RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi,

The Vietnam turret basket.

Sheridans arrived in Vietnam with their small storage basket at the back of the turret, not big enough for Vietnam. With the equally limited space inside the vehicle, the crew and units customized their vehicle to their difficult environment.
Although I can see many variations of custom baskets in reference pictures, vehicles of the 11th ACR (Blackhorse Armored Cavalry Regiment) obviously developed some standard field modifications, shield, gunner's machine gun, and the storage basket. Its not easy to figure out the shape of the basket because they are always shown filled to the rim or somewhat damaged. The Sheridan turret is asymmetrically round with sloped armor and many different angles. A few 1/35 PE detail companies have produced their vision of the Vietnam basket, but none look the same, they all made assumptions and some are better than others. They can be used for inspiration but the 1/16 modeller must be careful as these 1/35 basket kits can lead to bad mistakes.
In the 1980s, the army equipped its Sheridan with a new standard basket, larger and solid. However, the modeller should not use this basket model for a Vietnam era vehicle.
The main issue is that the Sheridan turret is not really round, its asymmetrical, and so is the basket. The Tamiya turret opens horizontally in 2 halves right in the middle, and the basket has touch points on both upper and lower turret, complicating things and forcing some compromises. Also, there is not a single flat surface of the turret sides, complicating things when you are building the basket out of nothing and the builder need to define some orientation and anchor points. After a lot of study, I started the basket with a "best effort" mindset, as if I was a mechanic with a blowtorch in a field unit and tasked to create a large basket for the unit tanks. None will be exactly the same. Before cutting specious grill material, I would recommend the creation of a template in order to determine a shape that seems to fit key critical points, such as the basket starting points on both sides, height of the support in the back, height of the basket itself, but most importantly the locations of the basket corners and supports. None are obvious but its important that it looks right. Study of 1/35 PE basket kits on the market led to more confusion than help. One that look about right is from FC-Model Trend. Here, the first 3 supports are glued to the back bottom after a tentative shape is created.
The grill is cut and positioned. Many angles, its difficult to determine proper position (up, down, left, right) and its easy to make mistakes. It looks close but its not perfect, and I am running out of grill material...
The builder need to keep in mind that the turret halves must remain free to open to access the electronics inside. Can't glue basket to points on upper and lower sides unless you are building a static version. Therefore, the basket is not exactly how it should be, but close enough.
The finished turret basket.
Despite the optical illusion due to the shapes and angles, the top of the basket was kept perfectly lined up with the top of the turret, the only constant.

The bottom of the right side goes up to meet the turret joint next to the cupola, the right side of the basket is shorter than the left side.
As the basket is glued to the bottom section, the brass brackets glued on the top need to remain detached from the basket to allow the turret halves to open. Notice that the upper support bracket was given an angle seen in references, its no mistake.
As seen in pictures, the side grills are held in place with an upper and lower metal strip with a flat U shape that I tried to repro in plasticard.
With its machine guns and basket, the turret has a more balanced look. Now, I will have to find a lot of things to fill this basket with. Forget about buying 30 Special Ops ammo cases and equipment, these things cost a fortune. So, the idea is to put low cost items at the bottom (ie bags, Cardboard C-rations, Tamiya ammo boxes), and keep the precious high quality resin for top.
Next step is the fine detailing of the model, looking at the walk round references available. As the main construction is getting close to the finish line, I also have to start thinking about the crew and infantry riders, Cambodia invasion style...

Regards, Louis

Good afternoon,
It may not be perfect to your standards, Louis but honestly, it looks clean enough to have been included in the kit as a Tamiya add-on. Beautiful turret basket!
regards,
Painless

Thank you Painless for your encouragements.

Starting planning for the weathering, stowage, crews and riders, their uniforms, equipment and way of life in the field. Some research is required.

YouTube has many interesting videos featuring the Sheridan, some are fascinating raw footage posted by soldiers in the field, others US Army propaganda. In most cases, this is stuff you can't find in books. Scanning through 11th ACR footage in Cambodia will reveal glimpses of Sheridans mixed with M113, advancing in the jungles, or through road with mines, or stuck in endless road blocks. Here are a few captures from my research.

Cambodia invasion, 1970. Good shot of that interesting twin M2 machine gun mount for the TC. The gunner is on the lookout with his M16A1 preferring to be fully outside in case the tank hits a mine. The driver does not have this choice. Boxes of C-rat are loose on the glacis but seem tactically placed to offer some protection from the sides. Head lights and guards are totally gone. Searchlight has been removed and the smoke grenade dischargers are used to hold folded cots.
Same vehicle from the rear, you can't recognize that it is actually a Sheridan under all that stowage and gear. Notice the high number of smoke grenades at the ready, useful in case of ambush.
Same vehicle awaiting road mine clearing by soldiers with metal detectors, offering them protection with the twin M2 and Beehive rounds. That road is terrible.
More open terrain but mines are everywhere. The US operation in Cambodia occurred in the extremely hot and humid summer weather, crews are mosly bare chest, with or without flak jackets.
Notice at first what seemed to be a Jerrycan wood rack at the back but likely C-rat boxes with M2 ammo on top.
The positioning of C-rat boxes on each side of the driver's pit with a outward angle is a common sight. It might have a purpose of protecting the driver's sides.
Lots of black smoke coming out of the engine grill area. I am realizing now that this is where the exhaust is. So, it is not a good idea to position stowage or tank riders on this spot.
Head lights and guards are gone here as well. This tank retained its search light. There seems to be some kind of damage to the left side of the vehicle.
Good close up view of the US Vietnam era tank helmet, in action.
The 152mm main gun being fired in a amazing propaganda video of the 11th ACR in Vietnam. The blast is an awesome sight, lifting the tank off the ground and hitting the soldier on top with a strong shock wave, I would not want to be in front of it. Notice rolled wire at the back, M113 style. I might do the same with the PE mesh provided for the RPG grill that I won't use.

A unit advancing on a road. The whole crew, except the driver, is sitting on top of the vehicle. Mines were a great concern.
Notice the search light cover on this vehicle.
A rare view of a vehicle in action where the crew retained the original positioning of the ammo boxes on the turret sides, and everything still pretty much intact. It must not have been in country for a long time.
Some more shot of that raw footage video that can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDQ6XR1k8RY for those who want to model this tank with the twin M2 mount. Looks like they might be fed with 12.7mm links using a 40mm grenade ammo box, a common sight on the Sheridan. Notice the search light mount, Tamiya got it all wrong.
Sheridans operated mainly with M113 Acav in recon units.
Courageous mine clearing operations also mean slow unit progress, lot of waiting and everyone is highly exposed to whatever can hide in the bush a few feet away.
Good close up of the turret basket right side. I wish I had seen that shot 2 days ago. I will have to rework my basket.
Regards, Louis

Sheridans in Quang tri province, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVUMsDCWJug

The tank advancing on a good but dusty road. Looks like the driver is wearing goggles.Notice the excellent and rare clear view of the add-on belly armor of Sheridans in Vietnam. A rapid examination of this area on the Tamiya model seems to indicate that the add-on armor is not represented.
Adding the add-on armor can easily be done with pasticard and bolt heads. Notice how it goes around the sprocket adjusters. There is some kind of apparatus on the left side of the TC machine gun.
This tank offers a good view of the search light cover.
Close up of the search light cover and what seems to be an extended ammo box for the M2, something I have never seen elsewhere.
It is difficult to make out its construction.
Close up view of the markings on a .50 cal ammo box.
The Sheridan is named Someday on the gun barrel.

Hi,

Here is the construction of the crew and two infantry riders for a total of 5 figures so far.

Figure number 1;

There is only 1 figure provided with the 1/16 kit, its a commander. However, it is quite unexciting, holding the M2, looking elsewhere and bored.
The commander is the same figure seen on the 1/35 kit version below. However, Tamiya did not provide the more interesting gunner figure on the 1/16 kit. It is unfortunate.
And no driver either as seen on the 1/35 kit. I find that Tamiya was bit lazy for a 1/16 kit. Only one half figure provided, no personal equipment, and not a single accessory, such as boxes, bags, cots, or other items we would expect to put on the tank.
I will not use it for my commander. But I reuse the commander figure and gave it a 1/18 scale Ultimate Soldier US helmet. The helmet size is still ok, does not look out of scale. I did cut the arms to make it fit the driver's pit. There you go, driver now.
Figure number 2;

The new commander is the SOL Model Marine 1 . This is a beautiful figure, tall with a well sculpted expressive face, armed with an M-14. Most importantly, he is bare chest under a flak jacket, this is the look I wanted for a Sheridan commander in Vietnam. Some critics will say that I use 120mm figures with 1/16 and that it should not be. Keep in mind that the general American male population probably has a height ranging from 5 feet 4 to 6 feet 4, with a lot of differences in the muscular build. It is actually un-realistic to always show figures that are all exactly 6 feet tall with same body build.
He is the same figure as my M113 ACAV commander, but I gave him the available tank helmet. There is almost nothing to do except trimming the hair and ears a bit to put on the helmet. He is highly visible on his cupola and a lot more interesting than the Tamiya figure.
His legs were cut below the knee and rest on the elevation servo. I did put his arms under the boiler in order to squeeze them in inside the cupola hatch a bit better.
Continuing on following post.

Figure number 3

The gunner. I was inspired by the picture showing the gunner outside his turret and holding an M16. I also wanted a hippy look on my tank.

I purchased this figure on ebay for raw material, its advertised as a 1/16 US soldier Vietnam, a rare thing.
However, when I got it, I determined it is looking more like a KISS rock group guitarist than a US soldier in Vietnam. Not sure what kind of uniform this is, not really special forces either seen in references, looks more like some kind of sport mountain climber with lower and upper harness about to rappel a cliff. Was there actually a single mountain rappelling action in Vietnam ? Or maybe its a harness setup to be lowered by a Huey through jungle canopy. Anyway, its unusual and not applicable here. It is also coming with a second head in a face mask... As far as I know, there were never any gas or bacteriological attack of any kind in Vietnam... or maybe he is protecting himself against Agent Orange or some heavy dust conditions... Still, there is some useful stuff in there, such as a nice head, a beautiful Car-15 Commando carbine and lots of personal gears so it won't go waisted.
For US legs with jungle boots in a sitting position, I usually use the legs of the kneeling Dragon Vietnam Seal figure.
The Dragon seal legs are solid plastic. They can be cut, remodelled and repositioned with the boots in different ways.
After creating a base of it on top of the legs, I used a torso and the arms from the Verlinden M79 gunner, available from Lots of Models at a great bargain. I must have purchased 10 of these in past 2 years for modifications into many Vietnam figures. The gunner will be sitting outside the turret, with his back against the commander's cupola, and one foot will rest on some stuff that will fill the turret basket.
The CAR-15 commando rifle discussed earlier is shown here next to a Reedees Miniatures M-16A1. Both are excellent.
The figure is taking shape. All the figure heads are holding in place for positioning purposes with just a drop of superglue. The heads will be removed later for painting.
He is sitting with his back against the cupola. Each figure requires polishing once the dust of construction settle down and the putty has dried. The left feet will rest against some ammo cases in the turret basket, lots of them on order.
Continuing on following post

Figure number 4;

The M16 rifleman. This is the Verlinden M79 gunner that I use many times as a base kit for my Vietnam figure. It has a bended torso that is perfect for sitting figure. He comes with nice Vietnam gears (just the helmet is worth the price) but the legs are bad. They come molded in its base. And the pose is not obvious. I still wonder if it is technically possible to sit in such position without dislocating a hip or a knee.
But real estate on the Sheridan to sit on is rare and I needed a figure that can sit on top of boxes on the turret basket. I therefore decided to use the Dremel to remove the resin base and carve out the legs, in order to have only the figure remaining, and see what i end up with.
I gave the figure an Reedees M-16A1 rifle, reworking the two shoulders and arms in a more resting position than the shooting position of the M79 gunner figure. It's not ideal but not bad either. He will need a good base of items in the basket to sit on. I started to create some Verlinden C-rat boxes and Vietnam era Black Label beer cases from RMP. Wish I could find some Budweiser.
Figure number 5

The M60 Machine gunner is the SOl Model Marine 3. It is highly difficult to find black soldiers in any scale and a Vietnam diorama without black soldiers is not realistic. This is a nice figure of a tall and muscular black soldier with flak jacket, M-60, ammo and gears.
The trick for a sitting figure is to put the legs over the boiler to soften the resin and reposition the legs with bended knees. The hips are reworked and the torso is glued in a sitting position. The butt is redone with plasticard and hand file.
He was really tall so I decided to cut his legs to show the pants inside the boots at the same time. I gave him the boots left over from the commander figure who does not need them in his cupola.
The original Sol figure is a Marine most likely better dressed for the Tet offensive battle in Hue. I want my soldier to be in Cambodia in June so I gave the arms the Dremel treatment to sculp naked arms the best I could to fit the flak jacket.
The machine gunner will sit at the rear with his back against some bag attached to the turret basket. His feet will rest on a tarp or something at the extreme end of the tank. He will be given a full load of 7.62mm ammo links around his torso. The M60 shown here is not the SOL model which has fine resin with PE parts that needs to be built. This one here is an old one used for positioning the arms. The resin under the figure will need to be trimmed to fit exactly the spot where he will be positioned for a better body melt with the upper hull. All figures except driver are for static display and will remain removable so that the tank can be used in RC mode without figures in the way.
Continuing on following post

Sol Figures, including the female ones, always have nicely sculpted faces.
And finally, here is an overview of the general layout of the figures so far. There is technical room for 1 or 2 additional ones, sitting on the basket.
Regards, Louis