Even when I was in my early teens building models, I've always had a soft spot for the M3 Grant. It's just a cool looking tank, and it has a pretty cool history as far as being a stop-gap solution once it was clear that the 37mm and 57mm guns were NOT going to be sufficient on the battlefield. I've been slowly assembling parts to build the 'ultimate' Grant for the last couple years.

Here's 'some' of the stuff I've assembled...



Things IN the photograph:
-Academy M3 Grant kit
-Formations Final Drive cover
-Formations lower rear hull back plate and exhausts
-Formations British funnels
-Armored Bridgade Models M3 Grant upgrade, including a complete turret
-Eduard 'exterior' PE set
-Eduard 'interior' PE set
-RB Models 37mm and 75mm (without counterweight) turned barrel
-RB Models .30 cal barrels
-Cyber-hobby WE210 tracks

Things that ARE NOT in the photograph.
-Cyber-hobby VVSS (early) upgrade
-Formations 75mm resin barrel (with counterweight)
-Black Dog M3 accessory set
-Echelon Lees & Grants decals (North Africa)
-Alpine Armored crew set
-various bits and pieces out my spares box

I've also have a growing M3 Grant reference library, and that should get even larger as a few more books should be at my front door within the next few days.

The goal is to build the tank with a fully opened up fighting compartment, and have a small desert vignette setup by the end. If you'll notice in the above list of pieces and parts, I mentioned I have 75mm barrels both with and without the counterweight. The reason behind this is that adding the counterweight means the 75mm was gyro-stabilized, which means some additional interior scratch-building. I'm just not sure I'm up for that. So that decision will have to come later. And in the worst case, I can always use it on an eventual Lee build!

This will be the most comprehensive build I've ever attempted, so here goes nothing! Stay tuned, and feel free to comment!

I was at a holding point on my Firefly for the D-Day campaign, and my Bronco Chaffee build is only slowly progressing due to it being a group build with my local AMPS club. So with the end goal having this thing done by AMPS Nationals next year, I figured I better get started!

Here's what I started last night. The Cyber-Hobby suspension only included the later 'ribbed' version of the early VVSS suspension. I have yet to see any picture of a Grant with these bogies, so out came the knife.









Once I had shaved off the rib, I put a little bit of Tamiya extra thing on the area, and poked around at it with a toothpick to try and emulate the cast texture. I may throw a coat of primer on there to see how visible it is with a color, and if it's still visible, hit it with some Mr. Surfacer.

Hey Jesse,

Im looking forward to this build. Nice job shaving the rib off the boggies. Didnt they enjoy a bit of an edge early in thier deployment against the DAK or was it because the british tank were so....lacking. Im in bro!

Gary

Jesse

I'll be following this build with interest, as I have one of these in my stash which has been waiting my attention for some time.

If I can get the current Sdkfz 7/2 finished, I just might follow your build with my own.

Regards

Rob

Rob, sounds good! This one is going to take awhile, so you've got time to finish and then catch up.

Ironically, the last model I completed was Dragon's SdKfz 7/2, shown here: http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/192289#1609425

Awesome!

The Grants were the first tank the British had with the 75mm gun, and for it's time, good armor and mobility. They were also mechanically reliable, something that the earlier British efforts were not known for. The downsides were that they were tall, and the hull sponson location for the 75mm obviously limited traverse, but it was still a big step in the right direction.

Hi Jesse,

Well it sounds like you only plan on doing a bit of tinkering then lol, nearly a whole new machine will emerge, will subscribe & watch.
Best of luck
Cheers Mike

We'll see you around Mike.

Jesse

Mmmm - that 7/2 looks good. I'm setting mine in Normandy, and am currently (and laboriously slowly) painting the seven man crew, who will be in fairly relaxed attitudes while they wait their next customer.

I'll post a pic when (eventually) I finish.

Regards

Rob

Hi Jesse hope you don`t mind if i tag along with this build, it looks very interesting and you have assembled yourself a nice lot of goodies.

Tom

I tried my hand at Academy's M3 Lee w/interior. Turned out a catastrophic failure. I'll be following this one.

Welcome aboard Matt and Tom

@ Rob... 7 man crew...whew. That's a lot of work.

I'll keep an eye in here,

Looks like you could 'almost' build a whole tank from the leftovers....
that give me an idea....

Hi Jesse,

Enjoy the build. You can turn out a good kit from this one.

Cheers

Al

Thanks Al. I've read through your feature, and will be stealing some ideas!

Jesse

Yes, you're right, and with 3 different types of uniform just to make things more difficult. Of course, Grants had a 7 man crew as well - the Russians referred to them as "a coffin for 7 comrades"!

Regards

Rob

Nice choice Jess,

I'll be following this one. Sounds like you have your work cut out for you!

Jessie, I'm in....I'm a sucker for the Lee's and Grants...many thanks to a Humphry Bogart movie....

John, Neal, nice to have you along!

Ok... didn't get a lot of time at the bench tonight, so here was some progress.

First off, the return rollers have 3 little sink marks that I didn't much care for.



So to fix that... power drill and 400 grit!



I chucked the road wheels in my Dremel to clean them up. Makes things a lot faster and more even than my old 'hand scrape' method.

The Cyber Hobby suspension, when fitted together, has a seam line that tends to be somewhat noticeable. Also, since you have to assemble the entire bogie together with wheels, volute springs, return roller, etc, all at one time, the seam can be a bit hard to deal with.

So I tried a couple of different methods of assembly. You can see one of the more 'extreme' versions here...













Half the bogies done. It's progress!



And of course, now that I see the photos, I didn't get all the sink marks off the return rollers, so now I've gotta do something about that. grumble grumble. Ahh, such is making models!

Whoa! Dont think I've ever seen that many goodies used on one kit... I'll be wathing with interest! Are those Tamiya roqad wheels? Or Tasca?

Cheers!
Stefan

Whoa! the 'dimples' at 11 O'clock & 5 O'clock on the left hand bogie are supposed to be there, the 'half-moon' pin mark next to 11 o'clock isn't.
Also they are made of steel, not rubber... Don't ask me how I know this...

Nice clean work & good photos so far, keep up the good work... (& you could 'donate' the leftovers to me! )

Don't Masterbox have a box set called Allied soldiers?, they look very familiar!

Hi Stefan! The road wheels are from Tasca. I had the Academy, Cyber-hobby/Dragon, and Tasca wheels sitting infront of me, and chose to go with the Tasca ones. They're just a bit crisper. The open web holes in the wheels are larger than the Dragon wheels... looking at pictures, I think the Tasca ones are slightly too large, and the Dragon might be slightly too small. Either way, Tasca it is.




Yeah, ironic that the pin marks are more obvious in the last 'assembled' photo than the earlier one where I was just trying to show marks.

Build some Shermans and it's hard NOT to get a big spares box going.

Hi Jesse,

Your welcome, pictures have gone abbo at the moment due to the site move.


The Academy Grant was one of the most enjoyable builds I've done.



Cheers

Al