Starting on Sherman Tank bar construction

SHERMAN TANK BAR CONSTRUCTION

I began construction of the latest bar structure we are building for the Villa Siena fundraising dinner. The theme of this dinner is WWII/1940s and the design we chose was a Sherman Tank. We have to accommodate bartenders inside which requires this to be big enough to allow for a ten foot wide window across the bar where drinks are served.

The structure is a side of a tank (actually half a tank as it is cut along the front-back centerline), with the main gun barrel facing left. The structure is 21 feet long and five feet deep. The top of the treads are 4 foot off the ground and the bottom of the gun turret sits about 7 foot off the ground. This is slightly larger than life size scale, where a real Sherman tank is only 19.5 foot long.

Structure - picture distorted due to need to use Panorama mode to capture image

We built the frame for the bottom of the tank (up to the top of the treads) with the higher window opening for the bartenders taking 10' of the length and nearly centered front to back. It consists of a front, a back and the center bartender section, allowing us to move the parts; these but side to side to form the 21' length. The center section can be separated to fit past gates and openings around my home.

The body of the tank consists of a front and back half that will sit atop the structure you see here - these rise to about 7' above ground over the center section and form the outline of the tank, minus the turret. We have to build these front and back body pieces next and sit them over the frame you see.

The turret itself will be formed from paper mache, using chicken wire as a form to apply the paper. That will attach to the top of the body sections we will build next.