OutcastJoel

So my attempts at a nice quick out of the box build without any real research isn't going entirely as planned. In addition to the kit inside, I have blanked the bomb thrower port (the grey mess on the outside). I have only found one photo of this tank and I can't see if the bomb thrower port is blanked or not but looking through other Grants in North Africa during 1942 suggests most were (which also means I can avoid making a fairly complex bit of equipment without feeling twitchy).

Well, some progress has been made, I found this superb website: http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/manufacturer/m3grant/m3grant.html And I drew up what will hopefully be a reasonable representation of a Mk19 in CAD. I just need to knock up the water tank and extra ammo box which sat where the US had their radio and then I can start painting the interior properly.

I started with a (1/700) Trumpeter USS Lexington, which was a fun introduction, I paired it with the Eduard PE set and still think it looks ace. The 1/350 Flower Class corvette from Mirage is a nice kit with enough PE in the box to give you the full experience but it is all simple enough to make it a fairly quick build. That said if you can stretch to the big Tamiya battle ships in 1/350 I imagine they would be a pretty epic start.

Thank you chaps that is really useful. @Das Abteilung I suspect that the Academy sprocket is too narrow rather than the track too wide, whilst it is a nice kit, it doesn't scream accuracy.

I found the Airfix M3 Grant in my local model shop and was impressed by the price for a full interior kit. With me being Nottinghamshire based and one of the markings being Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, I was sold! The one thing I don't like is the tracks so I replaced them with Mini Art workable plastic tracks. These are 1mm too wide for the kit drive wheels so I knocked up some spacers: The fit is good and the interior is quite nice. Plenty of ejector pin marks to fill though. I had a play with making rougher armour texture (although keeping it light on the sections of rolled plate). One question I have though is this below. This looks like radio but I think this probably isn't right for a UK Grant which I understand to be housed in the turret. Does anyone have any good photos of the interior of a Grant (especially the one at Bovington). I would love to know what should actually be there. I picked up the New Vanguard book in the hope it would have something but it doesn't really.

This is a surprisingly good kit and I am really pleased with how it came out. The stowage is mostly made from milliput. The bike and welded on track armour are 3D printed.

I am surprised they don't do this scheme: It is the most flamboyant BoB scheme I know of and (I think) one for which the Arma Hurricane is basically correct. @Troy Smith will be able to confirm if I have made a total horlicks of this.

My money is on MENG or Great Wall Hobby because I know MENG did some of the tooling for WNW (but apparently not all of it?). I also gather that the builder of this test shot does work with GWH. I might be reading too much into that though as I am sure any modeller given the opportunity to work on this kit would jump at it. I know nothing about Minibase, what is their range like? Whoever releases it I am chuffed it is going to see the light of day. (Which might be why I am talking such baseless nonsense)

So, MENG?

A test build has popped up on Facebook over the last week so... https://www.facebook.com/100028639388861/posts/617884322509542/?sfnsn=scwspmo

Lovely lovely build, the crusty dirt deposits are amazing. Might I have seen this on Instagram a month or so back?

Great job, the dusty tyres are just amazing!

Very lovely build of a pair of awesome looking ships

Well I have it to the stage that I think I shall call done: 20210621_191200_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr I will take some decent photos at some point and I might try to add some chipping but other than that this one has been parked.

I have done quite a lot in the last 10 days but have been rubbish at updates. Firstly I saw the postman: 20210620_202220_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr Then I made some tools to allow me to punch out the wheel centres and pop in the new 3D printed (and hopefully not insanely wobbly) centres: 20210622_122743_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20210622_123638_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr I finished most of the painting, added crew and the rather pathetic (but beautifully rendered) markings. the roundels are from HMRS and are their simply superb pressfix decals. These go on by pressing into place and removing the carrier film by soaking. In my experience they never silver and look pretty well painted on, I wish kit manufacturers used these... 20210625_225203_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr I still need to: - Pick which plates to use now that I have two sets and then apply numbers to the buffer beams which could probably still use another coat of red. - Finish all of the driving wheels. - Add clutter. - Decide how much weathering. -Add electrical pickups to the tender. and actually do the weathering... but the end is in sight which should allow me to focus on clearing some of my shelf of shame before cracking open some new kits