Ya'll Ready For This?
................on this cold wintry day
..... a bit 'o simple technical history,
always good to the last drop.
Seen on the front of a lot of the Normandy Shermans there was a gadget called the cullin hedgerow cutter (it was fabricated from the metal beach obstacles the Germans had placed on the beach in the landing area).
Here’s how they were made………..
I’m sure that the Hedgerow cutter is common knowledge to all you Sherman type guys out there; but anyway,
this device was used to plow through the hedgerows and break out of the beach area in 1944 Normandy.
Here’s the guy that came up with the idea.
Sergeant Curtis G. Culin
And the simpler more common style ........ styles varied widely..........
Okay well, so much for that……
had ‘ya goin’ didn’t I?
Now, I'm gonna do a 180 to the rear of the tank for what I REALLY did. There was a device called the Snelling M4A3 exhaust deflector;
no, not smellin'.......... like the doggy is doing.
A Cullin at the front and a Snellin' at the back……. hmmmm.
Yeah I know, it’s beginning to sound like a snipe hunt.
Anyhow, here’s the Snellin'…..
And here's 
some smellin' ............ (sorry, couldn't resist)
This unit was designed to deflect the exhaust at the rear of the tank. The Tamiya kit part is significantly deficient in detail so the next few pictures will show how I went about correcting and adding some additional detail.
The kit parts backside, the day before.
And the backside, the day after.
(oops, dropped it in the mud)
And nah, I didn’t do anything the day in between……….. but 
All it needed on the backside was a slightly 
pre-rolled piece of cardstock glued into place.
Now, that just fixes the back side. The front is a more 
serious matter.
Here’s the kit part as it came in out of the box.
Using the x-acto, evergreen plastic angle, some small files and a lot of patience
I came up with the result below.
‘ya see, anybody can do it.
Yes........... anybody.
And here’s a picture at an angle to give you a more revealing profile.
I already got it a bit beat and banged up. 
Just couldn’t resist.
And yeah, I was playing with some painting and a weathering technique again…..
you know..... practice, practice.
Here's where I'm headed next 
Stay tuned guys.