I'm building Tamiya's M3 Lee at the moment (for those who are interested, here's a couple of pics of work so far - I know it's glossy - the matt coat isn't on yet!)




I'll be ready to paint the tracks soon, but I'm not sure if they should have rubber pads of be all steel. I think the former, but would be grateful for any confirmation you guys can provide!

Hi mate,

Looks good so far! The wash looks good, especially with all those rivets! Now install those tracks, give it a dull coat, then a dust coat, maybe some rainmarks?

Should come out nice!

I'm not sure about the tracks.....but someone else here will know!

Good luck and keep us posted

Martin

Pilgrim
That is a good looking M3 you have there Great job on blending the decals in As far as the tracks........ Usually the M3 Lee/Grant series used a rubber padded track Usually the T51 It was a smooth rubber block

I know some of the British variants had a rubber pad that looked like a H shape The end connectors are metal

If this is the old Tamiya kit you're building, replacing the tracks might be good, in case you are a nit-picker. The vinyl tracks with kit have a little inaccuracy. The end connectors don't actually connect the track links together. So, if they were real tracks, they would fall apart immediately. (I've seen the same mistake in the box art of some of extratech's sherman-based kits. Fortunately, the kit tracks are ok)

A fine build you have there! The old tamiya M3 looks like a fine kit, how does it come together?

Originally the M3 would have been fitted with T41 reversible rubber block tracks. The T51 non-reversible track that comes with the Italeri M4A1 is near enough and as people really dislike it, it shouldn't be too hard to find someone willing to swap.

The Tamiya chassis is robust enough to stand Italeri's stiff track.

The less said about all the other probelms with the Tamiya M3 the better

Thanks all for your kind words and advice.

From your descriptions I reckon thent it's the T51 tracks that are with the kit, so it looks like I have a lot of rubber blocks to paint!

The kit goes together OK, although there was a big gap on the glacis plate that needed some filler and care needs to be taken to get the sides of the upper and lower hull properly aligned. Also, the star decal on the rear hull actucally needs to be applied under the stowed shovel, so it's difficult to apply I just cut mine in half, although I think this makes it look a little "broad".

It's an old kit though, so I'm not sure how accurate it is. At the moment I am more interested in developing my skills than making an exact replica, so I'm happy enough with it built out of the box..

Just for information's sake, it's actually appallingly bad. The list of flaws is near endless...



..however, for building up your skills, this is a good, cheap kit to build. You can afford several for what a new Tamiya kit costs so you can get in lots of building for little cash.

Nice job.

Paul

Pilgrim,
Yes the Tamiya kit is the pits, but to develop your skilss it is ok. The best tracks to use would be the Italeri M4A1 tracks, or equivalent rubber block type ones.
All in all your onto a good start so far... it looks good,
Todd