Painting question regardinga Sherman M4A2 tank

Royal Canadian Ordance Corps · #1 20-05-10, 01:05

Hello Forum members

I am new to this forum but am a regular on it's sister site
Canadiansoldier.com

I was wondering if the members here could give me some do's & don'ts and
any hints or tips in regards to repainting a 1945 Sherman M4A2 tank

If anyone has painting tips, please let me know.
We will be repainting the tank which is on display at the RCOC museum.
The tank has been recently sandblasted and repainted in "incorrect" flat NATO
green,
but we would like to repaint it in period color with unit markings.

We managed to contact Willys Acres, Oro Station ON who supply paint to the
Canadian forces.
It seems the correct paint is Semi-Gloss Olive Drab, Federal Standard number
24087. Manufactured by Gillespie coatings, Texas.

I was told It takes two gallons to paint the entire vehicle with a
professional spray gun and compressor. We would have to thin the paint with a
Synthetic Enamel reducer, ratio Paint: Reducer 2:1

Any tips would help
Thanks
Roger Roy

cletrac (RIP) · #2 20-05-10, 05:13

You'll be surprised at how fast the paint disappears when you get spraying those tracks and road wheels. On my Cletrac M2 I used 2 gallons on those parts not to mention the rest of the machine.

Royal Canadian Ordance Corps · #3 20-05-10, 16:00

Thanks for that, I assumed the wheels and smaller parts would require more paint as you have to make several passes to cover all areas.

I was planning on painting all the nooks and crannies first
and then doing the larger parts.

Roger

strat1 · #4 21-05-10, 03:46

Roger

Your Sherman waiting a paint job is a M4A2E8, with the 76mm gun and was used after Korea.In Korea the Shermans were M4A3E8's from US stock. If you paint her up post some photos . Would be nice to see the end result.

Anthony

maple_leaf_eh · #5 21-05-10, 04:29

About 10 yrs ago Sherman Tank "Bomb" in Sherbrooke was cleaned and repainted by a crew from 202 Workshops. I read about it in the Sherbrooke newspaper, The Record. If you call the Ops Office at 202 you might find a work order, materials list and after action report. Another option would be to contact the Sherbrooke Hussars to see when their item #1 on the DA (maybe called the SCA nowadays) was last maintained, and work forward from there.

Hanno Spoelstra · #6 21-05-10, 10:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Royal Canadian Ordance Corps

It seems the correct paint is Semi-Gloss Olive Drab, Federal Standard number 24087. Manufactured by Gillespie coatings, Texas.

Hello Roger and welcome to this forum.

A 1945 Sherman tank would indeed be painted in US Olive Drab, not sure about the FSN number as I understand the shade of US Olive Drab changed during the war. You would definitely want to use what retailers could be labelling "late" US Olive Drab paint. Read more about the shades of OD here.

Orginally the paint would have been matt, but in the interest of longlivety I would advise you to up to the highest shade of gloss that would be acceptable for you.

Hope this helps,
Hanno

Royal Canadian Ordance Corps · #7 22-05-10, 02:17

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the replies
Anthony, can you point out the little details that would make you believe this a M4A2E8?

I passed you comments onto another expert who said that was incorrect.
He said this tank had run on diesel not gasoline

If you can supply me with any extra info, it would be appreciated, as I don't want to make any errors in the
insignia we paint on it after wards

Thanks

Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP) · #8 22-05-10, 04:19

Here in Canada after the war, we only had M4A2E8s. They were equipped with the twin GM 671 diesel powerplant, hence your referenced diesel comment. The M4A3E8s we borrowed from the Yanks in Korea were gasoline-powered, using the Ford GAA V8 engine.

Interestingly, the story is that a lot of our surplus E8s ended up in the Israeli Army back in the 60s, courtesy of Levy's Auto Parts in Toronto (now long defunct). They were sold off by the government once we began re-equipping with Centurions and were subsequently resold.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Royal Canadian Ordance Corps

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the replies
Anthony, can you point out the little details that would make you believe this a M4A2E8?

I passed you comments onto another expert who said that was incorrect.
He said this tank had run on diesel not gasoline

If you can supply me with any extra info, it would be appreciated, as I don't want to make any errors in the
insignia we paint on it after wards

Thanks

maple_leaf_eh · #9 22-05-10, 15:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by maple_leaf_eh

About 10 yrs ago Sherman Tank "Bomb" in Sherbrooke was cleaned and repainted by a crew from 202 Workshops. I read about it in the Sherbrooke newspaper, The Record. If you call the Ops Office at 202 you might find a work order, materials list and after action report. Another option would be to contact the Sherbrooke Hussars to see when their item #1 on the DA (maybe called the SCA nowadays) was last maintained, and work forward from there.

The same thing happened to the Sherman in Stanstead a few years later. The Legion executive may have had to pay for supplies while DND provided the work parties. Worth asking around for.