Tamiya M8 Greyhound

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

Here is my latest project.

This is a Tamiya 1/35 kit, built out of the box with the addition of a figure to keep the single kit included figure company, and a set of Italeri fuel cans.

The vehicle is washed with Raw Umber, more heavily on the front and tapering off to the rear, as well as a very light dusting of pastels in an attempt to bring forth a “highlighting” effect.

This was a fun build, usual Tamiya quality.

Your comments, suggestions, and constructive critiques are welcomed.

Thank you for looking in, PWB.

2

Awesome. I like the weathering details, very nicely done.

3

Well if you do build this kit again pick up a M20 armoured car which Tamiya also makes. The M20 kit has a couple sprues which have 37mm ammo which are a leftover from when it was originally packaged with the M8 so you can take the ammo from the M20 which will give you a additional 6 rounds for the ready rack for 12 rounds in a 18 round ready rack.

4

Nice Build & presentation. Thanks for sharing.

Regards, Rick

5

Nice clean build. Here are a couple of tips…

The US small style tail lights are red on top of drivers side and black on top passenger side.

A weapon like the 37mm gun with its verticle breech block…the block will be polished steel, the breech many time will be a dull steel.

The floor under the turret looks OD…the interior for US WWII vehicles is white

Keep on plugging…nice work

Rounds Complete!!

6

Thanks for posting your pics. May I point out a few things?

  1. The inside faces of the hatches were olive drab. As you have yours, it screams “see me” to the enemy.

  2. When opened, the front armor plates for the drivers laid flat against the glacis. I know that Tamiya makes it a little difficult but you can jimmy it in there.

Look fwd to your next model

7

Looks pretty good none-the-less. What did you drybrush with? I’ve heard either a lighter shade or tan. I’m unsure of it myself.

I like that seated figure. Great job.

8

Roger,

A nice model all in all. The paint tone looks much better than the last model, in that the OD shade is not overpowered with wash.

The other guys have already pointed out the hatches color–that can be easily fixed. My main critiques will address the base and presentation.

In my opinion, a model–if it is decided that it will be placed in-situ, that is, displayed in a setting or on a base–can either have its impressiveness improved, or diminished by the setting as it is rendered. In other words, I believe that one should try to put the same effort and standards into the base as into the model itself. In that regard, I feel like your base could use some work to bring it up to the standard of your fine model.

It appears that this base is the bottom of something like a model car display case? In that case, you have to be creative, as a lack of depth behooves you to be creative in your placement of the model. Most experienced diorama builders will tell you to try to avoid placing your model in direct parallel lines with the edges of the base. Of course, as you can’t really do that here, you could get creative about inferring a “skewed” placement of the model.

Your “dirt” could look better.It is without definition in terms of tire tracks, ruts, etc–things you would see on a normal road. Also, the uniform color could be broken up by a border on one side of grass powder. And if that line of grass is made to skew slightly beneath the vehicle, it would give the illusion that the model is off-center—a good thing, IMO.

Try putting in tire tracks, even footprints–your “dirt” looks like something like mud, (maybe it’s the irregular borders?) yet there are no traces of the elements trodding upon it. Also, your model is “floating” of the surface–a heavy vehicle would sink into the ground in reality. Also, you might add some kind of vegetation somewhere to break up the monotone color?

Hope this gets you thinking! The model is nicely done–but the base could help to flatter it more, IMO.

9

I want to thank you all for looking in.

‘Mikeym us’, I mulled over the 2 versions. It would have ben nice if they would have included a few more rounds. I guess they wanted to give it that “been on patrol” feel.

‘T26E4’, There wasn’t any painting instructions for the interior side of the doors, so I just followed the rest of the interior wall theme. The doors did actually lay down flat, but there was no clue given in the instruction sheet as to the resting point, so I decided to stop them at that point. It’ll be easy enough to make both changes.

,redleg12’, Thank you for pointing out the breech color. There was nothing in the instruction sheet regarding that one. I just hope I can get in there without splotching it up too bad. The box showed both lights as red, but again, an easy enough fix. The box also showed the floor to be OD, which made sense to me given the fact that it is so visible through the open top turrent.

‘the doog’ Thank you for your critiques on the base. You are right, I like to put them in an enclosed case, mainly to keep from having to dust them, but also to make a little “base” rather than just put it on a stark shelf. I get what you say about the “float”. The dirt is from my front yard and laid down with Woodland Scenics spray glue, which has dried to a cement like finish. I did that far ahead of actually finishing the model. I do want it to sit slightly askew, but that was the only angle that got all the wheels on the ground.

Again, this is an easy enough fix by doing another layer of dirt and “grooming” it with wheel tracks and footprints while still wet, as well as the “grass” additions you suggested.

My thanks to you for your suggestions/critiques. Thanks to ALL of you. Your comments have been very helpful and I am most appreciative of your input. I’ll be back with the updates soon.

Regards, PWB.