ARM: Academy 1/35 Scale US Medium Tank M3 Lee
AMP...@aol.com
Lee; 413 parts (411 in dark green styrene, 2 steel color vinyl track
runs); retail price US $42
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
Rating: Recommended
Recommendation: for all Shermaholics and early war US armor fans
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.
Thanks to Bob Lewen for the review sample.
Cookie Sewell
Bruce Burden
:
: 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,
I wonder if this is for motorizing for the home market?
Remember the "STATIC" stickers on the Tigers from Academy, which
indicates to me that there was a motorized varient somewhere,
but I have never seen on in the US.
Bruce
--
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"I like bad!" Bruce Burden Austin, TX.
- Thuganlitha
The Power and the Prophet
Robert Don Hughes
AMP...@aol.com
Hard to tell, but it would be a nightmare trying to get the rest of the
bits to fit inside the hull for motorization -- no slots, screws,
battery mounts, etc.
Cookie Sewell