Chicken wire mesh on Sherman Firefly turret.....

[Chris Preston]

'Afternoon All,

I have a 1/16th scale model of a Sherman Firefly Mk Ic (Hybrid) underway, and the one photo I have of the particular vehicle I'm building shows the turret wrapped in Chicken-wire Mesh, to hold foliage used for camouflage in place.

Any ideas on how the mesh was secured to the turret, and did it completely cover the turret, or would it just be "wrapped" around the sides, leaving the top clear?

I'd post the photo if I could, but I don't have it stored "online(?)".

Cheers,

Chris Preston
Victoria, BC

[Jakko Westerbeke]

You can upload the photo to the forum here. Reply to this thread, click on the paperclip icon above the text field in which you type your reply, and a window will open in which you can add up to five images to the post.

[Chris Preston]

Many Thanks Jakko - looks like it works. If you enlarge the photo, you can see the chicken-wire mesh around the turret. Would it cover the turret completely,, with openings for hatches and periscopes, etc, or just be wrapped around the turret sides. Also - how would it be attached to the turret?

Thanks again.

Cheers,

Chris

[David Herbert]

Since this was a field mod there would be no official way to do it and the crew would just use whatever came to hand. It would not be practical to cover much of the top of the turret because access is needed to get to the hatches, which then need space to open into. Also vision from the periscopes and space round the 2" bomb thrower must be maintained. Camoflage from above was not too critical as we had air superiority after the invasion and tanks make such clear tracks that you can't really hide them as a bush anyway.
As for method of fixing: that would have been made up by the guy doing it. If he had welding facilities then bits of bent rod welded on as hooks would work well. If not then he would be limited to using wire to tie the netting to any suitable features. It didn't have to be neat, just had to work.
Sorry, there is no definitive answer to your questions other than "it depends" !
David

[Chris Preston]

Many Thanks David,

Just as I thought! But.........always good to ask anyway, just to get as much info as possible.

Cheers

Chris

[Jakko Westerbeke]

I agree with David’s assessment: it wouldn’t cover anything important, like hatches, periscopes, etc., and as for how it’s attached … that’s really anyone’s guess, unless you can find a better photo that shows it in close-up (which is rather unlikely — none of the people taking these photos seem to have been modellers, oddly enough ).

[David Herbert]

It is also most unlikely that you will find any hint on fixings from inspecting real Shermans. Post war it was pretty much universal to remove any non standard additions from serving vehicles when they were overhauled and any weld marks would be ground off flat. The only possibility would be tanks that had been knocked out and then preserved but even those tend to have been tidied up in the name of safety or 'preservation'.
As Jakko said, your best bet is to find a close-up photo - possibly of the crew in the turret showing the top half of the turret?
David