Academy M3A1 Stuart, 1/35 Scale

I did a lot of upgrades to this tank and experimented with a number of new techniques. Upgrades includes detailing the interior (most of which can't be seen with the turret in place), adding cabling for the head lights and horn, adding canvas covers for the headlights and machine gun tripod, adding stowage straps to the externally mounted equipment, adding chains to the tie-down straps for the external fuel tanks, adding the anti-grenade covers over air filters, etc.

The external fuel tanks and straps are painted using water pencils. This was my first time using them. I experimented adding grass to the mud effects on the lower chassis. I felt like the oil paint weathering overall was pretty good on this tank but the mud effects covers up most of it, especially on the lower chassis. I found a USMC reference photo of this tank covered in mud and I was trying to mimic the mud effects on the photo but it looks like some of the mud splatter on the upper hull may be a bit too big to be in scale.

Pros about the kit:

• Interior is very detailed
• Comes with both rubber band and link tracks
• Comes with the parts to build the British North Africa "Honey" version, but the decals are not included for it
• Option to have 8 different hatches open to expose the interior
• Comes with numerous spare parts to add to the kit (rucksacks, tool boxes, additional machine guns, etc.)

Cons about the kit:

• Horrible silvering on the decals as you can see on my pics. I could not fix it not matter what I tried. i was actually going to do the 1st AR DIV North Africa version but the yellow star decals completely ripped. These decals are just overall horrible.
• The logo for the 3rd Marine Tank Battalion is a red #3 with a white background. These decals have the colors reversed.
• The external fuel tanks do not include the filling cap. It is a recessed component on the actual tank so you would have to be willing to cut a square hole on the top of your fuel tanks if you want to replicate it. I didn't attempt this level of detailed scratch-building.
• The straps for the external fuel tanks are supposed to be secured with threatbolts. The kit has nothing to simulate the attachment so it looks really weird if you don't add something which is why I put some chains there to tie the straps to the tank frame.
• The kit does not show you where to place the radio rack on the inside of the tank. There are no pins, markers, etc. for its placement. The problem is that if you install the machine gun on the left sponson, you can't install the MG aimed directly forward because the back of the MG will bump against the radio rack. The solution is to install the radio rack all the way against the engine bulkhead in the rear so the MG can fit but that is not accurate so the scale of the parts is not matching somewhere in this area.
• I installed both hatches on the top of the turret in the open position. The instructions do not show what angle they actually should be in the open position and I couldn't find any reference photos of them open so I just guessed that there is a locking mechanism to keep both hatches in the vertical position.
• Kit doesn't include the arms to keep the driver and side hatches in the open position. This was a simple scratch-build fix.

14 additional images. Click to enlarge.