Labours of Hercules - A Sherman VC

I have seen a number of photographs of British (and Commonwealth) Sherman tanks draped with the tracks of German tanks. It just made me think of the first labour of Hercules, the slaying of the Nemean Lion.

The Nemean Lion had impenetrable golden fur, Hercules slays the lion by (sources vary) shooting it in the mouth or beating it to death with his club. Hercules wears the pelt as armour.

So, this is the build of a Warlord Games Sherman VC as "Hercules", the slayer of big cats.

Sprue photographs. The track and side skirt sprue appear to be common with the Sherman V kit.

The upper hull is different from the Sherman V hull.

 The kit is quite chunky, verging on crude, no where near as good as the Warlord M4 kit nor both versions of the Rubicon M4A3 kits.

Once the main parts of the hull were assembled, the additional track pieces were added. The side pieces were added on to the appliqué armour. Square section 0.030" plastic rod was used to provide support for the track pieces where they went beyond the appliqué.

Additional stowage was added including a four pack of German style jerry cans, This used one half of part A11 from the Rubicon Allied Stowage set 1 (cut in half with a razor saw), one War Department jerry can from the same set and one German jerry can from the Rubicon German stowage set.

A base plate of 4mm Evergreen strip provided the base and a piece of Slaters plastic strip provided the straps.  The W^D logo is visible on the end can.

Two additional strips of plastic strip were glued to the jerry can block. This was then used to assist in glueing it to the back of the Sherman tank.