Academy 1/35 M3 Stuart 'Honey' By Dave Manter

History

The M3 series was designed to replace the aging M2 series of US light tanks. Many improvements were incorporated into the new design. The key improvements were the new trailing idler wheel which increased track ground contact, which helped distribute the weight of the vehicle, the internal mounting of the 37mm gun recuperator assembly, and the relocation of the mufflers under an armored overhang on the rear of the tank.

The first M3 left the assembly line in March 1941. A total of 5,811 M3 tanks where built until production stopped in August 1942. The British received the M3’s under the Lend-Lease program in June of 1941 and named the tank “General Stuart”. The tank’s ability to shoot and move coupled with the highly reliable engine and the absolute reluctance to throw the tracks off lead the British tank crews to nickname the tank “Honey”. The 37mm M6 gun was adequate early on in the North African Campaign, but by early 1942 the tank was outgunned by its German counterparts. After this the tank was relegated to scouting and reconnaissance operations.

Overview

The kit contains 697 parts plus the rubber track links. Included with the kit are individual track links accounting for 424 of the 697 parts. Also included is a partial interior. The parts are molded in a softer than normal tan plastic with virtually no flash. The individual links are molded in black. Detail is crisp throughout. Many accessory parts are also included. The rubber tracks are very well molded and feature space between the rubber blocks. A piece of string is included for the tow cable. The instruction sheet is very well laid out and is broken down into 7 steps. Decals for 4 vehicles, including 2 British, 1 American, and a captured Japanese tank, are included. Registration is perfect and the colors are solid. Many parts are included that are not used for this version, so others can be expected.

Construction

Step 1 begins in the typical tank fashion with the assembly of the road wheels and suspension components. After cutting several parts from the trees I discovered that the plastic used in this kit was softer than normal. I really liked this as it cut down clean up time by about half! After cleaning up each piece, I began to assemble the road wheels and these fit wonderfully. The rear trailing arms, parts J5, J6, J7, and J8, required a small amount of putty on the front face to cover the seam line. This will be very visible after the tank is finished so a little extra time is worthwhile here. The front drive sprockets fit very nice and do not have to be glued on. This will make it easier to install the rubber tracks later if you use them. The rear hull plate and tow hooks were installed next with no problems. I left the radio out for painting later.

Step 2, Step 3, and Step 4 are the assembly of the interior components. The really nice feature of this interior is that it can all be seen if you leave the driver and hull gunners hatches opened. Parts fit again was superb. Part C21, the 37mm shells, have a knockout pin mark right in the center of them and they do need filled, as they will be visible after assembly. After the interior set overnight it was time to paint. I began by spraying Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey into all of the recesses and corners as a preshading color. This was then followed up by over spraying with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White. This was mixed up really thin, about 80% thinner, so as not to cover up the grey color. Detail painting was done by brush. After the paint had set, I gave the entire interior a wash of Van Dyke Brown and Lamp Black oil paint. This toned down the stark white color. This wash also tones down the preshading. A few small paint scuffs were added with a silver artist pencil. The radio was painted and installed at this time. For those of you who want to, the option of super detailing is wide open here!

Step 5 and 6 are the assembly of the upper hull. All parts again fit excellent and offered no problems. Parts C2 attach to the sand skirts and are for the British versions only. These were put on at field depots to be used as attachment points for camouflage pieces that made the Stuarts look like trucks from the air. As they were thin sheet metal they did not last long under combat conditions. Most of my reference photos do not show them so I left them off. If you do not use them, you will have to remove the guide marks from parts B55. You also have to decide if you want to open the front hatches or not. If you model these hatches open, you will have to fill in 4 knockout pin marks on part B46.

After the upper hull is detailed it is time to decide which version of tracks you are going to use. I assembled the rubber tracks first with the old heated screw drive trick and put them on the tank. They fit really tight and you need to be careful that you do not break the rear-trailing arm off. If you left the drive sprockets loose, the fitting of the tracks will be much easier as you can rotate the drive sprocket as you put the tracks on. Once they are on they look very nice and should be more than adequate after they are painted. I opted for the individual links because I like the realistic track sag between the return rollers. Keep in mind that if you are building the British version with the sand skirts, not much of the top section will be seen. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on these, as there are 6 pieces per every 2 links of track!

Each of the rubber shoes is attached to the tree by 3 points and 2 points attach each end connector. I opted to paint the track parts while they were still attached to the tree. I found that the best way to remove the parts was to start out with a fresh scalpel blade. If you are careful, you can remove the parts and not have to do any more clean up before you can put them together. I ended up using 66 links per side and that left enough links for a couple of spare track sections. 66 links per side translate into 196 pieces per side or 392 total track pieces! Please pause with me as I uncross my eyes! Please note that I left the tracks off until I base painted the hull. The upper hull was then attached to the lower hull.

Step 7 consists of the turret assembly. The 37mm M6 gun is very nice and again all parts fit incredibly well. Part A7 is the commanders hatch and if you model this in the open position, you will need to remove 4 knockout pin marks that are on the inside of the hatch. The final step is the assembly of the commander’s 30-caliber machine gun and it is a work of art.

Painting

Painting begins with spraying Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab along the lower hull and around the lower front and rear panels. After this was done I sprayed the tank with Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow for my base coat. I left this to set overnight and then proceeded to mask off the hull for the next color of the camouflage. I did this with Tamiya Masking tape. This tape is super thin and uses a low tack adhesive that will not lift paint off. After the masking was done I sprayed Tamiya XF-18 Medium Blue, as this was a close match to the box art.

After this was applied, I mixed up XF-18 Medium Blue with 30% Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and applied this in a cloud pattern for a very faded look. The turret was painted with this mix also. The next step was to remove the masking tape and re-apply it in the reverse pattern so that I could fade the Desert Yellow color. For this I mixed up XF-59 Desert Yellow with 50% XF-57 Buff. I used the Buff instead of white to lighten the yellow because white tends to make lighter colors look pasty.

After this was sprayed I set the hull aside and masked off the top of the turret. The top was sprayed with Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green and faded with Tamiya XF-49 Khaki. The inside of the commander’s hatch and the lower drivers hatch were painted with these colors also. All of the tanks details, such as the road wheels, machine gun barrels and headlights were painted at this time.

After setting overnight, the tank was ready for the first steps in the weathering process. I began this by applying a very thin wash of Lamp Black oil paint to the entire tank. This step tones down all of the airbrushed paint fading and gives an even surface to the model. After about 20 minutes I began to apply a “pin wash” to all of the raised and recessed detail. I used both Van Dyke Brown and Indian Red oil paint for this. After an hour or so, I mixed up several dry brush colors and picked out all of the raised detail with them. Each camouflage color was dry brushed separately.

This kit features superb detailing and careful painting accentuates this. As I did this with oil paint, the model was again set-aside for 24 hours. While this paint was drying I painted all of the accessories that would be put on the tank. I did this with Vallejo acrylics as this paint brushes better than any thing else I have tried. The next step was to spray a gloss coat on the areas where the decals would go. I did this with Future floor polish as this works very quick and easy.

Once this was dried, I applied the decals and they settled down very nicely with a coat or two of Micro Sol. The white areas were a little thin, but the final weathering step would cover this. After drying for several hours, I sprayed a flat coat over the decals to blend them into the paint. I then mixed up Tamiya XF-57 Buff and XF-2 Flat White in a 60/40 mix. This was thinned by about 80% with Tamiya Thinner. This mix was airbrushed over the lower hull and the track links to give the model a dusty look. This was also used to tone down the bright colors of the decals. One very nice thing with the Tamiya paint when mixed up this thin is that you can put on several coats and not cover up the colors underneath. The last step was to attach all of the accessories to the tank.

Conclusion

This is a very nice and a long awaited kit. The Tamiya M3 kit has been around for 20 plus years and while it does build into a nice tank; it takes a lot of extras to make it so. I added the Verlinden update set, the Eduard photo-etch set, Archer Dry Transfers, and the AFV Club individual track links as well as many resin accessories to mine just to give it an up to date appearance. After I was done I had an acceptable M3, but at about an $80.00 price tag!

The Academy kit was built straight out of the box with the exception of some of the rear stowage. The kit does include a lot of extra stuff like bags, ammo cans, spare road wheels, and boxes, which is always a nice touch. The option of both rubber tracks and individual links is wonderful as some people dread individual link tracks. The interior can all be seen so your extra work is not hidden.

The fit was superb through out and construction was easy and straightforward. All in all this is a great kit and judging by the unused parts several other versions are on the way. Academy receives an A+ for this one and I highly recommend it to everyone and can’t wait for the next one in the series to arrive!