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1/35 Miniart British M3 Lee - North Africa 1942. "FINISHED"


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8 hours ago, edjbartos said:

Many thanks Darryl, for the sand colour I used Vallejo model air paints, for the base colour I sprayed on 2 parts Sand Yellow 71.028 to 1 part Sand Ivory 71.075 then I stippled on with sponge as you would when applying chipping, some lighter and darker brown shades just to give some variation in the colour. I then used the oil wash using white and a little bit of yellow ochre to the bottom bits and around the rivets. As for the metal parts on the tracks I first mixed a red brown coloured paint with grey then I tried for the first time Humbrol  metalcote Polished steel which I dry brushed on, then when dry just gave it a quick rub with a cloth in certain areas to  bring out the detail.

 

all the best 

 

Ed

Thanks Ed, that's given me something to aim at, your work always looks spot on.

I'd guess they'd probably use the same paint on a Sherman if it was in a similar time frame and location. 

 

Cheers

Darryl 

 

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Hello folks, a new update, it's all slowly coming together now. Since the last update I have added the side skirts and the 75mm gun with anti dust mantlet. I have added quite a bit of PE starting off with the rail above the side skirts which carry baggage, knapsacks etc. here are a couple of photo's...
 

 

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I have added the lights with PE guards and added some copper wire to simulate some wiring...
 

 

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I have added storage boxes to the rear and some racks at the end of the rear mudguards which will house the jerry cans...
 

 

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A view of the front showing lights and their guards and the side rails for the luggage...
 

 

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So onwards and upwards, I'm going to start work on the turret assembly, I'll be back when I have more to show..

 

thanks for looking, all the best

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

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On 28/04/2022 at 07:15, Geo1966 said:

Really nice, clean build Ed. Keep up the excellent work.

 

George

 

 

Thank you George...

 

 

10 hours ago, Hewy said:

Now thats what i call quality pe work 👍,the bogeys and hull sides have been painted up beautifully too ,cracking looking model ed

 

 

Many thanks Glynn, bit of a fiddle the PE but l'm pleased with the way it went together in the end. Not far from starting painting the whole thing now...

 

 

all the best 

 

Ed

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On 26/04/2022 at 13:35, edjbartos said:

I have added quite a bit of PE starting off with the rail above the side skirts which carry baggage, knapsacks etc.

The rails main purpose was to attach a framework decoy system, that's what those small rectangles are for, attaching a fake cab and canvas tilt over the tank so they looked from the air as trucks.   They were used on all desert tanks as the allies did not have air superiority.

You're M3 Lee is looking really good, nice p/e work.

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22 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

The rails main purpose was to attach a framework decoy system, that's what those small rectangles are for, attaching a fake cab and canvas tilt over the tank so they looked from the air as trucks.   They were used on all desert tanks as the allies did not have air superiority.

 

Ah, I've seen pictures of the fake cab, that's interesting, didn't realise that was the purpose of the rectangles, that now makes sense, thanks for the information Bob, much appreciated...

 

Ed

 

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Hello everyone, a new update, I have pretty much finished assembling my tank now. Since the last update I have now added the turret assembly. Also I have added luggage, bags etc to the rails on the side of the tank as well jerry cans at the rear. Here are some photo's....
 

 

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I have purchased some figures from Panzer Art, the set that I bought were a set of three. I am only going to use the commander for this build, so I can use the others on my other Lee/Grants that I have yet to build in the future. The commander figure looks really good with lovely detail so will look forward to painting that. I just need to clean up a bit more before painting as the photo shows a few areas I need to address...
 

 

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Final photo with tank and commander...
 

 

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So now I need to break everything down and start masking off the bottom part that has been painted also lights etc, before applying primer.

 

I will be back when I have made further progress...

 

as always, thanks for looking, all the best

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

Your Lee is looking good Ed, and the tank commander figure finishes it off.  Looking forward to seeing you paint them.  :like:

 

Thank you Bob...

 

 

7 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Oh how I envy you, Id love to buy some of their stuff. Problem is its to expensive to justify the purchase. 

 

 

Thank you Dennis, when I buy aftermarket stuff it's usually metal tracks more often than not, but the Miniart tracks were so good that I didn't need to do so this time. So these figures although expensive were still cheaper than Masterclub metal tracks and you get 3 figures with 6 heads, so I have enough for 3 tank commanders, so in that case its not too bad, for me anyway...

 

all the best

 

Ed

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Looking tremendous already Ed, super clean build. 

Really nice sculp for the commander. 

 

Looking forward to seeing it painted. 

 

Darryl 

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10 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Looking tremendous already Ed, super clean build. 

Really nice sculp for the commander. 

 

Looking forward to seeing it painted. 

 

Darryl 

 

Thanks Darryl really appreciate that, I really like the figures, when I first saw them on the website I though yeah, they look too good, they've been touched up or something, but they really are nice, will get them again in the future.

 

all the best

 

Ed

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5 hours ago, edjbartos said:

 

Thanks Darryl really appreciate that, I really like the figures, when I first saw them on the website I though yeah, they look too good, they've been touched up or something, but they really are nice, will get them again in the future.

 

all the best

 

Ed

 

Panzer Art have a very good reputation and the better the sculpting the easier they are to paint.

 

The whole thing is looking very special - enjoy the painting phase!

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1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

the better the sculpting the easier they are to paint.

 

 

No pressure then Bertie 🤣, I'm not really a figure painter but hopefully with the figures that I have got I stand a better chance of them looking ok, hopefully!

 

all the best

 

Ed

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Hi Ed. As always,  when I drop in on your build thread, I am so impressed by what you achieved. Beautiful modelling as ever!

Kind regards, 

Stix

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2 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Ed. As always,  when I drop in on your build thread, I am so impressed by what you achieved. Beautiful modelling as ever!

Kind regards, 

Stix

 

 

Thank you Stix for your kind comments...

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3 hours ago, Hewy said:

great  build ed , I'm  looking forward to the paint too

 

Thanks Glynn, Just taken the baggage away and masked everything off and have now primed everything. Just waiting for it to dry before the first top coats...

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Hello folks, hope everyone is well, a new update on my M3. After completing the assembly stage I  masked off the bottom half of the tank, which is the running gear and then primed with Mig One Shot primer....
 

 

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Now Miniart instructions say to paint the side skirts green. I have a great book by David Doyle on the Lee/Grant M3 and looking through the North Africa campaign I found this photo...
 

 

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There are other photo's that show both sand and green coloured skirts so I suppose either will work. I chose to go along with the instructions and paint them green as I think they will break up the monotony of the sand colour and will look great when applying weathering in the form of sand going up the front part of the fender. I hope so anyway. Here are a couple of photo's to show where I am at....
 

 

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Next up is to apply satin varnish which will darken the sand colour which I want and then add some decals to the turret and then do a pin wash on the rivets as they look a bit bland at the moment...

 

I'll be back when I have more to show...

 

All the best and thanks for looking in...

 

Ed 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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