Medium Tank M3 Lee Mk.I - 1:72 Hasegawa

[Paul A H]

Medium Tank M3 Lee Mk.I

1:72 Hasegawa

The M3 was an American medium tank design which was intended as a stop-gap measure to provide both the US Army and the British Army with a reasonably well-armed tank whilst they awaited development of the more modern M4 Sherman. The resulting product was configured in a similar fashion to the French Char B and the Soviet T-35 in that it employed a large (in this case 75mm) gun mounted in the hull and a smaller (37mm) gun in a turret. This was intended to give the M3 both anti-tank and anti-personnel capability.

The design had obvious limitations but was put into production owing to the chronic shortage of tanks available to the Allies (in fact the British had asked their American allies to produce Crusader or Matilda tanks in the States, but were refused). As with the M4 Sherman, the M3 was first deployed by the British during the North African campaign. In this role it was valued for its reliability and sound choice of main armament, although its high silhouette was found to be a serious drawback. The M3 was also supplied to the Russians, although it was somewhat less popular within the Red Army.

The market is hardly overflowing with kits of the M3 Lee. Hasegawas and Mirage Hobbys are probably the best known. Hasegawas kit portrays an early model with riveted hull (later tanks were welded as the rivets were found to be a shrapnel hazard) and the US pattern turret. The kit is made up of 74 parts moulded in grey plastic, plus a pair of flexible tracks. The kit is no spring chicken, but the moulds look to be in good nick. Detail is reasonably sharp and flash is fairly light.

Construction of the model follows a fairly conventional pattern in that it is broken down into sub-assemblies comprising of the lower hull, upper hull and turret. The lower hull is made up of a floor and two sides, onto which the mounts for the bogies have been moulded in place. Each bogey is moulded from a single piece of plastic and will trap a pair of road wheels in place once fitted. The parts are reasonably well detailed for the scale and should look fine once in place. As mentioned above, the tracks are of the rubber band type. They lack detail on the inner faces and look a little narrow to me, but will probably do the job well enough.

The upper hull is made up of a deck onto which the superstructure must be fixed. The rather lofty box structure is made up of a roof with the front and rear walls moulded in place and separately moulded left and right walls. The side and top hatches are all moulded separately, which is handy if you want to use the included figures. The 75mm gun is semi-articulated and can be posed in a range of elevations. There are a couple of stowage boxes included and pioneer tools are all moulded in place.

The turret has a small amount of flash which will need to be cleaned up but is otherwise ok. The 37mm gun us moulded as a single, solid piece and is poseable provided you dont glue it in place. The commanders cupola can be posed in the open position, but the opening in the turret is very small. As mentioned above, two crew members are included should you wish to use them.

The marking and painting guide shows three examples, all belonging to the US Army. I think this is something of a cop-out by Hasegawa, given that so many M3s were used by both Britain and Russia. The decals look fine though.

Conclusion

Overall this is a pleasing little kit and despite one or two simplifications, it is sufficiently detail to pass muster straight from the box. I prefer link and length tracks to the rubber bands included in this kit, but that aside I wouldnt change too much about this kit. Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Good review.....It's a half decent kit considering its age, but also another one that's a wee bit overscale IIRC.

[Will Vale]

Were these kits once released by Fujimi? I'm sure I remember building a few armour kits when I was in my early teens, and the boxes certainly looked like they came from this range, but for some reason I thought they were Fujimi kits.

Will

[Master Zen]

It's a simple, fun to build kit that looks nice when finished. I've built the British Lee version which differs only in the turret. The Lee has the side skirts so the rubber tracks don't look so bad if you position the usightly joint on top.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Were these kits once released by Fujimi? I'm sure I remember building a few armour kits when I was in my early teens, and the boxes certainly looked like they came from this range, but for some reason I thought they were Fujimi kits.

The best place to check for an answer to your question is the Henk of Holland website:

http://henk.fox3000.com/index2.htm

It's got incredibly comprehensive coverage of kits released by all kinds of manufacturers, here's the Hasegawa page:

http://henk.fox3000.com/Hasegawa.htm

HTH & All the best

AndyS.