Actually, I'm not sure if this should be posted here in the Artillery group or the WWII Allied AFV group, so please feel free to move it if necessary

I've not been involved in modelling of any sort for at least a year, but started sifting through the old kit stash and the bug is biting again. One thing I was planning to build is a backdated M7 Priest SP Artillery piece out of the 1/35th Italieri kit using parts from the old Tamiya M3 "Lee" kit.

I thought that I saw someone's conversion here on Armorama when I was last actively checking out the site (a little over a year ago). However it must've been somewhere else that I saw this, since I cannot find it here by searching now.

So, does anyone know where the article I thought was here may be located? Or was I just dreaming?

Thanks!
Dave

I don't know of the article you're speaking of, though I wrote a review of the Priest here a while back. I'm in the process of doing this right now. Here is what I've done.

Take the bogey's from the Lee, but not the wheels. They have the wrong number of spokes. Use the wheels from the Priest. Use the front transmission cover from the Lee, but it has to be shaved down on the sides since it's too wide. The Tamiya kit was made to be motorized so the kit's hull is a bit wide. I couldn't get the trans cover to quite fit for length toward to rear of the underside. You can put in a strip of plastic to cover this, but it's not going to show much. The tracks from the Italeri kit are very stiff, but at least they look right compared to the Tamiya ones. I stapled mine together so they weren't so tight going on the suspension. I'm not sure they can be used as is out of the box without risking damaging a drive wheel or idler.

You have to cut down the sides and rear of the fighting compartment, because the early version doesn't have the armored flaps. You'll also have to shave off the "hinges" where the flap originally goes. One major thing I didn't do is cut down the bottom part of the "pulpit", the machine gun ring. It extends further down the hull in the later models than the early one, but I didn't want to take a chance at screwing it up.

My source is the Squadron book US Self-Propelled Guns in Action. The rear cover has a picture of an early Priest in British service. Another thing I didn't do, at least not yet, is to make a box for the front left side of the hull, below the driver's hatch. It occurs to me that the box from the Lee kit for the rear storage might work for this.

I'm taking two Enfield rifles from the Italeri Allied Accessories kit, along with a STEN and a Thompson from the same kit, to put into the gun racks on the Priest. I also am using some backpacks, and cans from the same kit for storage on the hull.

When I'm done I'll do a full write up but I hope this gives you enough to go on.

I back-dated an Italeri M7 a while back. Maybe that's the project you were thinking of ...





More pics in my gallery.

I was working on an article for Armorama but lost it all when the hard drive in my old computer crashed. I never got around to re-doing it.

Tamiya M3 bogies, lots of scratch and replacement of parts. The conversion is largely based on an article and drawings that appeared in FSM in the 80s, plus the fantastic detail photos in the Squadron Self-Propelled Guns in Action book.

David: drop me a PM and I might be able to hook you up with a copy of the FSM article.

Here's what she ended up looking like:

I later topped it off with a Formations early-style .50 cal. MG.

My thanks to both of you for the replies! Your information will help quite a bit. I'll have to dig through my sources and see if I have the SP Guns In Action book. I think I may have it stashed away, and may even have the FSM issue too.

Since my modelling skills are definitely rusty, I think I'll tackle something OOB first , but this Priest project appears to be a fairly straight forward conversion so I shouldn't think it will be too much of a stretch of my abilities.

Thanks again!