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M3 Grant Canal Defense Light


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I tested positive last Friday, 6 days before I was due to get married to my partner of 17 years. To say I was fed up  was an understatement! Wednesday just gone, my partner tested positive too, so a good job our small wedding was postponed. 

 

Anyway, decided to put my Italeri M4A1 (76mm) on hold and make a start on this classic Tamiya M3 Grant with Verlinden M3 CDL conversion. I have had the conversion for years and some work has been done to it, mainly clean up etc. The Canal Defence Light tanks were used by the 79th Armoured Division to facilitate the night crossings of the Rivers Elbe and Rhine by Allied forces. 

 

So far I have assembled the lower hull and used spokes wheels from the Tamiya M4 kit and 2 from the M4A3 kit as the Grant kit wheels have incorrect amount of spokes. I have also applied Mr Surfacer to the final drive assembly. I will also be using the tracks from the Tamiya M4 kits as they are the same length as the incorrect Grant tracks. 

 

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Progress so far. 

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Hi Threadbear. Sorry to hear your news. Hope you are both okay. Looks like you are of to a good start on what should be an interesting project. 

Kind regards, 

Stix

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sprayed the rear of the Grant with AK olive drab primer. Followed by Ammo 625 olive drab base, idlers in 626 and drybrushed with olive drab highlights. Old rust and mahogany on the exhausts with a light dusting of gun metal pigments. 

 

I can move crack on with the rest of the hull and turret.

 

Like to thank @Scargsy for the decals. And the wedding is back on for next month! 

 

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Thanks for looking

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4 hours ago, edjbartos said:

That's coming along a treat, I like the look that you have done for the exhausts, looks great...

 

Ed

Yes I was surprised at how the exhausts looked! Obviously will be mostly hidden when the upper hull goes on, hopefully tomorrow. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I haven`t added much to this build for a while so here it goes. I added the upper hull to the lower hull and all went fine until i tried to the part B19 in front of the main gun, well it doesn`t fit! I had to do some cutting and filing to get it to fit in place. Then some sanding. My own fault! Then had some filling to do when the upper hull meets the FDA bolt strip. I then added some rivets along the hull sponsons where the M3 Grant stowage boxes would have been, Placed a piece of Value Gear stowage to check for size. 

 

I then added the rear Verlinden stowage boxes on the rear of the hull and glued in place using Roket Hot superglue and disaster struck! A whole load of it run down the back plate. Again my carelessness! 

Bit of a mixed bag this week. A coat of paint has covered up the glue but it wasn`t ideal. 

 

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How you you apply your Superglue? If you're using straight from the bottle, STOP DOING THAT. Get a lid from a milk bottle, a Pringles tube, whatever, one of those soft, slightly greasy feeling plastics, and put a bit of glue into that (if you can't find a lid, use a bit of kitchen foil). Then use a toothpick, a bit of wire, the edge of a scalpel blade, whatever's the best tool for the task, to transfer small amounts of glue to the model. Much reduced chance of making a mess. 

 

When the glue in the lid cures, flex it off, throw the dried glue away. When the lid gets daggy, replace it. These lids also work as mixing palettes for putty, PVA glues and other messy compounds that we use. 

 

As for the spill - gentle scraping of the edges can feather them out to reduce their impact, or you could try a cotton bud dipped in acetone/super glue remover to see if you can wash the spill away, but that can damage the plastic quite quickly if you're not very careful. I'd be feathering the edges, I think. A coat of primer and it should all be tiketty-boo in no time. 

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going to try and recover, keep plodding on. 

 

1 hour ago, Rob G said:

How you you apply your Superglue? If you're using straight from the bottle, STOP DOING THAT. Get a lid from a milk bottle, a Pringles tube, whatever, one of those soft, slightly greasy feeling plastics, and put a bit of glue into that (if you can't find a lid, use a bit of kitchen foil). Then use a toothpick, a bit of wire, the edge of a scalpel blade, whatever's the best tool for the task, to transfer small amounts of glue to the model. Much reduced chance of making a mess. 

 

When the glue in the lid cures, flex it off, throw the dried glue away. When the lid gets daggy, replace it. These lids also work as mixing palettes for putty, PVA glues and other messy compounds that we use. 

 

As for the spill - gentle scraping of the edges can feather them out to reduce their impact, or you could try a cotton bud dipped in acetone/super glue remover to see if you can wash the spill away, but that can damage the plastic quite quickly if you're not very careful. I'd be feathering the edges, I think. A coat of primer and it should all be tiketty-boo in no time. 

Your right. I should know better. Its mainly slap dash modelling on my part. Trying to get something finished before the end of the day. 

 

Edited by Threadbear
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Hi Threadbear. Well it looks like your build has had a few ups and downs! I'm sure it will be fine and weathering with mud can be your friend when it comes to glue spills!

Kind regards,

Stix

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