Well its back to one of the super old kits again . The mid 1970's release of the M3 LEE.
Once again the parts count is not very high , but the detail is good. There are a few things that need to be added..........I will get to that later.
The way the kit is laid out I decided to shift around a bit from the directions. The lower hull is shown here, there are no holes in the lower hull that need to be filled. The rear plate goes in well with square locators on both sides to help in positioning. A tiny bit of glaze will need to be added to cover the locator holes .
Next is the three piece transmission cover which is actually 1 piece .
The front fenders were next to go in place ............ after some dry fitting with the upper hull i found that the rear of the right fender needed to be sanded a bit to get a good fit'
Once the trans cover was cured I added the bolt connectors and the tow lugs this is the part that makes it appear to be a 3 piece cover
The cast turret has been textured in a layering of Mr Surfacer 500 and a small wld line added around the pistol port . Admittedly the pistol port weld still needs to be cleaned up a to
I do love those old kits . the pity is so many people overlook them in preference of the latest kit with the 576 piece parts count and the machined barrel.
Dont get me wrong I am about to start one of the dragon kits of the Firefly and yes I added a aluminum barrel with a brass muzzle brake ........ just because I wanted too . Not because everybody else is doing it.
The moral of the story is modeling is not a race and it is not always about competing.It is simply about whether or not you are enjoying what you do. I lived for competition at one time , and did well with it. Until I realized it is more fun to compete against myself and that is when I started building some of the less desirable kits like the older ones and alot of the flat kits.
Ok I will stop now and STEP DOWN FROM MY SOAP BOX, sorry got on a rant.
Well after some more research , I am changing directions a bit. Even though this is billed as a early m3 it really isnt. The exhaust and engine deck really tells the story. The vehicle is actually a M4a5 which gives two options ..............1 re-do the entire engine deck and exhaust or 2 upgrade the main gun to a 75 mm.
For me the solution is simple because this is a bolted hull it places the vehicle later in production. The 75mm gun will be the conversion. The fun will start after that, some real surprises will be coming.
The barrel is now converted to the 75mm long.
The long 75mm is now in place it was salvaged from a parts kit.
This shows the difference between the kit gun tube and the new one that is in place.
The soviets would sometimes add a mantlet cover to the main gun. To do this I used gift tissue paper and white glue.
For this i purposely changed the lighting so it shows the creases and folds in the mantlet cover
The kit did not include sponsons or the filler piece to mimic the fenders continuing along the lower hull.The fix was easy using 30 k styrene sheet. A wider piece was cut and added to the inside to give strength.By using 30k sheet it allows the fenders to come all the way back.
Now that the sponsons have been filled ......... most of the locator hol;es are filled either with styrene rod or stretched sprue.
The next issue that needs to tackled is changing the exxhaust . I was able to dig deep into the parts bin and find the needed parts . A tiny bit of surgery was needed to make the new parts fit ...... a square file and some measuring takes care of that.
just for kicks and giggles i decided to open the right hand stowage box. A bit of care is needed to do this . A new front latch was made from styrene and a lip was sanded al;l the way around the door of the box. will play into the setting later with the figures.
another thing that was missing on this since it is being converted to a later variant were the acess doors on the rear ...... once again a bit of measuring some styrene an doors magically apear.
Once again there was a small issue that needed correcting ....... the drives were cast onto the lower hull were a bit shallow and set too far back. The was fixed with some shaving , sanding and then adding some resin pieces from the patrs bin.
Finally got the vehicle in the base color and guard markings.
I needed a log hut so the only option i had was to scratch build one . It still needs all the detail added and a bit more work.
The figures are warriors and verlinden ...... they are starting to come together but still have a long ways to go.
This is the basic idea for how it will be laid out minus the ground work...........................
"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of
us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time"
www.modelmakerz.net
When failure is not an option ...... modelmakerz.
Once again the parts count is not very high , but the detail is good. There are a few things that need to be added..........I will get to that later.
The way the kit is laid out I decided to shift around a bit from the directions. The lower hull is shown here, there are no holes in the lower hull that need to be filled. The rear plate goes in well with square locators on both sides to help in positioning. A tiny bit of glaze will need to be added to cover the locator holes .
Next is the three piece transmission cover which is actually 1 piece .
The front fenders were next to go in place ............ after some dry fitting with the upper hull i found that the rear of the right fender needed to be sanded a bit to get a good fit'
Once the trans cover was cured I added the bolt connectors and the tow lugs this is the part that makes it appear to be a 3 piece cover
The cast turret has been textured in a layering of Mr Surfacer 500 and a small wld line added around the pistol port . Admittedly the pistol port weld still needs to be cleaned up a to
I do love those old kits . the pity is so many people overlook them in preference of the latest kit with the 576 piece parts count and the machined barrel.
Dont get me wrong I am about to start one of the dragon kits of the Firefly and yes I added a aluminum barrel with a brass muzzle brake ........ just because I wanted too . Not because everybody else is doing it.
The moral of the story is modeling is not a race and it is not always about competing.It is simply about whether or not you are enjoying what you do. I lived for competition at one time , and did well with it. Until I realized it is more fun to compete against myself and that is when I started building some of the less desirable kits like the older ones and alot of the flat kits.
Ok I will stop now and STEP DOWN FROM MY SOAP BOX, sorry got on a rant.
Well after some more research , I am changing directions a bit. Even though this is billed as a early m3 it really isnt. The exhaust and engine deck really tells the story. The vehicle is actually a M4a5 which gives two options ..............1 re-do the entire engine deck and exhaust or 2 upgrade the main gun to a 75 mm.
For me the solution is simple because this is a bolted hull it places the vehicle later in production. The 75mm gun will be the conversion. The fun will start after that, some real surprises will be coming.
The barrel is now converted to the 75mm long.
The long 75mm is now in place it was salvaged from a parts kit.
This shows the difference between the kit gun tube and the new one that is in place.
The soviets would sometimes add a mantlet cover to the main gun. To do this I used gift tissue paper and white glue.
For this i purposely changed the lighting so it shows the creases and folds in the mantlet cover
The kit did not include sponsons or the filler piece to mimic the fenders continuing along the lower hull.The fix was easy using 30 k styrene sheet. A wider piece was cut and added to the inside to give strength.By using 30k sheet it allows the fenders to come all the way back.
Now that the sponsons have been filled ......... most of the locator hol;es are filled either with styrene rod or stretched sprue.
The next issue that needs to tackled is changing the exxhaust . I was able to dig deep into the parts bin and find the needed parts . A tiny bit of surgery was needed to make the new parts fit ...... a square file and some measuring takes care of that.
just for kicks and giggles i decided to open the right hand stowage box. A bit of care is needed to do this . A new front latch was made from styrene and a lip was sanded al;l the way around the door of the box. will play into the setting later with the figures.
another thing that was missing on this since it is being converted to a later variant were the acess doors on the rear ...... once again a bit of measuring some styrene an doors magically apear.
Once again there was a small issue that needed correcting ....... the drives were cast onto the lower hull were a bit shallow and set too far back. The was fixed with some shaving , sanding and then adding some resin pieces from the patrs bin.
Finally got the vehicle in the base color and guard markings.
I needed a log hut so the only option i had was to scratch build one . It still needs all the detail added and a bit more work.
The figures are warriors and verlinden ...... they are starting to come together but still have a long ways to go.
This is the basic idea for how it will be laid out minus the ground work...........................
"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of
us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time"
www.modelmakerz.net
When failure is not an option ...... modelmakerz.
