How did we move from a "new" Airfix 1/35 British M3 and some possible conversions to US M5/T8? The two are not related. Guess I missed that part. Bottom line, glad Airfix is picking up this "old" Academy M3 kit. It still has a lot to offer. There is no other "competing" styrene M3 kit on the market, so unless you want to scratch build or go way after market, this is it. There is no comparison with the M5 series. Different engines, different transmissions, different vehicles altogether. Let's get back on target here folks. VR, Russ[/quote] If you bothered to read the thread rather than butting into the middle you would have seen someone ask if this kit would be appropriate for a recon track used in Europe by the British. I said it was. But someone who doesn't particularly like the Academy kit veered off into the T8E1 just because the Afv-club M5 kit is so much better. And I responded that the T8E1 and the British "chargers" both existed so you don't need to sell your house to invest in two resin sets and an Afv-club club kit. Rather than adding some seats and a British radio to the Airfix Stuart kit for one of the chargers used as early as the desert. But you skipped that and didn't notice the clear segues in the thread. Tongue firmly in cheek. Just feeling silly. just trying to answer a new guy's question and instead getting into something else entirely. The discussion and photos of Stuart and Valentine "chargers" came up in a thread I was following on Twitter and thought I'd share what I'd learned in response to a question. I'll go to the corner and hang my head in shame now. [/quote] Now, I'm being accused of saying that the AFV CLUB M5A1 is better than the ACADEMY US M3A1/M3 "Honey" kits. I said no such thing. I did say that the AFV CLUB M5A1 is a better starting point with which to build a T8E1, which the British also used in Northwestern Europe, 1944... I never said that the ACADEMY Stuarts were bad kits; my implication was that IMO, they could have been better. If the ACADEMY Stuarts are so good, why did Joe Bakanovic over at TMD bother to come out and produce Lower and Upper Hull replacements, Turret replacements, Main Gun Mantlet replacements with Barrels and a complete "Honey" interior for the ACADEMY kits, then..? THAT'S why I resorted to the TMD Conversion sets for my M5, my M5A1s and my TMD M8 HMC nearly-full-resin-kit. Joe also suggested using the AFV CLUB #35053 M3/M5/M5A1/M8 HMC Stuart Suspension sets for the ACADEMY Stuarts, which I did with ALL of my ACADEMY Stuarts. The ACADEMY Road-wheels and Rear Idlers have incorrectly-shaped "lightening holes", and the Rear Idler "Carrier"'(?- terminology..?) is also improperly executed. The Upper and Lower Hulls aren't "right", either. Turret needs work, or replacement. These things may not matter to some people, but it does to me... I certainly wasn't going to waste my time and money on re-building any of the old and completely-wrong TAMIYA #35042 M3A1 Stuart kits, so I used what was available back then, namely the ACADEMY Stuart kits. THIS was "a labor of love" in all cases: (British M3A1 Stuart III with "full" (Valentine-style) Sand Shields, USMC M3A1 Stuart (Early) with Commander's Cupola"- Guadalcanal, US Army M3A1 Stuart (Late)- just prior to the "Kasserine-debacle"...) The ACADEMY-soon-to-also-be AIRFIX Stuarts won't be BAD kits, but the ACADEMY Stuarts have their issues, and if the AIRFIX Stuarts are going to be 100% re-boxings, then... We already know that AIRFIX will be including new decals in their "Honey" kit. Likely they'll also include new decals in the rest of their re-boxed ACADEMY kits. What remains to be seen, is whether AIRFIX will "tweak" or replace some of the "less-than-perfect" parts in these re-boxings. I understand that the ACADEMY early and late Hetzers will also be re-boxed by AIRFIX- I've only built a couple of the ancient DML/SHANGHAI DRAGON Hetzers and one of TAMIYA's. Can anyone tell me how well the ACADEMY Hetzers compare to the TAMIYA kits? I'm still curious as to why THUNDER MODEL hasn't released a proper set of Hetzers to compliment their "Kaetzchen" and their early and late Bergepanzer-Hetzer kits..? I did make one mistake and one omission, also by mistake- The VERLINDEN Conversion sets for the T8E1 were labeled by VERLINDEN as being for the TAMIYA M5A1 kit, not the AFV CLUB M5A1. In any case, I used the AFV CLUB M5A1 to build my T8E1, along with the pertinent VERLINDEN M5A1 Conversion and Interior sets. There was some "finagling" that I had to do in order to make the VERLINDEN parts fit the AFV CLUB M5A1, but the end-result was well worth it. The AFV CLUB M5A1 is not without a few faults of its own- Once again, it's TMD to the rescue. I won't go into detail, because I've already "hijacked this thread" enough. Suffice to say, that if I differ in my opinions with a few of the modelers in this thread, so be it... If we all had the same opinions, what a sorry lot of penguins we would be... VR, Dennis

Dennis, I'm yanking your chain. Poking you in the ribs with a wink and a nod. Honestly I have Academy and Tamiya Stuart's because I can't afford the Afv-club kits.

Awww, Steve!!! You know it's kidders like YOU that cause UNREST in this world!!!

You do get 3 flying hours

How did we move from a "new" Airfix 1/35 British M3 and some possible conversions to US M5/T8? The two are not related. Guess I missed that part. Bottom line, glad Airfix is picking up this "old" Academy M3 kit. It still has a lot to offer. There is no other "competing" styrene M3 kit on the market, so unless you want to scratch build or go way after market, this is it. There is no comparison with the M5 series. Different engines, different transmissions, different vehicles altogether. Let's get back on target here folks. VR, Russ[/quote] If you bothered to read the thread rather than butting into the middle you would have seen someone ask if this kit would be appropriate for a recon track used in Europe by the British. I said it was. But someone who doesn't particularly like the Academy kit veered off into the T8E1 just because the Afv-club M5 kit is so much better. And I responded that the T8E1 and the British "chargers" both existed so you don't need to sell your house to invest in two resin sets and an Afv-club club kit. Rather than adding some seats and a British radio to the Airfix Stuart kit for one of the chargers used as early as the desert. But you skipped that and didn't notice the clear segues in the thread. Tongue firmly in cheek. Just feeling silly. just trying to answer a new guy's question and instead getting into something else entirely. The discussion and photos of Stuart and Valentine "chargers" came up in a thread I was following on Twitter and thought I'd share what I'd learned in response to a question. I'll go to the corner and hang my head in shame now. [/quote] Stephen, You’ve misunderstood completely. Or perhaps I have. And I have indeed read every word of this thread (to my everlasting misfortune). You and Dennis are so busy talking past each other you’ve lost track of the fact this thread started with an announcement of an Airfix 1/35 M3 (AKA Academy). We started with the merits (and demerits) of this “new” kit. And we’ve somehow delved into a discussion of Stuart derivative command vehicles. And just to show you I was paying attention, the original poster asked about M3 command vehicles in the ETO, and your response was yes, but you clearly used the MTO as an example (they could also be found in the CBI by the way). Dennis jumped right on with “only” the M5/T8 was in the ETO. Then proceeded to tell us about M5 derivatives. Which brings me to my “butt-in”, and Robin’s creative attempt to get us back on the subject at hand with a little humor. But you guys missed it. It may not have occurred to either of you there are those here who would like to pick your brains about how to build this M3 kit (by the way Eduard makes a nice PE detail set for it) (these are apples) rather than arguing the merits of command vehicles (which are oranges). I’m currently waiting in a hospital for my wife to recover from a four hour surgery. I was hoping to see we were back on track with the merits or demerits of the kit but since were not, I’ll “butt out” rather than in. Maybe somebody will do a useful build article on this kit. Apologies for any ruffled feathers in advance. Very Respectfully, Russ

The distinction between MTO and ETO as far as units and equipment is totally spurious. The depot I saw pictures of was for vehicles from all the theaters. Anyway I wrote a long winded post about imagination and boxes and blinders but fortunately a mistaken stroke on my phone's screen sent me off to a link and the post blessedly vanished. I really hoped I could light a candle in the darkness, but some insist on blowing it out. I'm going to go back to trolling and not commenting. We'll all be much better off, some wallowing in their blessed ignorance and others well, its quite beyond me to say anymore. Every once in a while look in the corner and I'll still be there head down in shame but don't look too close or you'll see the sly grin and jesters hat.

Stephen, I'm not asking you to quit commenting (or Dennis either for that matter) on model building. As you've said, you've built the kit as an M3 (I'm not sure if Dennis has or not-- what I've got from his posts is he's "replaced" a lot of the kit, and likes the AFV club M5 and AFV Club aftermarket better (Apples vs Oranges) So, please let us know what you think--about the kit. it's frustrating when we launch into back-and-forth discussions on this modeling site about subjects that may be historically related, but off topic. I admit I'm guilty of this too, and have to "check myself" occasionally. Your expertise (and Dennis') is appreciated, let's just put it to use in discussing the subject at hand. I've built the kit, and have another one in my stash. I don't find it "unacceptable" on the shelf. But there are things that can be improved too-- I'd like to know what others think. There are a lot of features that make it appealing (and even useful), like the separate track links and accessories--and even the slab sided turret. And like you, I'm happy Airfix is breaking into 1/35 scale Armor with it. Just because someone makes an aftermarket set for it doesn't mean it's rubbish. It may be a great starting point for something (as you've alluded to) or useful in a diorama. But let's stop talking about oranges while we're standing in the apple orchard. Has anyone used the Eduard set to improve it? Are there pitfalls there? VERY Respectfully, Russ

I didn't use any photoetch as I'm "photoetch free since 2003" But that didn't stop me from looking at them intently. They follow the previous Tamiya Stuart set and really dress up all the external fittings which are bland in the Academy kits. There are other sets for the interior but such interior detailing that I will never see after the top is on. The kit interior is only right for an M3A1 or the so-called M3 hybrid (M3A1 turret on an M3 hull) with turret basket. But this has been gone over again and again since the kit's release. Have a AMPs Boresight article on it. I can easily do at least another two Academy Stuart's, I have so many markings for them. My Honey will have the hatches all open and crew sitting inside. Lots of hacking necessary to do that. No one makes crew for kits with interiors except a couple of Germans. I should post pictures but I'm up to my neck with my New Jersey National Guard project. I really know the Academy and Italeri M4A3E8 now in comparison to the new Dragon one. The M3 Stuart had the interior started to test fit the figures. My M3A1 without the interior practically built itself.

Now we are talking! Yes, I see what you mean about the turret basket-- the original had the high transmission driveline tunnel and didn't have a basket. And I'm not sure I'm following you on your earlier comment about the rivets (behind the storage boxes?). I built mine with hatches closed for the drive line reason, but there is an Early M3A1 without the basket at my local ANG base, and the interior is viewable (in very sad shape) without the turret basket. I've been tempted to scratchbuild the driveline tunnel based on measurements from that display. It wouldn't be that hard to do, I don't think, and when crew are in place, you couldn't see much anyway. I have both the Eduard PE sets (M3 and M3A1 for this kit, but it's been so long since I looked at them I've forgotten what they offer (and they are in storage someplace too), I'm wondering if there's something there for that driveline tunnel. I hope Airfix has this kit at a lower price point. I know Hobby Lobby carries Airfix kits now, maybe they'll pick this one up. How about color schemes? The old Academy boxing has the grey/blue/sand "Caunter" and OD scheme, but this boxing looks like it's something else. I've never seen that style before-- anyone have an answer? VR, Russ