Well here is the start of the Lee.

Old Tamiya kit will be adding a few aftermarket items.

Barrels
Tracks
PE
Air cleaners
Rivets



Base idea for Tunisia



Tell you one thing the darn plastic must be 1/8" thick were the cut is made.

All cleaned up now grill will be last part as I have a tendency to smash them in if put on early.

...and I'll be following this one!
Maybe you'll inspire me to get myself a Lee, kinda cool vehicle actually.

Lower hull rear from a Grant too, Tamiya's Lee has one for a diesel-engined version. This is one reason why you don't get any air cleaners...

David

Cool guys will keep that in mind.

But still a nice kit even if the date is 1974

Have fun with that one, sounds like you've got your hands full! Those Tamiya kits, picked one up a while ago, the old M3 Stuart one, going to tackle that soon.

Cheers -

Tim

I love these "upgrades" of the old Tamiya kits, always fun to follow.

I'm not quite sure where you're going with the base though - too early to tell.

Rudi

To Tim and Rudi.

Well Tim go for it but then again I have heard that the AFV Club one is the way to go.

But I also have the kit you speak of,looks the part so heck do it.

One thing on it though is the tracks have to go.

Rudi mountain behind road in front sound like a plan.

Yes Per-Erik and the best at the time against the German tanks until the Sherman's came along.

But still better when they started welding instead of rivets.

Update.

Adding some Mr Surfacer as per cast thing.







Hull not yet fitted together.
Need maybe to do the sponson fill in.
A slight gap at front don't know why, but hull will move closer to front or can fill with Plastic card.
Added two plugs front Differential housings

All for now.

Howdy, bud!

Casting looks great!

Dang, you're in for a pin wash job when the time comes, there's some serious amount of rivets on that Lee...

Later...

Don't forget to replace the road wheels with 5 spoked types. The "machine gun" under the 37mm should actually be a counterweight. One nice source of the 5 spoke wheels is Tamiya's M4 (Early) Sherman kit. It uses the same polycap type mounting and the kit comes with both 5 spoke and 6 spoke wheels so you won't be left with a Sherman with no wheels.

Looking good

Thanks all.

Now
Per-Erik I will let you do the Pin washes as not my cup of tea.

How is that Sherman doing?

Gary I already have the Resin Ones from Formations.
also barrels Will be replaced with Jurdio Rubio.

Thanks also Jose and Welcome abroad.

Built this recently myself OOB.

Your comment:
"A slight gap at front don't know why, but hull will move closer to front or can fill with Plastic card."
yep, thats what I had to do, its approx 2mm short, but didnt take a lot to sort it out.

Enjoy the build, its a fun little kit.

Thanks for that I thought of where I went wrong and could not find any mistakes.
Not a bad deal really glad that even back in the day Tamiya put those 4 bolts at where it is short.
Good deal and as you have said a nice little kit.
Did you fill the sponson's in?
Thinking about it.
Cheers

A few more pics of where I am now.

Casting numbers on the front.
Model point barrel
The mark in the front is where I had to remove the PE box as a tad to low to me.
Not to worry will cover it back up



Next the Turret added the little bosses to the sides and that metal thing on top.

Also the Model point barrel

Casting numbers.

Had to make a barrel for the MG as could not drill this one out.

Thanks for looking

Looking good here, bud!
Makes me wanna pick up a Lee even more.

Seems you've gotten really friendly with the Archer casting numbers as well.

Again, great stuff!

Thanks Per-Erik I think I might have to get another set of those Archer Castings as out of some numbers.

That MG barrel out of Plastic rod and a Minimecca tube was a bear also.

Get yourself one but get the newer Academy kit and I think in the newer one they have replaced the suspension parts with the right height ones.
Go for it.

Update

Well trying the Resin Wheels



To much work to use right now.
Put away for a another day.


Robbing from the Tamiya M4 early kit.



Think I might be robbing that exhaust also.

Much better indeed.
Just a little clean up and a slight scraping to fit between the halves.




BTW this Tamiya Suspension is the worst I have seen from them part seams all over.
Definitely a 1974 kit.

Cheers

Nice one Jeff looking good it,s amazing what you can do with these older kits with a little TLC.What are you using for your casting numbers you have added they look top notch

Good work so far. Note that the turret gunsight aperture is rotated halfway up to the sky. You can either elevate the 37 mm gun to match (which would look odd to most viewers), or you can carve out the bottom of the slot with an X-Acto knife and add a rectangle of styrene to the upper inner edge of the opening so the the sight is aimed at the horizon (something I did when I was building this beast back in 1984). And Tamiya has also given you the engine deck of an M3 with a Whirlwind radial engine, but the upper tail plate of an M3A5 with a twin diesel engine. It should match the Tamiya Grant kit's rear parts. If you check out Steve Zaloga's build of the Academy Lee over at Missing Lynx, you'll see what a late production Lee should look like from the back.

Thanks Keith.

The casting numbers are from Archer.
http://www.archertransfers.com/AR88007.html

Gerald.
I think I would rather elevate the barrel.

I might do the Horizon bit as would be better.

But I did see Steve's build looks great and he still had to change a bunch on stuff.

Thanks and need more comments as helps to make a better build.

Tracks will be Panda Plastic T-51's

Cheers

Well started the base and added some rivets and cast texture to the suspension.
That is all.

Looks like you've got a good handle on things here, but you might want to check out my article here if you haven't seen it already:

http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/Building%20M3%20Lee/1%20intro%20and%20research.html

Cheers,

Tim

live link to Tim's article

Good site BTW and thanks for the Hints only way to do one better then going thru 20 places and piecing it together.
Now Tim when are going to finish it up and put up the Final weathering and such.

Hey Jeff, I also enjoy seeing these older kits being built, and improved. Something about improving skills and techniques involved in these projects, instead of shake and bake chicken again.