M4A3 76 Sherman, 784th (Black, Segregated unit) - WIP Airfix

Comments

Johne 69
Intresting camouflage something else but olive drab

7 September 2020, 19:31

IIBSWAT .
Yes, much more interesting and the fact it was a black segregated unit using paint taken from the Germans makes it even better. Just need to finish it now!

9 September 2020, 19:21

jhull123
Interesting subject and nice work! Did your research reveal why markings are absent?

10 September 2020, 00:18

Ben M
watching - the camo is great.

10 September 2020, 01:09

IIBSWAT .
Thanks jhull and Ben. Couldn't find any info on the lack of markings. I don't think it's anything to do with the type of unit they were as images of their light tanks do have national markings. Maybe the markings were just overpainted to make them low vis, overpainted at depot or just overpainted when the yellow was added, pure speculation though.

23 September 2020, 21:57

Olivier
Interesting piece of history. I am a bit surprised by the tritonal camouflage. OD and white or OD and black or even OD and sand or yellow I would have thought. Do you know of other examples ?

23 September 2020, 22:59

Carlos Cisneros
Some US Tank Battalions used black and light green as the disruptive pattern over OD in the ETO. 9th Armored Division was painted in this manner before the Ardennes offensive. The sand third color is quite unusual. Earth Yellow or Earth Red Over OD was used in Italy by some US Tank battalions.

24 September 2020, 04:11

IIBSWAT .
Black and od is fairly standard for Europe, the use of the sand (may be dunkelgelb) is not. You get all sorts of three colour camo on Sherman's in the Pacific (including the use of various sand colours and just using the local dirt as camo) but much less common in europe and when you add in the fact it's a segregated unit using it, it becomes a very interesting subject to model.

24 September 2020, 21:19

Derek Rothfus
I really like the camo scheme you did. I'm currently working on this kit from Airfix. How did you feel about it? Any issues you ran into?

3 June 2023, 23:33

Album info

1/35 Airfix Sherman (rebox of an academy kit I believe)
Aim to do it in the style of the 384th black, segregated battalion.
The specualtion is that the yellow (light colour in the old pic) is captured german paint, I'm not convinced but I am going with the story when I paint it, so I'll use late war Dunkelgelb.
Of interest is the lack of national markings (or markings of any description)
Love the extra .30 cal on tripod and they seem to use a lot of the old open spoked wheels
Undrecoated and base camo (low contrast between black and green with dunkelgelb over spray) ready for weathering and wear, needs rubbing down in places too

M4A3(76)W, Battle of the Bulge

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