Hi guys,

I'm working on the Tamiya M-8 Greyhound and I want to paint the interior. I figured I would just leave the upper and lower hulls apart, paint everything then stick them together. No worries. For the turret I would leave the two halves part then just fix up the seem as best I could after painting and weathering.

Turned out to be a bit more complicated. The upper and lower hulls won't go together with the side skirts in place so I'll have to leave them off. And there are some parts in the turret that are fixed in both halves of the turret, connecting the two halves.

So I'm wondering if anyone's painted one how did you handle it?

Thanks guys.

Phil,
I'd recommend you join the upper and lower hulls for painting and either mask the side skirt attachment areas or use the thinner for the paint you use as a cleaning agent on a fine brush to clean them afterwards. Touch ups can be done following the drying of the joints for the skirts.

I'd recommend putting the turret together and filling the seams before painting and weathering. You can paint then and use the same process described above to add the painted details.

Just a suggestion...
Cheers,
Paul H

I built my M8 many years ago, but here's what I recall: Yes, you need to keep the main hull halves separate so you can get good coverage inside. There was LOTS of hull assembly needed AFTER I finally glued the two hull halves together. Many pieces can only be added to the hull after the two hull halves are glued together. ONLY then did I paint the outside of the hull (used Kleenex to fill the inside). Don't forget to use gloss white on the inside of the hull--not flat white. The US painted the inside of all open-topped turrets OD, same as the outside. I think I glued my turret together and mostly assembled it, and then painted the entire turret OD. Hope this helps.

Thanks very much guys.

Rich, are you sure about the inside turret being olive drab? I've seen some shots of a real one with the turret painted white as well as the hull. But it may have been mistakenly painted that way by the guys who restored it.

Well, at least for pictures of the M8 used in the TM, the inside walls of the turret were OD. Download it here:

https://archive.org/details/TM91743M8M20ArmoredCars1943 Look at pages 232 and 233.

Thanks Roy. It will be much simpler to paint it olive drab anyway so I'll just do that.

Don't you just love olive drab? I mean the colour. Don't you just love it?

I've run into a snag with the model, guys. Its almost finished and I noticed in the inside of the hull, on the left hand side under the radio there's a huge gap. Is that supposed to be there?

And I found that once I'd put the wracks for the main gun shells on the inside of the turret the shells wouldn't fit. They're too long. Fortunately since they're under a little lip and you can't see I can just cut the tips off to make them fit. But its most unlike Tamiya.

I am really enjoying the build though. I'm at the oh so enjoyable sifting through the spares box for stowage stage. The scene I have planned will use the Miniart "close combat" US tank crew figure set, and their beautiful French Village Street diorama. Its gonna be sick.

I built my M8 a few years ago and this what I remember...
I assembled the lower hull and suspension and painted the interior before adding the upper hull, The turret was built and painted less the gun mantlet.
The interior of the turret is indeed OD down to the ring, which is white as are the hull sides and most of the fittings. The drivers hatch covers are OD as is the floor of the entire vehicle. I don't recall any fit problems when putting the hull together (it is after all, a Tamiya kit) and then I masked and sprayed the exterior, later adding copious amounts of mud and guck (white milk powder and acrylic paint mixed into a paste).

I left the side skirts off, which may not be strictly correct for a Royal Canadian Dragoons vehicle as they were probably obsessively cleaned as often as possible. The Dragoons did run some scruffy looking M3 75mm GMCs and Staghounds and I wanted my Greyhound to look it worked for a living as well.
I used the excellent New Vanguard/Osprey book by Steve Zaloga as reference.
There is a perfect top down photo on page 9 that shows the turret wall and ring and the inside of the drivers compartment. On page 11 there is an excellent photo of the turret insides and floor.
If you are interested (and I can figure it out how) I can add a couple of photos tomorrow.
Gord

MOST of my WWII Armor and Softskins ARE OLIVE DRAB!!!

Re: Your M8-

Concur with the other contributors in this thread; Lower and Driver's Compartments- Gloss WHITE- I however, like to use SEMI-GLOSS White, with a few drops of OD in my mix; this cuts down on the "glare" of white paint, giving the Interior a "used" patina. The Semi-Gloss lends the surface sheen to a more "efficient" base for the application of weathering powders and washes. Besides, PURE WHITE NEVER stays PURE WHITE for long, anyway.

Turret Interior should be OLIVE DRAB, closely matching the Exterior of your M8- Remember that the Interior of your Turret will be subject to a different type of "weathering" than the Exterior of the entire vehicle. Crews of US, (and other nations), open-topped vehicles would throw tarps or whatever else was handy over the tops of their open vehicles to protect themselves in inclement weather- makes sense, doesn't it? Consequently, the appearance of the Interior color, with less apparent weathering, aside of the Crews' muddy boots and dirty and sometimes greasy hands altering the colors, should be the case. Wear points on the inside of the Turret should show the effects of the Crews' usage. Remember that Crews spent a lot of time inside their vehicles, so there should be evidence of a "lived-in" look about inside of your M8, or any other combat vehicle, for that matter...