hi all
iam looking for an M7 preist in 1/35 does anyone know who makes this?
thanks

Italeri has one in 1:35, Revell of Germany has one in 1:72, and GHQ Miniatures has one in 1:285 for a pack of five.

Good rundown. I would also add that Italeri, besides the M-7 Priest, makes the "Kangeroo", the Infantry personal carrier derived from the Priest.

Mike

thanks for the help guys just one more question is the itaterli priest out of production?

No.
Italeri re-released it last year or so. Still plenty of em around.

Well on the OOP for the Italeri I think they stopped making it again but could be wrong my hobbyshop told me they are OOP. This might help

For $9.00 in change get one at 1/2 off

The Italeri Priest may be OOP but every hobby shop I go to has a few. I just picked up one last night at Hobby Lobby and they had a two left after mine. I looked it over and it seems OK, not great but not bad. Of course I'm not a "rivet counter" so I'm fairly easy to please. My biggest complaint is the figure, he's sculptured OK but he's just standing there with his arms at his side. Interesingly his feet are modeled seperately from his legs, why go to that trouble and have him standing in such a lame pose?

Well, for starters the kit is from what, the 70's? So it will show some age. However it is from Italeri's "Golden Age" when they were the pinnacle of armor models and put a lot of work into the kits. The kit builds up very nice OOB and even better with Eduards PE. As for the figure, I belive casting the feet seperate helped with molding, but it could be for other reasons.

and I would get my Priest now, while they are still somewhat plentiful. The first run of re-release sold out in the USA in about 2 weeks...the second re-release is what we are chewing on now....but it is a popular kit, and in a few years I expect it to be going on ebay for the high prices it got before...around $50 each.

For some reason, when they re-released the kit, they priced it at $30ish. Heck the Kangaroo and Sherman that share half of the sprues has been in almost continuous production are normally found for under $20. Same deal when they reissued the old Peerless Max M3 White Scout Car. Couldn't believe people were paying in the $30s for that old kit. It was ancient when I first bought one in the early 80s, and I found it hard to believe they were asking $20+ for one with the 50th Anniversary of the end of WW2 logo on the box back in 1995. I bought one of those in 1996 when they were clearanced out at 50% off.

The Priest kits I have are the Italeri one in 1/35, Fujimi's M7B1 in 1/76 and the Matchbox 1/76 one. I think Revell of Germany's may be the reboxed Matchbox one, but I am not sure.

Okay! Italeri M7 Priest. This is my new dio project. Picked one up at a local hobby store (which had several) for $24 US. Although I have not commenced construction, I would have to say that there is plenty of room for detailing and adding those extra's. Depending on your point of view the plastic quality on the sprues look good. The howitzer itself looks well detailed but the .50cal in the pulpit doesn't. The other two negative's are the decals look about 2 inches thick! and the single figure that is included is pretty bad too.

But, I am please to build it. I mean, how many Px Mk IV's do we really need #:-) ?

Thanks alot for the help guys i will talk to my hobby shop about it and see what happens.

I am currently building one of these kits and construction os going pretty smooth. Here is a link from AFV Interiors that I have been using for a refference. Should come in handy when you get a hold of your Priest.



http://www.kithobbyist.com/AFVInteriors/m7/m7a.html

I have one of these built at the moment ready for painting! They are readily available here in Stockholm for the last year or so as well. It is my first open top tank (my name for it). So I built it with the guards, body and howitzer as three sperate items for painting. The when dry fitting there were gaps between the guards and body so I had to attach it then and had a bit of filling to do. The howitzer is still removable. So plan your paintig strategy in adavnce.
I think it is a really cool model and apart from some small fit problems with the guards it is OK. PE baskets for the back instead of the solid moulded baskets would be a big improvement. Hopefully I´ll get it painted in the next month or so. Its a pity Italeri didnt re-release the kangeroo as well.

The suggestion is in order to build a good kit is to use the Lee or grant suspension and the M-12 from Academy for the rest of suspension at least this is what I have read in AFV Modeler

The Kangaross was re-released, about a year or so before the M7 was. I have seen several of them still in stores.

Hi

Be careful about replacing the running gear with those from earlier models!
The Italeri kit is of a M7B1 I think. That is, it is a later version Sherman hull with the 105mm gun. It represents vehicles used after the Normandy landings.

To make an earlier version you'd have to replace the running gear, change the transmission cover, reduce the height of the armored sides and do some other stuff. The Squadron US SPGs in Action book is a good reference.

And the Kangaroo kit represents a vehicle that I've never seen in a photo. It is the late priest with the gun removed and some US crewmen. As far as I know, the US didn't use Kangaroos at all. The Kangaroos used in Normandy were earlier Priests with the gun removed. Later Kangaroos were Ram tanks with the turret removed and some other modifications.

Cheers
Andy

Now Andy, you know the dangers of saying ANYTHING about US AFV's in WWII...as soon as you say something concrete, a picture shows up to prove you wrong!

Seriously, my neighbor in the town I just moved from was in the scouts and vehicle recovery with the 1st AD in Africa and Italy. He said that if you can imagine it, for any US AFV, then it happened. He said things got to be so tight with spare parts adn working vehicles, especially going up the Italian peninsula, that any turret or spare part that could be mated or jury rigged to work on a sherman, for instance, they would do. You might see a early M4 turret on a M4A3 hull if it would work...etc.

Also, another neighbor, who has sadly passed on, was a instructor at Ft. Knox for the war, and he was lucky enough to beinvolved in mounting the 90mm gun in the standard M4A3 turret while there. he did not remember specifics, but still, another idea for all those sherm-a-holics.

SO while Italeri may be streching their molds, and maybe represnting a vehicle that were only around in small numbers if at all, then again, maybe the vehicles were just not photographed that much either...

Hi Jacques.

Agreed, you can never say 'never' for any Sherman variant. But the Italeri kit represents a vehicle that is not easily made into an 'early' Priest. Swapping the bogies and transmission cover is a start, and could have happened, but is unlikely to have occurred.

And the Italeri Kangaroo is an even more unlikely vehicle.

And I'd love to see photos of a mix and match Priest! :-)

Cheers
Andy

I have most of my M7 Priest (Early) Conversion already here in the Gallery - if you're interested...

Gunnie

My Kangaroo comes with Canadian markings. The crewman does look like a GI though, he's most likely a holdover from the Priest molds. I noticed in WW2 Allied AFV usage, the Americans had a tendancy to replace damaged/worn equipment with new or rebuilt stuff (we had lots of stuff), where as non-US Allies kept using what they had. Gun wore out, make it a Kangaroo.

Oh, I wansn't trying to say you could make a early priest out of the kit, but you could have a late Kangaroo. I read in one of my books that the commonwealth troops, once they had the sexton, ripped the 105's out of the priests pretty much on the spot, regardless of age, to use as ammo haulers. Since they were using the sexton's with their more "logistics helpful" ammo, it makes sense....wasteful of a good artillery piece, to geld it like that, but it makes sense...maybe...

So the idea of a late model priest turned kangaroo may not be so out to lunch

Hi Jacques.

The Italeri Kangaroo is pretty much the Priest kit with the gun removed, some US figures added with other stuff!

The British de-frocked Priests made into Kangaroos were early versions of the Priest (not the Italeri kit by far) with the gun removed. I think the armored sides were built higher too. There are photos of later Priest conversions that were command vehicles. Again, from what I can see in the photos, these are Priests with earlier 'features' than the Italeri kit includes.

Italeri took the principle of a defrocked Priest too far, I think!

And Gunnie, I meant photos of the real thing depicted by alterations of the Italeri kit. Your model is sweet though! IN fact, your model is a perfect article on how much work has to be done to get an early Priest!!

Italeri seems to have a habit of using postWar/late war vehicles and marketing them as WW2 versions. The Chaffee (soon to be rereleased), M8, DUKW, Priest, LVT, and M4A176 (post war conversion used as the guide) come to mind. Italeri make some nice kits, but their research is obviously lacking! Of course I have built the M20 and M4A176 for a dio!!

Cheers
Andy

So youa re saying that you do not think that ANY comonwealth units recieved post Normandy Priests, then recieved Sextons and "defrocked" these late-war priests? I know Italeri has a habit of using vehicles that have had post-war mods added to them for the prototype, but the LVT-4 is accurate for late WWII, like the Rhine crossing in Europe, or Iwo Jima in the Pacific EXCEPT for those benches.

Personally, I am just happy to have anything in plastic. Oh, and the Kangaroo kit has a piece or two extra in it. Don't have one handy at the moment to say exactly what, will have to dig one out..

Oh, And I suppose so many do not think of post Normandy as Late war....even though it is. Africa seems like it own little war, and Italy is ALWAYS forgotten. And the pacific had what, two battles involving armor vs. armor...so its off to panther land I guess.

Remember, soon after the D-Day landings all Priests were supposed to be replaced with Sextons. That's why the early Priests were turned into Kangaroos! For whatever reason, the Commonwealth forces went with the 25 pounder SPG (I guess to conform with their towed arty), and that's why the Priests became 'expendable'. So I think it's unlikely that late version Priests would appear in Commonwealth use, and it's even less likely that they'd end up as Kangaroos. Canada was busy producing all those Ram chassis that got used as Kangaroos and Sextons!!




Too true!! The Italian 'sideshow' interests me a lot. Isn't that where the M10 GMC was used by Commonwealth forces more than 17lber TDs? I have been reading one of the older Armes et Militaria titles on the battles in Southern France too. Pretty interesting campaign there also, with little mainstream coverage!

Cheers
Andy

Well Andy, I understand the logic, but I also remember that the US was pumping out more Priests than they ended up using...Again, not to really prop up Italeri here, but I think it is at least POSSIBLE that some of the Later priests ended up as Kangaroo's...I mean they took perfectly good M10's and made them M36's for towing 155's...yeesh.

Oh, and they did it in Italy to boot. I have a pretty interesting rundown inthe WWII vets section of my vehicles website

http://milveh.tripod.com/