T27 Xylophone rocket launcher

El Cid wrote:Offtable assett is O.K., but the model is very pretty, so I'd like to have it on the tabletop, if possible.

Wikipedia wrote:The Rocket Launcher T34 (Calliope) was a tank-mounted multiple rocket launcher used by the United States Army during World War II. The launcher was placed atop the M4 Sherman, with its prominent vertical side frames firmly anchored to the turret's sides, and fired a barrage of 4.5 in (114 mm) M8 rockets from 60 launch tubes. It was developed in 1943; small numbers were produced and were used by various US armor units in 1944–45. It adopts its name from the musical instrument "Calliope", also known as the steam organ, which had similar parallel or clustered pipes, and which had historically existed on steamboats of the Mississippi River in the United States, or as is more commonly known and associated with traditional "circus music".

Operational service showed some drawbacks in the M8's performance; ground launch resulted in the rockets' fin stabilizers proving ineffective,[9] reducing the accuracy of the rocket; despite this, it was considered an effective barrage weapon.[10] Due to the lack of accuracy, when ground-launched, it was being launched from large multiple launchers; the most commonly used being eight- and 60-tube launchers, called "xylophones" and "calliopes" respectively.[3][6] The officially-named U.S. Army T34 Calliope launch system was mounted on top of a M4 Sherman tank; once fired, the launcher could be detached and discarded, allowing the tank to be used in conventional combat, while the "xylophone", officially the T27, was carried on a 2½-ton truck's cargo bed.[

The U.S. Army experimented along similar lines, producing a variety
of vehicle-mounted launchers. The first to enter service was the T27 Xylophone,
named for the side-by-side arrangement of its eight launching tubes. Variations on the theme included the T27-E2 (a twenty-four-tube
successor to Xylophone), the T44 (a 120-tube launcher fitted to amphibious
trucks like the DUKW), and the T45 (a fourteen-tube launcher for
mounting on jeeps). The most innovative launcher in the U.S. Army inventory
was the T34 Calliope: a sixty-tube launcher mounted, in a wooden
frame, on the turret of a Sherman tank. Calliope had two significant advantages
over truck-mounted systems. First, because the launcher turned
with the turret and raised or lowered with the tank’s main gun, it could be
aimed quickly and easily. Second, compared to trucks and jeeps, tanks were
better equipped to withstand enemy counterattacks and fight on their own
once their rockets had been fired. Calliope-equipped Shermans were, in
theory, capable of jettisoning their launchers in a matter of moments and
becoming ordinary tanks again. Until the last months of the war, all U.S.
Army rocket launchers fired the standard M8 4.5-inch rocket: short-ranged
and highly inaccurate, but effective as a barrage weapon.
The Army’s attitude toward multiple-rocket launchers was ambivalent
at best. On one hand, the launchers were deployed in both the European
and Pacific theaters, and at least one complete artillery battalion was
equipped with them. They were used in combat from June 1944 onward,
but nearly all multiple-rocket launchers carried official designations beginning
with T (for “test”)—a sign that they were regarded only as a temporary
experiment.