¹⁄35

Building the Academy M3 Grant

Construction

I am not an expert on the Grant and much of what I did, I learnt along the way and through feedback and advice from fellow modellers. I was already aware of the suspension issue and sent of the Formations Quick Suspension set to fix that issue (more later), so whilst I was waiting for that to arrive I started at the top. The Grant has a very unusual; turret, the reason it came about was that the British considered the Lee to be much too tall and so the Grant was born. Casting standards and processes were still in an early development stage, so if you look at two Grants, the turrets will probably be different. The turret of the Grant was quite crudely finished, the kit part much smoother and I set about fixing that with some milliput. I have good references from pictures I had taken at the Imperial War Museum in London and Bovington Tank Museum.

It was during this turret building process I was informed of the rotor issue on the 37mm gun. At that point I thought I might be beaten as there was no way I could see to fix or alter the kit part correctly. I had the parts of an old Tamiya Grant in a box, having dismantled it to use the suspension elsewhere, so I got the rotor off that and compared it to the references I was using from a post on ML (thanks guys). The rotor seemed to be correct, but was too big for the opening in the academy turret so I filed it down to fit. Once I had a good fit I added the Academy parts so it would elevate and lower correctly and then cut of the Tamiya barrel, and drilled suitable size hole to accept the Academy 37mm, which looked fairly OK, and had most of the fittings for the breech. I also deepened the space below the 37mm with a file, as again it look some what to small. After that and using some diagrams I added some internal fittings, basic wiring and the radio, a No 19, to the turret.

Link on the 37mm issue for reference

Next I started work on the lower hull and the internal parts for the kit. I built these as per the kit instructions. This went together reasonably well, with no major issues as I recall. The only issue was a warp in the lower hull but there wasn’t much I could do about that and hoped that when the upper and lower hull were mated together that it would pull into the correct shape. Then the Formations Quick Fix Suspension Set arrived. I don’t know if you are like me but the level of fear usually rises when resin arrives. Not only is it costly but breakages are much more possible. Anyway I took my time and fitted the parts as directed and was quite pleased with the result.

I finished off the main element of the interior and then, again thanks to a fellow modeller got hold of an internal layout diagram. The first thing I noticed was that the radio operators seat wasn’t need as the radio in the Grant was placed in the turret, so I removed it. The next internal issue was the layout of the 75mm ammo bin which was correct for the Lee but incorrect for the British Grant. I decided to remove this bin and remodel it somewhat more in keeping with a British tank. I turned it on its side and made a new front from plastic card, then cut out the individual ends of the shells and repositioned them into the new bin. To finish it off I added 4 75mm rds and some racking on top. This was not a 100% fix but much more in the style of the grant. It hadn’t been my intention to do too much to the interior but as Wild Bill had turned my thread into a blog I though I better make the effort and correct the interior it as best I could. I fashioned a new 37mm ammo bin for the LHS and a water holder, box for the 303. Ammo and 2 small tool boxes, plus some packs and cleaning rods that were stored just under the RHS doorway.

While the internal correcting work was underway I constructed the top hull. The internal upper hull is void of detail and had a lot of injection marks that needed filling in and filing down. I also added a large L bean across the top of the drivers’ compartment, as this is a prominent feature in the internal reference pictures I had seen. I had a set of Lion Roar rivets I’d bought for the boat builds and never used so set about adding some detail to this part of the kit. I used the internal layout diagrams I had plus the external detail to place the rivets reasonable correctly. I also added 2 Thompson .45 MG in the appropriate place. I added junction boxes and wiring for the radio and various bags and boxes as per the internal lay diagram. When finished I added some plumbing from the instrument panel which was a pretty big feature in the internal pictures I’d seen, plus a fitting for the drivers periscope. The last item to be added to the upper hill were the twin .30 cal browning, the barrel ends of which I’d earlier drilled out. During this internal restructuring, I checked the fit of the upper and lower hull and whilst it was a tight fit in there, just about every thing seem to fit.