US Medium Tank M3 Lee
by Cookie Sewell
Summary
Stock Number and Description |
Academy (MRC) Kit No. 13206; US Medium Tank
M3 Lee |
Scale: |
1/35 |
Media and Contents: |
413 parts (411 in dark green styrene, 2
steel color vinyl track runs) |
Price: |
retail price US $42.00 |
Review Type: |
First Look |
Advantages: |
Corrects most of the glaring errors in the
Tamiya kit; provides wide option array of parts or spare parts; comes
with nearly complete interior less engine |
Disadvantages: |
Odd choice of parts breakdown for kit
causes some problems; turret has an overstated bump giving an odd shape;
errors in other parts and some essential parts missing |
Recommendation: |
Recommended for all Shermaholics and early
war US armor fans |
FirstLook
The M3 Medium Tank has always enjoyed a quirky sort of popularity,
primarily for the fact that it was one of those pre-war tank designs
with "tiered" armament – a 75mm gun in a sponson on the right side
of the hull, a 37mm gun in a rotating turret on the hull roof, and a
.30 caliber machine in a rotating cupola on top of the turret. While
the sponson-mounted gun was a matter of convenience adopted to speed
conversion from the woefully inadequate M2 Medium Tank to the M3, it
would take combat experience and the much improved M4 design to fix
most of the problems with the M3 design. The Soviets accepted them
under Lend-Lease, but soon nicknamed them "The communal grave for
seven" due to the problems they faced against German armor. Even so,
more than 6,000 were built in six separate series plus a special
model for the British, the Grant.
Perhaps no other kit has been as eagerly awaited by American and
British armor modeling fans as the new M3 series from Academy, but
even before the kit was released a number of "experten" were making
negative comments about it on the Internet. Most of the comments
were due to the fact that the box art was drawn using the old Tamiya
kit with most of its errors prominent in the painting.
Now that the kit is here, and can actually be evaluated for what it
is and what it is not, there are some changes in viewpoints. WHAT IT
IS: a freshly molded kit, providing an early model M3 tank without
grouser boxes, driver's periscope, and counterweights for the guns,
with the kit's directions showing the use of the early suspension
bogies with the roller on top, five-spoke welded wheels, and what
appears to be T41 reversible block rubber track. WHAT IT IS NOT: a
totally accurate model of the M3 Lee, as it will require some work
on the part of the modeler to fix or correct some of the niggling
little details that are not spot on.
The kit comes as another "mix and match" sprue kit. The wheels are
from the standard "Sherman Series" from Academy (sprue A) and
provide two types of wheels, two types of drivers, two types of
idlers, and the "flattop" return roller mounts with pillow blocks.
This is essentially there to provide the VVSS springs and the
five-spoke road wheels, and they are very good parts indeed. The new
mounts with rollers on top (D47527 bogies) and a third set of
drivers are provided on one of the kit's dedicated sprues.
The rest of the kit is new, but for every step forward the kit takes
it makes a few sidesteps. First off, the lower hull is one piece
less the stern and transmission cover, but now has a large oval hole
in the belly. This is bizarre, as it serves no purpose. The floor
unit for the interior (part C1) has a similar sized oval projection
on it for positive alignment, but anyone wanting belly detail will
have to putty this in and sand it smooth; likewise, if you want a
later production version of an M3, you will have to add the escape
hatch (which is molded on the inner floor but not the outer hull.)
Note that due to the thickness of the center of the hull floor it
tends to suffer from sink marks, but when painted flat white and
under all of the rest of the "kit" inside the hull it should not be
a problem.
The interior is fairly complete, and detail hawks will probably only
want to add some wiring and etched brass to complete it. The guns
are provided complete and the 75mm gun comes with correctly shaped
barrels for either the early M2 (short) or later M3 (long) guns.
However, no counterweight is provided for a transitional gun (M2
with stabilizer). The gun barrels are "slide molded" with hollow
bores, as is the turret 37mm gun.
The interior comes with some more oddities. 48 rounds of 37mm are
provided as single rounds, which is pretty much correct as they were
clipped to the inside of the turret wherever they could find space.
75mm rounds are only provided as rims on one locker with an optional
position lid; also, a tray with 24 50-round Thompson drums is
provided with the locker. While this is correct, the Thompson is not
provided!
The driver's position is pretty complete as well, straddling the
transmission and driveshaft, and the complete turret basket is also
provided. Unfortunately, and as I have looked inside of one of these
tanks, once the turret basket is in place it is nearly impossible to
see anything of the interior! Note that these parts also have a
number of ejection pin marks on them as well, which may have to be
cleaned up; however, as awkward as cleaning them up will be, they
are all pretty much invisible once the model is assembled.
The model also comes with optional position rear access doors on the
stern plate and a separate engine access plate on the engine deck.
Underneath it the kit provides the fuel tanks and other rudimentary
parts for the engine bay, but no engine. This is probably just as
well, for the kit comes with a solid grating over the engine air
intake vent on the engine deck which, due to the open nature of the
original, should be replaced with coarse mesh. Unfortunately, when
this is done you can see the engine and driveshaft connection on the
original, which is not provided with this kit.
The kit provides the early pattern of mufflers and stern plate, but
this was quickly replaced or modified due to problems with heat
venting. Modified tanks had plates welded over the mufflers (one
common problem for American tanks up through the M48A3 and M60 was
the fact that the gas engines made the mufflers glow cherry red in
the dark, and aside from the problems of heat and injury to crew
members and infantry also gave away the tank's position at night)
and two types of new exhausts, the more familiar one being the
"fishtails" under the center of the plate and the air cleaners moved
to where the mufflers used to be. While I have heard the kit's
mufflers are not right, they do appear to match up with the photos
in the Hunnicutt book among others.
The turret is somewhat odd. There is a large rectangular projection
right under the commander's cupola projection; surprisingly, I did
find a match in the Hunnicutt book on pages 72-73; however, this is
on the prototype M3A2 welded hull tank. But the projection and the
cupola mount are more fared into each other, and thus if the turret
is used it will need some putty to smooth out the upper joint line
contours. There is limited evidence it was another design produced
for the tank, but seems relatively rare in photos. Your alternative
is to either sand off the projection and file an undercut into the
turret or use a resin kit like the Armoured Brigade turret to
replace it. However, also note that the turret face has been
"inverted" from a 47 degree angle to a 43 degree one.
The turret details look to be far better than the Tamiya one (which
had the gun barrel in the wrong place among other sins). The
interior is cramped and probably not very visible through the open
cupola hatch, however.
The tank carries all four machine guns (two hull, turret and cupola)
and all are nicely done, being of the same quality as those found in
the Academy machine gun set. However, not one of them comes with an
ammunition box or container.
Hull details are not bad, but the tools seem a bit anemic and it is
hoped somebody can produce decent injection molded tools for kits
someday. Right now it takes an aftermarket resin or brass set, or
stripping another kit with more robust tools, to give American armor
the right look.
The kit comes with two finishing options, both from the 1st Armored
Division in Tunisia; "Kentucky" at Souk-el Khemis 1942 (yellow stars
and trim on OD) and "After Effect" in Bizerte, May 1943 (white stars
on OD).
Overall, and considering I personally gave MRC my copy of the
Ordnance Plans for an M3 and escorted their photographer around APG
while he shot 300+ photos of M3s at Aberdeen, this kit is not bad,
but a bit disappointing that it could not have been spot-on. It will
take some work to correct the errors, but for the most part they are
relatively minor.
Recommended
Thanks to
Bob Lewen of MRC for the review sample.
Text and Images by
Cookie Sewell
Page Created 24 March, 2006
Page Last Updated
17 May, 2006
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