An Australian man has built himself a fully functional miniature Sherman tank. It has working treads and a rotating turret, and he drives it around his back yard. Now he wants to help you build your own. Here's how.
This is the first video in a five-part series. Turrets! Tanks! Tread idlers! A walkaround and instructions and a 6.5-hp Honda four-stroke with a separate, chain-driven transmission, and Holy Crap He Built Himself A Tank!
Things we did not know until this moment:
1. If you put an Aussie in a pair of tank goggles and a battle helmet, it is possible to make driving a toy tank around your backyard damn near the funniest thing on Earth.
2. If you're interested in a friendly round of tread-to-tread combat with your buddies — you didn't think you'd be the only one on the block with a Sherman replica, did you? — the best approach is laser-tag warfare. Or, as our host points out, you could install a spud gun in the turret. (Note: We recommend the latter. Target practice on the neighborhood cats?)
3. There is an entire community of people who do this.
4. Oh my heavenly armored warfare, Want.
Now there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that "we are holding our position." We're not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose and we're going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we're going to go through him like crap through a goose! —George C. Scott in Patton
There's also a "field trials" video at the bottom that includes footage of the mini-Sherm trundling around a field and firing off its air-powered gun. Have fun storming the castle!