already figured out how to remedy that, so now a realistic floating DD is a go. I have 2 other projects to finish up before i can work on it but it should be pretty quick to complete once i start.

Between my Crab and the DD it's been D-Day in July this year...