I’m assuming WWI is it’s time frame, but no idea more than that.
I’ve never done armor before - at all…but a cool kit like this would drag me down into the dark depths of it in no time I’m certain! [:D] I really like the old look of the wheels and that turn of the century ‘gears and pulleys’ kind of feel it seems to have (at least to me).
Any other tanks like this one you can reccomend? Makers?
That is an M3 Stewart tank of WWII vintage, was a pre-war design that proved ineffective due to light armor and small caliber armament and was pretty much outdated after north Africa in 1943.
It’s an M3 Stuart. WW2 light tank developed from the 30’s line of cavalry vehicles. Academy makes a pretty good kit.
Give in to the Darkside - Resistance is futile ! [:-,]
Well! Shows how much I know about armor doesn’t it! [(-D] I think what attracts me about this particular design is it’s compactness and then the detail in the wheels. It will DEFINITELY be one I look into for a future project. Any suggestions as far as makers and aftermarket details??
AFV Club is out of Taiwan. They make some pretty good kits, others are Academy kits with some of their own bits tossed in.
The AFV Club version is the M3A3 and a rather late war version. The model you mention in your posted photo is the old Tamiya M3A1 Stuart. Either Academy Stuart will build into a US variant.
The Stuart was used throughout the war in the Pacific, some variants even saw service in the early stages of Vietnam (M8 HMC). I believe they were even used in the wars in Central America in the 1960-70s.
WOW again! History just pourin’ out of my computer today! I think this is one of the things that really attracts me (and probably most of you too) to modeling. Next question - anyone have a definitive guess as to how many variants of this particular tank were produced? I see the name “Honey” attached to some…I assume this was yet another variant?
The British inititally received early M3s and officially called the entire M3/M5 light tank series “Stuarts”. The crews called them “Honeys” because, unlike British armor of the day, they were extremely reliable and easy to work on (as in “a honey of a tank”).
Here are production numbers:
M3: 5811 (500 diesel engined)
M3A1: 4621 (211 diesel ")
M3A2: all welded M3A1 (included in the above totals)
M3A3: 3427
Some of the early vehicles had riveted hulls and a flat sided riveted turret, later vehicles had a cast turret and welded hulls. The M5 was basically similar to the M3A3 but with twin V8 engine (Cadillacs). They skipped the M4 designation to avoid confusion with the Sherman.
Brian, “locally”, about all we’ve got here is in Salt Lake. Great Models, if you want to mail order it, or can go down between 9 and 5, M-F, or Douglas Models. They were on 33rd So and about 21st East, but they are moving either this week or next. Both would have AFV Club, Academy, or Tamiya. You can check out Great Models website and search for M3 or Stuart. The US also called versions of them the Grant and the Lee. I drive down to Douglas at least every other week. Let me know if you’d like to ride with me sometime.
You can get a Sherman too if the wheels are what attract you… They were the workhorse US Army tanks of WWII and had a similar suspension look. No rivets though.
They were much different. The old WW1 tanks tended to be either “land battleships”, slow and cumbersome bristling with guns or the smaller two-man (driver/gunner) turreted type that was basically a mobile machine gun.
The Marines liked the M3 because of it’s small size that allowed to crawl around in jungle terrain easier than the Sherman and that it had three 30 cal.s and the fifty cal. The Japanese didn’t have a lot of armor to deal with so the 37mm gun was no real short coming. I think there was a flame thrower version, too. It was named after J.E.B. Stuart, R.E. Lee’s cavalry leader.
The tank used in the movie is loosely based on the British MK VI tank. It was mainly a movie prop that was built for the film from scratch. Here is a link to more info on it: http://www.indygear.com/props/motorv.shtml Scroll down to the tank.
