AA's Stuart Recce conversions are designed to be used with the old 1/35 Tamiya M5 Stuart. However, has anyone used the AFV Club M5A1 Stuart as a base instead? If so, any major problems encountered?

Hi Patrick,

I have kit A077 which was designed for the AFV Club M3A3 kit.

Al

I've never looked at the AA kits, but I know that the AFV club hull is ~5mm longer than the Tamiya hull. That sounds like surgery would have to take place to make it fit nicely.

Thanks for the info. That is definitely helpful.

Thanks for the info Al.

I totally missed that set. A077 isn't listed in the WWII conversion section with the tamiya conversions. But, after poking about, I found it in the the Kit Update/Interior section. Weird.

Ok, now I gotta figure out if I should use the AFV Club M5A1 and buy the Tamiya kit conversion, go with the entire Tamiya kit/AA conversion option, or or buy an AFV Club M3A3 and buy A077???? Dang, I'm back to square one So, now what I do with this M5A1?

Wellll, it's not as bad as all that. The lower hull of the Tmiya kit is only 2.5 mm short of the AFV lower hull and not at all short forward of the lower hull vertical weld line. The AVF rear suspension bogie is about 1mm forward of the Tamiya location and the widths are the same. I suspect that the bulk of the AA conversion could be fit into the AFV hull with just a little shaving & chopping.

Most of the real dimensional differences between AFV & Tamiya are aft of the turret ring, so most/all of the conversion should work fine.

I haven't seen the AA conversion, so a bit of work & love should do the trick. I know you, you're up to it.

Paul