M3 Lee

[lmcq11]

Hello,
I thought some people would be interested by the M3 Lee I did earlier in the year.

I started with a Vandra kit sold on ebay. There are many things that needs to be corrected or added to make it look good. I do not know where they got the master for the kit turret but it is way too small and wrong. It is missing the small turret for the machine gun too. The tank also seems to be based on a late M3 model without the right side door, humm... My first armor kit was a Monogram 1/32 M3 Lee (remember that fabulous Shep Paine diorama sheet) so a M3 with 2 side doors was important to me. And of course, there is no M3 suspension provided or T51 tracks available on the market, that I know of. But the Vandra kit provides a solid base that allows guys like me to finally have an M3.

Starting with the turret, a plasticard sheet was added to the side (all around) to beef it up a bit and make it bigger, with a small angle towards the top where lots of putty will make it merge with the turret top. It looks better. The machine gun turret was scratch built. Machine guns are from Tamiya.

I wanted an early M3 so I scratch built the right door using the left door as a model, and reusing the resin side vision cut out of the armor plate.

The M3 suspension bogies were made by carving them out of the Heng Long M4 bogies with Dremel and blades. Each bogie taking a couple of hours for sure. I also carved the inside of the road wheels. I also shaved off the chevron of every track link in a attempt to make them look like T51 tracks. I know the whole thing is weird and not perfect but it looks good when standing 5 feet away. Anyway, it is better than having an M3 with M4 suspension.

I did not find an obvious way to bring movement to the 3 turrets and guns. It would have required robotic material and expertise that I do not have. It would have been amazing but my patience had reached its limits with this one... It's a shelf queen.

Regards,
Louis

[leopardgreece]

Very very nice Mr Lee tank , very nice job.

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[PainlessWolf]

Good morning,
Your dedication to the Hobby really shows with the effort put into this kit to bring it up a realistic version of the M3. Shaving the tracks down alone is worthy of accolades. You've gone the extra mile in modifying the bogies and road wheels. The upper turret looks great! It does not even look like it has had extra plastic and filler added. There are new versions of the kit on the market that have electrics added for the 75mm main gun to elevate and fire as well as the 37mm on the upper turret. Don't give up on having this tank run. You've come very far with the detailing already.
regards,
Painless

[c.rainford73]

You are an artist super job on this unique piece of armour Over the top details!

[greengiant]

Excellent looking tank you've built. Nice light weathering job to.

[frankie]

Here's a link to the Grant kit with the elevation/rotation. Not sure if it's worth 2 1/2 times the Vandra kit though...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322191961055

[Ecam]

Love the tracks, what a great, simple way to change the look of stock tracks. Edit....not saying the sanding of of 160 plus track pieces was simple or easy. Great M3

[tomhugill]

Here's a link to the Grant kit with the elevation/rotation. Not sure if it's worth 2 1/2 times the Vandra kit though...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322191961055

They were £120 odd before! Some intresting pricing going on there

[Bogeyman]

Very very nice, great job.

John

[ausf]

Beautiful work.