Hi folks,

This is the Academy M3 Grant, finished as an M3 Genreal Grant Mk I of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, 9th Armoured Brigade, 2nd New Zealand Division in North Africa late 1942.

















Al

Hi Al,
Another brilliant piece of work !
Once again , you've produced a masterpiece from a less than perfect kit !!
Another bunch of your photos for my laptop's desktop folder !!!
Are you still planning a diorama for this to be placed in?
Cheers

jjumbo

Hi John,

Many thanks for you support and encouragement during the build and also for your kind comments. This one is going on a small dio, under construction, with the Dingo SC I finished re-vamping recently and a Mk I Universal carrier.

I takled myself in to a site group build over on SMW although I didn't need much arm twisting, as I've been wanting to build a Grant for a good while now.lol, lol.

Cheers

Al

Nice looking Grant Alan, have the Academy Stuart kit for a build one of these years Like the way your weathering turned out, looks good. Looking forward to seeing it in your diorama. Thanks for sharing your pics!

Cheers -

Tim

Hi Tim,

Thanks for taking the time to post and your comments. I have the Honey's too, got them cheap in a AA sale about 2 years ago, still awaiting a build

Al

I think where that tank failed was they should have put another gun on the port side of the tank. TWO guns!!! Why not? LOL

Very nice work Alan. Pity you can't have thos enew DML Commonwealth infantry to go with it yet.

Don't rightly know if you could class the Grant as a failure. It was a match for anything the Germany had when it arrived in the Desert. Poor tactics and leadership had more to do with it's initial failure, but it still proved a useful weapon despite it's obvious drawbacks. The initial lack of AP rounds was a major drawback but as an infantry support vehicle able to fire HE it was effective.

Matched against the Japanese Army it was highly successful and it's height which was a distinct disadvantage in the desert proved to be a plus in South East Aasia..

I think it's a good example of the transition from the old to the new style of armour. Granted (no pun intended) it was deemed no longer fit for service in the European theatre of war after about 11 months, it none the less provided the Allies with an effective stop gap whilst the production of new armour got underway. There were still arguments going on at the end of the war over whether all 75mm tanks should be up gunned. Some said yes, others wanted a mix of 76mm and 75mm medium tanks, as the 75mm had a much more effective HE round and tanks in general fired much more HE than AP, when used in support of infantry.

My thoughs anyway. Thanks for dropping in.

Al

Hi Pat,

Many thnks for the comments. I have some alternatives under production as far as the infantry go

Perhaps the DML chaps will turn up when I get to the Shermna III.


Al

Hey Mac, she's sweet! I just got mine , and am using your build as a guide. Just picked up the Dragon 8th Army figures and you might note they've come up with a set of 6 more .

Anyway, my Grant will be from the 1st Armoured . I'll let you know how it goes.

Great job, man.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the comments. Good luck with the build and I hope the blogg helped.

Didn't go for the 8th Amry guys, at least not yet. I was disappointed Dragon got some basic things wrong and I hear the detail isn't too sharp either. Hopefully the new set they are doing will be a better effort.

I'm working on a variety of troops to populate the build.









have fun.

Cheers

Al

Hey Al,
Here's an interesting aside regarding the effectiveness of the American 75mm cannon.
Hunnicutt's "Sherman - History of the American Medium Tank" notes that when the British found in early 1942 that the Grant and Lee's 75mm solid shot AP M72 rounds was less than effective against the hardened faced German armour as it usually failed at ranges over 500 yards.
The Americans were developing an improved AP capped round M61 but it wasn't readily available yet in the Middle East.
Major Northy, an Australian officer assigned to RA Ordanace Corps, came up with the unique solution of using captured German ammunition as the Brits had captured 50,000 tons of assorted German ammo during the relief of Tobruk.
Northy noted that the projectile for the Panzer IV's 75mm KwK L/24 could be adapted to fit the American M3's 75mm cartridge case.
After conferring with an American ordance officer, Major Jarrett, they decided to take apart the German and U.S. ammo, lathed down the drive bands on the German projectile to fit the American shell cases and then reassemble the new round.
The cartridge cases for the M72 and HE Mk. I rounds were used but the propellant charge weights varied.
They simply dumped all the propellant charges together, mixed, and reweighed them and reassembled the new rounds
The new rounds were designated 75mm AP-Composite by the Middle East HQ and were tested along with a few M61 that had arrived in Cairo.
Both rounds were tested against a Panzer III hull and while both penetrated it at 1000 yards, the converted round exploded inside and would have set off it's stowed ammunition.
Of the 17,000 KwK rounds converted, 15,000 were APCBC and 2,000 were HE and smoke.
Oddly enough, tthe Germans captured some 6000 of the rounds at Capruzzo when the Brits retreated from Alamein and they were re-recaptured during the liberation of Tobruk in November.
Cheers

jjumbo

I'm not one for a lot of words but thank you for an excellent build and the info I got out of it Looking forward to more from you thanks again Bob

Hi John,

I had read that they used captured German rounds but that gives a much fuller explanation. Thanks for that.

Bob,

Glad you enjoyed the blog and that it was of use to you, thanks very much for your comments.

Cheers guys.

Al

*opens mouth and inserts foot*
:)

EasyOff

No worries, I do that frequently

Cheers

Al

Hi Alan, I enjoyed the pics. Very alive vehicle, beautiful colors overall. Thanks for sharing ! G.

Hi Guy,

Many thanks for looking in and your comments.

Al

As always Alan your stuff is top notch and inspiring to us all.
I have the Academy and Tamiya Grant kits, along with the Verlinden interior and at some point I will kit bash the three and see if I can come up with a decent end result.

Your work is a joy to look at mate, keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

Keith.

Hi Keith,

That sounds like an interesting build, look forward to seeing the progress and a view of the Verlinden interior.

Many thanks for you comments, makes all the hard work worth while.

Cheers

Al