Bought this kit from a recent show and figured on doing a straight OOB. Nothing added except to throw some sheet stock in the spaces where Tamiya left. Its become more experimental/first try for me. Made up some home made welds on the turret, drilled out the cannon barrel, and trying my hand at airbrush shading and highlighting.

almost there!!

Stick a fork in it!....

Brian, for such and old beast you've really made it look great. Well done, you should be proud!
Eric.

Hey Brian - nice build! The pre shade looks good with the weathering!

Cheers
Nick

Really well done. IMHO needs some big bright yellow Armor Force stars and turret bands to dress it up.

Thanks for the kind words guys! Steven, I have another Stuart in the stash that will be getting more "dressed up". I wanted a simple looking old beast. The scene is of a war memorial piece, similar to what I saw at APG when it was still open, or like you would see at a veterans park somewhere. To be completely honest... this was an experiment build. I hadnt ever done most of the techniques I used, and I refused to spend any money on aftermarket but wanted to jazz up the Tamiya kit with methods I could do from the workbench. It does look kind of plain, but most war memorials I have seen do. The three things I might still do are to add a grandpa and his grandson to the scene, add chocks to the treads to make sure the tank doesnt move, and I might make up a brass plaque in scale and put it on there. But, I want it to stay simple looking,

Really nicely done, Brian!
I just built one too, and I saw on the instructions that this kit dates back to 1974! Happy 40th birthday! Such a good kit too.
-Sean H

soooo the kit is ALMOST as old as I am.... gee, that makes me feel not so good LOL.

Well done.
I built one of these when they were new, doing an M5 now, just for fun. They are great canvasses for trying new techniques.