M3A1 Stuart by Academy 1:35 Scale

This one was a struggle. I bought this one randomly from a fellow model club member a few months ago. I got a great deal since it already had an Eduard Photo Etch set inside the box. I was excited to try out PE since I hadn't really done much of it. This kit also had an interior which I found interesting. I had only made one Academy kit before so I was interested to see how this one went together.

The kit itself wasn't too bad. Some of the pieces weren't the best fit, but it was relatively straight forward to put together. The interior is not very detailed compared to other kits, but it is interesting to see that aspect of the vehicle. The markings I chose for this kit are from a tank in the 1st Armored Division in Tunisia in 1942. This tank was captured by the Germans. I have included the reference photo I found.

The issues with this build arose from trying to incorporate hundreds of small PE details. Most of them seemed pointless. They were either details inside the tank that cannot ever be seen or they were just too small to even be noticeable. When I did decide to include a PE piece, my lack of skill and experience with PE led to a lot of frustration. I eventually came to the conclusion that I would be abandoning most of the PE to save my sanity. The amount of time I spent trying to get the PE done distracted me from the fundamentals of the rest of the kit. So, this is not my best work overall. I should have not done the PE and just focused on getting a good build, paint, and decal application. I did end up painting the yellow lines to avoid having to deal with fitting decals around the turret. That at least turn out well.

One extra little thing I did, which was probably a distraction as well, was put an LED light on the inside of the cabin. Was it necessary to add this for viewing the inside? Probably not, but it was fun and looks cool to me. I hid the battery in the engine compartment and drilled a hole in the bottom of the hull to allow access to the switch.

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.