Academy

1/35 M-3 Grant

Kit Number: 13212

Reviewed by  Carl F. Weaver, IPMS# 33610

MSRP: $46.00 Distributed by: Model Recifier Corp (MRC): www.modelrectifier.com One of my favorite World War II movies is Sahara starring Humphrey Bogart as Sgt Joe Gunn. Of course the real star in the movie is the M3 Lee tank named Lulu Belle after Sgt. Gunn's old cavalry horse. As Sgt Gunn and his crew retreats from the Germans he comes across an assortment of stragglers, among them a British doctor, some British soldiers, and a Free French soldier. Later, they are joined by a Sudanese soldier and his Italian prisoner, and a Luftwaffe pilot who strafes them and is shot down by Lulu Belle's main gun. While there is a lot of stereotypical treatment of the characters as reflected in war movies of the time, it is a fun movie to watch and is highly recommended. After seeing Sahara I thought the M3 Lee was the neatest looking tank ever. Imagine my excitement when Academy released the M3 Lee in 2006 and then the M3 Grant this year. While the original Academy kit (Lee) corrected most of the errors in the Tamiya kit and provided an array of parts or spare parts there were some problems; among them the too tall suspension and turret shape. These problems continue somewhat with the new offering (Grant). When you open the box you are faced with 486 parts on eight tan colored sprues and two vinyl rubber band tracks. The 75mm gun provided comes with three correctly shaped barrels for the early short barrel, short barrel with stabilizer and counterweight, or the long barrel. The gun barrels are "slide molded" with hollow bores, as is the turret 37mm gun. While the Grant mixes parts from the earlier Lee offering it also includes new parts for the turret, sand shields and some well done one piece T51 type tracks but provides WE210 "Double I" British pattern shoes as spares. I replaced the kit tracks with the tracks from a spare Dragon Sherman kit. The new turret shape looks correct in plan view and shape but Academy added a spacer to the bottom of the turret that increases the height. It looks like this could be easily corrected by cutting the spacer off. The chassis still has that oblong hole in the bottom and shouldn't be too difficult to fill using some sheet styrene and putty. I chose not to correct mine. Step one begins with making up the road wheels and bogies. There are six sets each containing ten parts. The parts cleaned up very easily with only a little work to be done and assembled very quickly. Step two involves attaching the road wheels to the lower hull. Steps three and four deal with the assembly of the transmission and driver's station. Assembly is straight forward with no issues. Step five installs the transmission cover. Steps six and seven begin the installation of the interior and engine compartment. The kit includes a pretty comprehensive interior. I decided to complete the interior and spent a couple of hours painting and detailing but when the kit is assembled it is hard to see inside anyway unless you leave the turret out and even then it is still hard to see. Steps eight, nine and ten constructs the hull, toolboxes, door hatches and other accouterments. Step eleven completes the interior hull adding the dashboard and machine guns. Step twelve constructs the 75mm gun. There was little difficulty in the construction. I had no problems just take your time and test fit all the pieces. Step thirteen attaches the 75mm gun to the hull, the hull to the chassis and adds the sand skirts and headlights. The installation of the gun is a little fiddly and it is a good idea to have three hands when you fix the gun to the hull and floor. Step fourteen begins the construction of the turret interior. Steps fifteen and sixteen is the construction of the 37mm gun. Steps seventeen and eighteen is the completion of the turret. Step nineteen is the installation of the turret and tracks. The kit comes with two decal options: "Atlanta II", serial T24334, which is simply identified as "Royal Army, North Africa 1943" and is overall sand; and a sand and khaki green camouflaged tank from the 7th Armoured Division, 8th Army, El Alamein 1942 with flashes on the fenders but no other markings. These colors are suspect as everything I have read about camouflaged British tanks in the desert war they were painted a sand and grey or black. I have read some reviews that said the decals were incorrect or incomplete. Most pictures that I have seen of British WWII armor had minimal markings. I painted my Grant using Model Master ANA Sand and I used a brown/black pin wash with Windsor Newton paints and dry brush the high points with white and tan oil paints. Instead of using the kit decals I opted to use the markings from the spare Sherman tank. These probably are not correct but I liked the markings. I then added the two aerials and the red pennant. I usually build helicopters or jets and when I do dabble in armor I always seem to have problems with the suspension not being level, gaps in the hull and other issues. With this kit I had NO problems at all. Everything went together very quickly and easily. Even though the kit does have some peccadilloes it is a very easy kit to build. The directions are easy to follow and well lay out. I really enjoyed building this kit. I think you will enjoy it as well especially in front of the television watching Sahara. My thanks to MRC/Academy and IPMS/USA for the review sample

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