Well,
Here's the next subject on my workbench. It's going to end up in a river crossing, make shift bridge made out of logs cut up and filling the river bed. Elevated land, water, trees, all that fun stuff.
These pictures do not do the figure justice at all. They were taken inside (I hate daylight savings) so the flash really washed out the figures.
I'd like opinions on the tank and the weathering and finish. I used pastels for the weathering and Tamiya OD for the paint. I used dilute water/black for the wash. I drybrushed the AFV with gun metal.




Is the application to hodge podge, to uniform in color?? What do you guys think. Oh I built it almost OOTB, the only modification was the handles on the hatch.

Very nice Scott. I'm not too good at weathering but I think your work looks good. The only thing I noticed was that the plate around the left sponsoon machine gun looks to clean compaired with the rest of the model. Nice model.
Chuck

cfbush2000 - Nice call, thanks. I'll fix that first thing in the morning.

Nice job on the M-3, the old Tamiya kit builds up into a good basic vehicle. Other than the lack of weathering on the one panel, looks pretty good. you might try to put a touch of bright silver on the tips of the sprocket teeth and the idler wheel outer flat surface wore down to the bare metal in short order. I used flat steel gray Pactra when I was in my Stuart period. All the info that Tamiya had when they came up with the design was on a diesel M-3. that's why the air intake hoses were routed through the cooling vent opening and it's armoured shield. This probably reflects on the fact that nearly all of the M-3 Diesels were kept in the US for training purposes, when they figured out that in a gas powered army they really didn't want to have to open up a new supply line just for diesel fuel. I was lucky enough to have a complete lower m-3 chassis and running gear at a local surplus store when I was playing with them. It was handy to see where the grease and oil deposits collected on the lower end fittings. Some shade tree mechanic/farmer had removed everything from the lower hull including everything that had originally been Stuart and replaced it with an old Ford six banger and standard transmission mated to the original gear housing. He had fabricated a seat over the rear of the hull and had himself a real pulling tractor with treads.
Again, really nice work.

Jay All Loyalty to the Sty.

Modelnut4
Thanks for the info. I love the added information, that's the stuff you don't find in regular research. Thanks
I guess I may have to change the setting of my planned diorama to a training facility somewhere state-side.

That's nice !
Drybrushing with gunmetal is a good idea. What I do first is a drybrush with a lighter shade of the color of the vehicle : here, OD. Then I can plce a bit of gunmetal on a few proeminent places.

pen-pen - With this build I tried to put down a base OD. Then I came back with a ligthened shade of OD and outline the panels. To give it a worn look around the edge or each panel. I got to a point where I was happy with the look. Then I went and gave it a gloss coat over the whole kit (testors gloss coat),so that I could apply the decales. I noticed that the lighter shaded areas 'disapeared' and it looked like the basic OD I first layed down. I thougth OK - why would a gloss coat alter the color? maybe the shine makes it go away. Maybe when I put a dull coat on it'll come back (silly me). I added the dull coat an nope - no shading.
Has that ever happened to you? The next time I try that I'll go heavier on the contrast so I don't loose it with the gloss/dull coats.
Yea -it kinda goes down the drain when I dirty it up with pastels. Just kinda gets to you, you spend the time and effort and it goes away??

Any thoughts?

EXCELLENT WORK OF ASSEMBLY AND REALISM
CONGRATULATIONS

ROBERTO

Looks Great Slogger. The only thing that draws my eye away from the realism is that the air intake? i think it is on the rear side of the tank is cleaner than the panels around it. Also the air hose is cleaner than the deck it is laying on.

But it is still a great looking model you can be proud of :-)

Delbert - Nice pick up. Consider it fixed and 'dirtied'

Many thanks to all who commented.

Scott, looks like a good job. I've always like the old Tamiya kit, except for the dang tracks. It's always irritated me the way Tamiya put the end connectors at the end of a single link instead of spanning two links.

Does this kit come with open sponsons? If you look through the port side driver's vision block on the second (lower) photo, you can almost see daylight (or the wooden desk top). Of course it could be a lighting thing.

The other things that jumps out at me are the front tow hook mounts. It looks like they weren't drilled out. Also under the rear portion of the fenders, that place would be completely covered by dust. I like the markings, 3-32 AR was my battalion in the desert.

I took photos of an M3 in the Aberdeen Proving Grounds album. It had a decent shot of the back deck if you wanted to see what the area around the air cleaners looked like.

I think you did a great job, don't take any of my observations as dings on your work.

Sabot
Thanks for the feedback - I don't any of it as dings. I go at it with the attitude of "The more eyes taking a look the more that will be seen and fixed/touched up" So thanks.
I see what you're seeing about the vision port. You're right you can see right through, and you shouldn't be able to - at least not there huh. I have not yet glued the top hull to the lower hull so I can easily cut a couple of pieces of styrene to fill the gap. I did add the detail and drill out all the other vision ports - they came filled in so I drilled them out. Up close I think it adds a bit of realism to it. You're right on about dirty mud flaps. I"ll mud'em up in the morning.
I saw an M3 kit today that had tow loops on the front tow hook mounts. This kit didn't have any hooks? Is it out of place not to have them? I can easly make a pair and add them, if it make it a more complete kit.

If you don't mind emailing or posting the M3 photos I'd appreciate it. Any reference is a bonus!! [email protected] is my email address. I love the M3 and will be doing more.

Thanks

Photos are uploaded on this site in the Armor Reference gallery already. It was not unusual to leave the actual tow hooks in the sponson boxes. That way they don't get lost, damaged or "borrowed" and are present when you need to hook up.

APG M3 Stuart