Edmond Vincent from Vertical Church in West Haven, CT brings us this prop tank.
Edmond is on staff as an artist/fabricator/set designer/builder. It’s been his job for the last ten years to build stage sets ranging from small themes to elaborate full stage (30’x60′) multi-leveled sets.
When their pastor decided to do a WWII Band of Brothers themed teaching series, he was asked what he could do on stage for a cool set. He said, “How about a full scale Sherman tank?” They loved it, but wanted to add something else beyond just a tank. So, he recycled pieces he had from their Easter and Christmas sets and made a burned and blown out house with debris. He also made a machine gun with tripod and four M1 grands (not shown) for drama skits use.
The first thing he did was go out and buy a model of a Sherman tank to scale up from. His material of choice is sheets of 4×8 foam insulation, held together with “Great Stuff” expanding foam and screws. He used concrete cardboard tubes for the main gun and wheels. For the turret, he bought thicker sheets of eps foam to carve to get a more rounded look. The edges and corners were sealed with metal duct tape. Then he sprayed the tank with “Deck Armour” (a hard protective coating) to give a rough texture and hide any seams. The whole thing had to be built in pieces that could be taken apart to fit through the doors and then reassembled back on stage like a great puzzle. It’s made entirely of foam materials, except for a wooden structure to support the tank on the inside, but also for a way for people to get up into the tank and pop out of the hatch from the turret.
That’s CRAZY! You’re the man!
That tank is awesome, very creative, thanks for sharing that with us
Wqw! That is really cool. I would love to see the whole production. I hope that somehow the tank was saved when it was all said and done. Impressive!