Now when I finished all my current campaign builds, I looked at other campaigns. I saw this marine campaign (From the Halls of Montezuma...); immediately I remembered that I have a U.S.M.C tanker figure and a M3 in my stash. An idea of a small diorama came into my mind.

But can it be done? The kit in question is academy's M3 stuart "honey). Was this tank used in the pacific?

I have seen photos of early Stuarts in the pacific, and IIRC the marines did have these.

Yes, the M3 was used in the Pacific - Philippines, Guadalcanal, and the Solomans to name a few.

Will need to do a little research to see if the kit's turret is of the correct type to have been used there...

Any chance you could share your dio idea?

The 'Honey' version of the Stuart is the British version and not the US one. I suggest you do a lot of research on the differences between the two before marking this kit as a US one.

Cheers
Cliff

My Grandfather served in the Pacific with the New Zealand army, he was a mechanic and used to talk about the Stuarts and Valentines he worked on. I take it from his stories (not that you could get him to say much - he had a bad time in the Pacific and was not one for 'war stories') that he worked on them in Guadalcanal, but like I said he never said much.

I was thinking about a scene with the tank and a tanker on a beach(?), possibly with a few marines as well. Maybe a few trees, quite basic stuff. The tanker could stand in front of the tank, or on top of it. Waiting for supply plane, perhaps?

Made by warriors, nicely detailed, but the head-shoulder seam gives me the creeps. How should try to conceal the seam? It would be simple, but there's the dog tags. The right hand requires putty too, but that simple. The fig originally had an older thompson, with a drum magazine and wooden front grip. It came in two parts and the separate front grip/barrel part was warped. I replaced the gun with a styrene one from dragon.



Academy's kit offers a US version. The differences are the british side skirts, different storage boxes and the water container racks. The decal sheet has markings for one US tank. OD with a white stripe around the turret, stars on the sides and roof.

I looked around the web and it seems ok to use this M3 in my pacific setting. Apparently, the tank entered procuction just before pearl harbor and was used in the early stages of the war in the pacific.

Howdy all. Yes the "Marines " used the M3 in the Pacific theater during WWII. Out here.