I am building Zvesda's (also Peerless, Italeri, and Revell's) M-3A1 Scout Car. I will be using Eduard PE, Resicast Mk19 Wireless radio's and a bit of Imagination. Why Imagination? Well, I am building an M-3A1 modified as a command car serving with a company of Royal Canadian Engineers fitted with the with a MK19 radio and some seat(s) removed to accomodate it. As I know it exist from those who served on them, I have no photo ducumentation of the modification, so I will just use my Imagination to make that happen. If you have photos of an M-3 modified as a Radio/Command car would you be willing to share those with me? This build will prolly take months so updates will be stretched over that time.
Regards,
John













Nov 20th,
Added the sidewalls and rear bulkhead and test fitted everything forward off the driver compartment. There are a few gaps and some seams to fill, and there will be a large gap between the front fenders and the side of the engine compartment. I'll add pictures of that fix in a few days if all goes well.

Looking good so far John, shall be following this one.

How is this kit as far as parts and fit goes? I like the vehicle very much but I'm not too sure about Zvezda quality. I'm basically a begiiner, would I have a problem building it?

Cheers
Hisham

I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner, The kit was made sometime in the 1970's so it isn't a shake and bake kit. The underside bits don't line up that well, some modification had to be made to get it to fit right. some of the molding isn't really accurate and way overscale. there LOTS of sink marks, flash, and ejector pin marks over the whole kit. BUT, it is the only M-3 out there, so you really don't have a choice of kits. It might be a nice kit for you to slam together in a week or so just to see how good/bad it really is. You can find them at pretty reasonable prices at some online stores. I posted links to some reviews below in case you're interested.
Regards,
John

http://misc.kitreview.com/armourreviews/m3withcoverreviewsp_1.htm
http://www.modelingmadness.com/scotts/misc/military/zv3581preview.htm
http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/zve/kit_zve_m3.shtml

As John aka PzrJager said, it's an old kit from the 1970's and was originally put out by Peerless Max or Tomy in Japan.
The Dodge Beep, Command Car, M6 Tank Destroyer, Ambulance and a few other trucks were passed on to Italeri (then known as Italieri) who cleaned up the molds somewhat.
Recently it got a nice new tarp cover from Zvezda and has now been released by Revell-Germany.
It's got it's flaws but with some care and patience, it builds up nicely and it is an M3.
I would suggest replacing the .50 & .30 Browning MG's with some AM set or the nice Academy MG set.
The fender mounted Jerrycans will also need replacing with something more accurate.
Cheers

jjumbo

Thanks for the feedback, guys.. that's kind of what I was suspecting.

I found it quite cheap at jadarhooby, $11 I believe, so I guess I could get it and work on it in the background and take my time with it.

Thanks again
Hisham

I like what you've done to date with all the photoetch. Amazes me that there is so much work put into adding the sets, but the result is well worth it. Looks so much better, IMHO. Thanks for sharing the pictures, will too have to follow this build.

Cheers!

Tim

Just a small update. I have about 70 of these little buggers to clean up on the parts, It's a little time consuming. I use Squadron green, then a coat of Mr. Surfacer 500 sanded smooth. Sometimes I'll put a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200 on top of that and sand lightly with a polishing grit. For those that only build Tamiya kits, they are called ejector pin marks, and they aint pretty.......
John

Should be an interesting build. The good thing with a sujbect like you are doing is artistic license.

beautiful interior

Hio John,

Apologies, I have a picture of the M3 Scout Car Radio Layout somewhere but at the moment I can't locate it. If I do I'll give you a shout.

Al

Great, keep it going this good!!

Added update to original post. I think I'll keep the all updates in the first post to keep it all together and make it easier to follow the build. I've also got a copy of a fitting manual for the No.19 wireless into CMP's and Scout cars on the way to me via a reprint company in the Netherlands. I'm hoping that takes away the guess work of how to install the radio.
Regards,
John

Hi John,

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you but I had filed the pics in the wrong folder and it's taken me some time to track them down. Hope these help, I have similar plans for an old Italeri version.





Cheers

Al

Beautiful build so far John!

Maybe this is a kit that Dragon needs to add to their ever-growing line of Allied armor. They have the M-3 halftrack series...why not an M-3A1 Scout Car? Maybe we can put a bug in someone's ear to produce this thing up to modern standards.

Keep up the good work John.

Jeff