1:35 Periscopes with Covers – US Sherman

The Armored Cover That Combat Experience Demanded

Combat experience revealed a weak point: the head of the periscope stuck out above the armor, and a single shell fragment or a burst from an infantry weapon was enough to blind the crew. Workshops therefore began welding small, hood-shaped covers over the openings that left the forward view clear while shielding the device from above. On later production series, and on vehicles modified in the field, they became standard equipment, and today they are one of the features that reveal the period in which a particular tank fought.

The scope of the set

The package contains five assemblies with the head extended and the cover, plus five more in the retracted position, again with the cover. The covers are as thin as they really were, which an ordinary molding cannot achieve, since the mold needs a certain amount of draft to release the part. The weld detail around the edge is already shaped during casting, so there is no need to add it afterward with stretched plastic.

Painting and fitting

Fit the covers only after finishing the hull's base coat, since paint is otherwise hard to get underneath them. It helps to highlight them with a wash a shade darker than the vehicle's color, since in reality they were always in permanent shadow underneath. Apply dust weathering with pigment from above, so it settles on the top surface while the sides stay clean. It is worth comparing your model with a period photo of the specific vehicle, since the covers were not welded to a single template and their angle and shape varied from workshop to workshop; it is precisely this small irregularity that gives a finished model the credibility that perfectly uniform parts never have.