CRT 230 Final Project: M4A2E8 Sherman

CRT 230 Final Project: M4A2E8 Sherman "Fury"

I did not do well on a lot of CRT 230 assignments. The class was very enjoyable, but my near-constant careless errors stopped me from performing as well as I could. That is why I resolved to make the best final project I possibly could, and this model of an M4A2E8 Sherman is one of the only projects I have made in this class that I am truly proud of. I have decided to name this model "Fury," as the M4A2E8 Sherman is the model of tank used in the 2014 film Fury.

I chose to make this tank as my final project as I am very passionate about armored fighting vehicles, particularly tanks. The M4 Sherman is one of my favorite models of tank, and when I set my mind to modeling a tank for my final project, the M4 Sherman seemed an obvious choice. To be quite frank, the Sherman is a very clean-looking vehicle. There is something very appealing to me about the design that makes me appreciate it for more than its combat effectiveness. Modeling one of the M4A1 variants would be difficult due to the rotund hull, so I settled on the M4A2E8 not only because of how dang good it looks but also due to its place in popular culture. Finally, I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to make this tank the best tank it could be. I love tanks, and if I made a tank that WASN'T good, I would feel very guilty.

Project Description

My model is a 3D model an M4A2E8 Sherman. It has every external detail I could think of modeled. Everything from the 76mm gun (which is rifled), to the track links, to the ventilation, to the hooks that were used to offload the Sherman from cargo ships modeled. My personal favorite details are the hull-mounted machine gun and the spare track links that have been added on as extra armor. The different materials of different components are reflected via the appearance I chose in Fusion: brass for the bullets in the roof-mounted machine gun, U.S. Army olive drab for the paint scheme, black for the rubber road wheels, and glass for the headlights. Each component of the Sherman that would move in real life is modeled to move in Fusion as well. The turret spins, the gun has accurately modeled elevation and depression, and the M2HB Machine gun can be trained in any direction and has a functional slide for chambering new rounds. The road wheels, sprockets, idler wheels, and smaller wheels that I forgot the name of all spin and are motion-linked. The hull machine gun is also able to be aimed. The tracks do not work due to the complexity of making just a single track move, but that is my only real regret about this project.

This project meant a lot to me. Not only did my success in the class depend on it, but my perception of myself relied somewhat on it as well. This was the hardest I have tried on anything here at Berry. Fortunately, I love tanks, and modeling all the various components was tedious, but enjoyable. It was like building Legos but I didn’t have to search 7 hours for a specific color stud: I got to make the pieces MYSELF. This project was my chance to prove to not only others but myself that though I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, I can still cut it.

Design Process