I purchased kit #72801 M3 General Lee which contains markings for US Army tanks in Ft. Benning, GA, Northern Ireland, Makin Island, Tunisia and Kasserine. An "extra bonus" in this kit is yellow tactical markings for companies of the 13th Armor Regiment. I'm fond of the pre-war red, white and blue stars used on the 2nd Armor Division vehicle.
I also purchased kit #72806 M3 Medium Tank "Battle of Kursk". This kit contains markings for four Soviet lend-lease tanks and two captured German tanks.
Other than the decals and directions, the two kits are identical. There are four light gray sprues and one black vinyl sprue that contains the tracks and a vinyl tow cable. The vinyl tracks represent the plain block T-41 or T-51 tracks. Mirage sells a photoetch set separately to convert these tracks to the "Double I" WD-212 tracks frequently seen on Commonwealth tanks.
The kit parts look very well done but I noticed several slight sink marks in some of the storage box lids and the upper hull top hatch. Nothing that looks impossible to deal with though.
The road wheels are the 5-spoked type and the idler is the 6-spoked type. All are open spoked. The bogies have separate springs and rollers.
All pioneer tools are molded separtely including the shovel, pick ax head, handle, macine gun tripod, ax, wrench and tow shackles.
Each kit includes two different gun barrels (long and short) and an optional counterweight for the short gun. One of my long guns was short-shot, but it is not a problem since I plan on building one long and one short barreled tank. Most hatches are molded separately.
Also included is a small fret containing nine photoetched parts. Six of the parts detail the interior of the crew doors, two parts are headlight guards and the last piece is the engine grill. The grill and headlight guards are optional since plastic parts are also included. The interior door parts would be unnecessary if you button your model up.
Looks like a good series of kits. Mirage made several other vehicles from the same molds:
- 72801 M3 General Lee (USA)
- 72802 Medium Tank Lee Mk I (UK)
- 72803 M3A1 Medium Tank (cast hulled Lee)
- 72804 Grant Mk I, El Alamein
- 72805 Command Tank Grant Mk I
- 72807 M31 Armored Recovery Vehicle
