More Burma Lee updates
I have been working on fixing the shape of the Tamiya Lee turret which is way off with Milliput. Don't know if it is 100% accurate, but seems alot better than before. I added a rope used for infantry handholds particular to Lee's in Burma. Also, I added the three bolts seen on the turret top along with another larger bolt/plug? which shows on some pics. I used a 37mm barrel from Jordi Rubio and added the gyro-stabiliser balance under the cannon. (Tamiya instructions shows this as a machine gun mounting which is incorrect). Since the cannon sight is molded in a position which would have the cannon pointing skyward, I hollowed this area out and made a new opening out of brass and styrene so the cannon can point in a more straight forward manner. I also filled in the area under the cannon with Milliput since it seemed too large a gap.





I also detailed the inside of the turret lid and scratchbuilt a smoke launcher for the left side of the turret.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for looking.

Very impressive so far!
Keep up the great work,

James

Major improvement on the turret. I neglected to alter mine and it's something I regret whenever I look at it.

I was going to question the way the vision port was bowed out from the turret side, but I found this T2 turret on Tanxheaven which caused me to change my mind



David

EDIT - BTW Military Modelling's new site has posted Steve Zaloga's article on tarting up the Academy M3 with lots of useful references photos.

John,

While you have done a lot of work to the Lee turret, I fear you may have gone too far. From the photos it appears that you have increased the effective width of the turret by adding putty to the edge of the lower lip that goes around the bottom of the kit turret, going vertically from there, like a Sherman turret. Unfortunately, the lip should remain and the diameter of the Tamiya turret at the base of the turret is pretty accurate. It's just the radiu of the top edge that's too large.

Also, your turret walls look quite vertical and there needs to be some angle to allow the real turret to come out of the sand mould. Again, the kit is pretty good for this.

Lastly, the radius you have where the top meets the sides is toos harp, now. The radius should be something like 1/4 - 3/16" and should blend smoothly all around the edge. Take a look at my Lee turret here:



I like how you've changed the sight rotor to look horizontally, few people notice this.

HTH

Paul

Paul wrote:
While you have done a lot of work to the Lee turret, I fear you may have gone too far. From the photos it appears that you have increased the effective width of the turret by adding putty to the edge of the lower lip that goes around the bottom of the kit turret, going vertically from there, like a Sherman turret. Unfortunately, the lip should remain and the diameter of the Tamiya turret at the base of the turret is pretty accurate. It's just the radiu of the top edge that's too large.

Also, your turret walls look quite vertical and there needs to be some angle to allow the real turret to come out of the sand mould. Again, the kit is pretty good for this.

Lastly, the radius you have where the top meets the sides is toos harp, now. The radius should be something like 1/4 - 3/16" and should blend smoothly all around the edge. Take a look at my Lee turret here:

Paul, I see what you mean about my turret. Maybe, I can round off the top more to lose the sharp edge and sand around the bottom to get the ridge back. I wish I would have posted this before I added all the extra stuff
Oh well, I'll see if I can improve it a little. BTW, is your turret from scratch or a reworked Tamiya one, it looks spot on.
Thanks, John

More updates:

I took Paul Robert's advice and tried to soften up the upper edge of the turret and regain the ridge around the bottom. I think it looks a little better now. Thanks Paul!
Before:

After:


Also did some work on the back
Rear plate from Tamiya Grant with scratchbuilt phone box, tools from Formations and Eduard photoetch:

Scratchbuilt side storage box and side rail seen on some Burma Lees:

Rear engine deck. Since the Eduard engine deck screen was see-thru, I filled the space with a scrap box piece that resembled part of the engine bay. I also added handles to the fuel caps:

Close-up:

Thought I post something a little off topic too!
My daughter's brand new 2007 Mitsu Eclipse, R.I.P(ieces).



Fortunately, she was not seriously injured, but the car didn't make it.
Anyway, back to the workbench.

It looks better now, I agree.


It's always the way, ain't it? :-)


Both turrets are modified Tamiya originals, the Grant being a lot more modified than the Lee, for sure!

Gary,

The Lee turret is only about 1 mm too tall, but yeah, the Grant is 3-4mm "out of spec", which is huge in this scale.

Paul

Nice build so far. Woah, what happen to your daughter's car John? Looks like she sideswiped a Sherman...

Glad she's OK. For a time I didn't know if our family would survive our son's and their teenage years. Stressful times!!!

Gary

Gary wrote: For a time I didn't know if our family would survive our son's and their teenage years. Stressful times!!!

Gary, you aint kidding, and I have a son who is coming up on his sixteenth. I can't pull out the gray hairs faster than their coming in. At least I got modeling and this site to keep me sane!

John, my grandfather use to say, "This too shall pass". Of course in his day (1920's and 30's) he used to beat the tar out of my father and his brother. :-) :-)

Gary, that made me chuckle, because that's exactly how it was with my Gandpop and Dad. Guess us younger generation have grown soft in our parental years.

Yeah, even when our youngest son was "grounded", he retreated to his room where he had his computer, internet, videogames and he had even somehow rigged a phone up where there was no line? We sure were tough parents!!!

Gary

Haven't had a lot of modeling time lately, but the Lee is slowly progressing. Here are some more updates:

I opened up the driver's visor and added a driver. I added an ammunition can to the front glacis as seen on some Burma Lees. Also, I scratched the extra periscope and the counterweight for the short barreled gun. I also added the two machine guns in the glacis since I could not find proof that these were totally absent from all Lees at the time. I still have to attach the headlight wire to the hull.


Since I am going to have a figure sitting in the loaders hatch, I scratched some interior that could be seen.

Overall view of progress so far:



Hope to have this painted soon!
Thanks for looking!

What a timely post. I just received my Tamiya M3 Lee from e-bay yesterday.

By the way...I didn't know there was another football team in Pa. besides the STEELERS !!! When did Philly get a team!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
Go Black and Gold!

Jeff