Airfix (Academy really) 'British M3 Stuart 'Honey'

[Mjwomack]

Amazing what you see in KUTA! I brought this an over a year ago because I was inspired by @RC Boater Bill's one!

 

 

I know from the reviews that it's not without it's problems, which may explain the rather vague description Airfix give it. Fortunately I'km not purist and will happily build this OOB. But as you probable know the turret basket is erroneous.

More frustratingly for me, 'Interior; doesn't equate to 'full interior' so one of my grinder plans is scuppered, yes the engine compartment can be filled with an...ehgine but my austerity wartime economy won't run to that. Might still think of something to make it interesting.

 

All the colour is in the schemes section, and the instructions are a bit black and white

 

 

 

 

The parts strike me as straightforward and avoid the over fiddliness of some modern kits for my fat fingers

 

 

 

 

 

But enough of them to keep me amused but not s many to cause frustration.

 

And there are choices...

 

 

 

Choice of schemes (probably heading into the dessert) and rubber band or fiddly tracks. At the moment I'm trying to suppress my usual over-ambition and will probably go for rubber bands.

 

No figures included, judging by the commander in the box-art they all succumbed to aneamia! But as I'm not very good at painting figures that saves mr some embarrassment. Marie Celeste like their bedding rolls are included though/

 

Right, let's fire the first salvo at dawn (or maybe later)

 

 

 

[modelling minion]

Welcome to the GB with what is proving to be a popular kit. While it may have some issues and not be as detailed as more modern kits it certainly looks the part and a very nice model can be built from it. 

[PlaStix]

Good afternoon. It's great to have you taking part in this GB with what is an excellent choice of kit. As Craig mentioned, a few of this kit are being made and I've seen it can result in a great version of the Honey. I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Mjwomack]

Under way and heading into the desert! (Think I spelt that right🤔)

 

My standard rattle can grey primer on everything and time for some paint swatches...

 

 

 

3rd from the left is the suggested '121' stone but that looks way too pale.  Most likely the Green Ochre, even though you can see I've used it on German tankspreviouulsy!  2nd left is also a strong contender.

 

The little I do know is that the dessert scheme is a vexed subject and I don't know how good the Airfix suggestion is in that debate. Anyhow one of the 2 on the left unless I hear screams of horror!

[PeterB]

As I understand it, the Stuart started to enter British Service just before the Caunter camo scheme began to be phased out so you have perhaps 3 choices. Some would have been in full 3 colour Caunter, some in a simplified 2 colour scheme, and some in plain "sand", though there would no doubt be the usual local variations.. The "sand" colour would normally have been Light stone BS.61, but the creamer Portland Stone BS.64 was an acceptable alternative though used rather less often by that period I think. As usual "disruptive" patterns could be applied and there were several colours to chose from. The kit instructions appear to show a base colour of light stone with the so called "Silver Grey" BS.28 as used in the Caunter scheme, together with what appear to be patches of either SCC1a "Very Dark Brown" or Light Purple Brown BS. 49, though the latter was supposedly only used in the Sudan and maybe Greece. Silver Grey was a strange colour and is often showed as a light sky blue though there is considerable doubt if many if indeed any vehicles were ever painted in that colour. Most sources now agree that it was a in fact a pale slightly greyish green not far removed in appearance from RAF Sky, or perhaps more accurately Duck Egg Green. I used Colourcoats paints on mine so I cannot say which Humbrol equivalents are closest, but I seem to remember their Hu 121"Light Stone" is a bit too pale as you mentioned.

 

The usual disruptive colours used over the sand depending perhaps on the date were SCC1a, SCC 14 Blue-Black aka Tarmac, Slate BS.34 and possibly a green, maybe SCC 7. Silver Grey could of course have been used also, and for US tanks in some cases as on Shermans and Grants the sand was applied to leave patches of US OD showing as the "disruptor", so you have a fair bit of choice. You might find this interesting https://mafva.co.uk/?p=2607

 

Pete

Edited September 16 by PeterB

[robw_uk]

Nice choice of kit... This is the one I am tempted to build (also in the desert)

[Bullbasket]

Despite some minor problems, this is a good kit. (Review here;https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/academy/acd1399.htm

With a bit of work, it can be turned into a good looking model. I built it a few years ago, and if you want to see how it turned out, it's in the Inspiration Gallery.

 

John.

[Peter Lloyd]

I have been looking over such reading material as I have, and my impression is the 'Caunter' scheme was gone by early 1942: photos taken before Crusader show a very 'diagonal' cut between the sand (lower) and the 'silver', as viewed from the side.  Most 1942 photos show either a single colour overall, or a scheme such as the kit suggests, in which the upper colour 'stays up', with the blotches applied over both.  A very similar scheme appeared a little later on some Grants, and photos show tanks being brought up for the Gazala battles in these more elaborate patterns.

 

But I could be entirely wrong, I have my own thread to wrestle with these considerations, and I don't want to  hamper this project!

[PeterB]

7 hours ago, Peter Lloyd said:

I have been looking over such reading material as I have, and my impression is the 'Caunter' scheme was gone by early 1942: photos taken before Crusader show a very 'diagonal' cut between the sand (lower) and the 'silver', as viewed from the side.  Most 1942 photos show either a single colour overall, or a scheme such as the kit suggests, in which the upper colour 'stays up', with the blotches applied over both.  A very similar scheme appeared a little later on some Grants, and photos show tanks being brought up for the Gazala battles in these more elaborate patterns.

 

But I could be entirely wrong, I have my own thread to wrestle with these considerations, and I don't want to  hamper this project!

Hi Peter,

 

Yes, Caunter was phased out from October 1941 I believe but would take some time to disappear as tanks were not usually repainted until the next major overhaul unless they suffered battle damage.

 

The Lee/Grant had just entered service at the time of the battle at Gazala, and I gather most were painted in overall light stone, but there was a certain amount of discretion over camo and so 3RTR went for painting light stone over the lower hull, but leaving at least part of the upper surfaces in OD, and then applied "splodges" of "purple-brown" BS. 49 at random. No matter how many rules you make there is always going to be somebody who wants to be  different!😄 It was the same after D-Day when the rules changed to say that disruptive colours would no longer be used but at least one unit continued to apply SCC.14 Blue-Black over SCC.15 OD for quite some time.

 

Pete

Edited September 17 by PeterB

[Mjwomack]

On 9/16/2024 at 7:15 PM, PeterB said:

ome in plain "sand", t

I can cope with that but it seems very boring!

 

On 9/16/2024 at 7:15 PM, PeterB said:

Hu 121"Light Stone" is a bit too pale as you mentioned.

 

It's far too pale, probably only worth using to reproduce the pale complexion of the commander, who isn't included because he's gone to the sick bay methinks!

19 hours ago, Peter Lloyd said:

I don't want to  hamper this project!

 

Don't you worry about that- I'm more than capable of hindering my own projects, disappearing in quick sand etc. So all the comments and ended chances to go off-topic are welcome!

12 hours ago, PeterB said:

omebody who wants to be  different!😄 I

 

That's my get out of jail card, right there!!!

[Mjwomack]

And with that spur J was empty...

 

 

Lovely solid parts, so solid that the idler wheel is 'very snug' fit on its axle and I snapped the arm of the idler suspesnsion. Seems to have set neatly though (it's the top one in the picture) Reamed out the the other one and no problem there.

 

Not clear on how the suspension and road wheels assemble in stage 1B- will try again after a night's sleep.

 

 

[modelling minion]

Thats good progress, getting the running gear sorted is a big step in a build.

[RC Boater Bill]

On 9/13/2024 at 3:01 PM, Mjwomack said:

Amazing what you see in KUTA! I brought this an over a year ago because I was inspired by @RC Boater Bill's one!

 

 

I know from the reviews that it's not without it's problems, which may explain the rather vague description Airfix give it. Fortunately I'km not purist and will happily build this OOB. But as you probable know the turret basket is erroneous.

More frustratingly for me, 'Interior; doesn't equate to 'full interior' so one of my grinder plans is scuppered, yes the engine compartment can be filled with an...ehgine but my austerity wartime economy won't run to that. Might still think of something to make it interesting.

 

 

I built that kit OOB (from an Academy box) 15-20 years ago!   I still have it, it came out nice enough to keep all these years.   I did opt not to use the individual track links- the other tracks came out fine.

[Mjwomack]

9 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

I did opt not to use the individual track links- the other tracks came out fine.

This is very encouraging. I was looking at the track options last night and thought that the 'rubber band' ones were a lot better than the Airfix 1/72nd one of old and that life was too short for the individual ones. So I'll be going down the same 'track' (sorry couldn't resist) as you. And, as I say, your fine guild got me thinking about Honey in the first place.

[Bullbasket]

I'm always glad once I've got the running gear sorted. I find it the most tedious part of the build.

 

John.

[RC Boater Bill]

MJ,

Here’s a pic of my build from the original Academy kit, showing the rubber band tracks.  Good enough for me….

(The figures were from the kit, IIRC.)

 

Link to photo at https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-KGKGwP/i-KwNGv2n

 

[Mjwomack]

On 9/26/2024 at 7:33 PM, modelling minion said:

Thats good progress, getting the running gear sorted is a big step in a build.

I hope so!

Never really figured out assembly of the road wheel units. Got to this...

 

 

 

Don't know if its meant to splay out like that at the top, but at least they're all consistent.

 

12 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

 

Here’s a pic of my build from the original Academy kit, showing the rubber band tracks.

 

Love those tracks - how did you paint them? I always worry about the paint cracking on 'rubber'. TIA

[Mjwomack]

Next step and another question- the colour call out is for gold on what I take to be the shell casings; is that right? Were they shooting at vampires with golden bullets on steroids!

 

 

 

 

Be that as it may, I'm really enjoying this build, probably because I think there's something very agricultural about these little chaps!

[PeterB]

2 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

Next step and another question- the colour call out is for gold on what I take to be the shell casings; is that right? Were they shooting at vampires with golden bullets on steroids!

 

 

 

 

Be that as it may, I'm really enjoying this build, probably because I think there's something very agricultural about these little chaps!

I am just about to start painting and assembling the ammo stowage for my SU-76 in the Ukrainian GB. This comes with about 30 shells and though it suggests brass for the the actual cases it does not mention the shells themselves, which I guess would be a different colour - they were often colour coded to indicate whether they were HE, AP Smoke etc.  Yours look a bit strange as they only appear to be the bottom (case) ends of the 37mm rounds but looking in my copy of Hunnicutt's book on the Stuart I see that they were stowed nose down and the actual projectile would be below the level of the "bin", so the kit is correct as far as it goes. I would have expected them to be brass, but maybe Airfix thought gold would look a bit more like "weathered" ones?

 

Pete

[Mjwomack]

14 minutes ago, PeterB said:

I am just about to start painting and assembling the ammo stowage for my SU-76 in the Ukrainian GB. This comes with about 30 shells and though it suggests brass for the the actual cases it does not mention the shells themselves, which I guess would be a different colour - they were often colour coded to indicate whether they were HE, AP Smoke etc.  Yours look a bit strange as they only appear to be the bottom (case) ends of the 37mm rounds but looking in my copy of Hunnicutt's book on the Stuart I see that they were stowed nose down and the actual projectile would be below the level of the "bin", so the kit is correct as far as it goes. I would have expected them to be brass, but maybe Airfix thought gold would look a bit more like "weathered" ones?

 

Pete

Thanks Pete, brass make a whole lot of sense to me and was my instinct until I made the fatal mistake of reading the instructions 🙀

[modelling minion]

Definitely brass rather than gold for the shell cases, maybe its the nearest colour in Airfix's range.

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

Love those tracks - how did you paint them? I always worry about the paint cracking on 'rubber'. TIA

I spray mine with Halfords Auto Acrylic grey, and then paint them with a mix of Tamiya black/brown. I've never had any problems with the paint cracking nor the tracks breaking up.

HTH.

 

John.

[PeterB]

6 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

I spray mine with Halfords Auto Acrylic grey, and then paint them with a mix of Tamiya black/brown. I've never had any problems with the paint cracking nor the tracks breaking up.

HTH.

 

John.

The tracks on several of my really old kits, such as my first Airfix Sherman from 1961 and an Esci Panzer III became brittle and would break if you were not careful when handling them, but the flexible tracks on later kits seem to have lasted better. Perhaps they use a different sort of plastic/vinyl/rubber or maybe it is due to the type of paint I used? It reminds me a bit of some of the old Hornby Dublo locos where the metal used for the driving wheels started to distort and crumble with age.

 

Pete

Edited September 29 by PeterB

[PlaStix]

Great to see the progress you are making with this project. 

Kind regards,

Stix

[Mjwomack]

On 9/28/2024 at 7:37 PM, PeterB said:

I would have expected them to be brass, but maybe Airfix thought gold would look a bit more like "weathered" ones?

Having now compared my Revell 'Brass' and 'Gold' the gold actually looks paler and more plausible- as you say a 'weathered' look. Oh the decisions! I suppose I could paint alternate ones in each for a 'barbers pole' effect🫣. (Probably not my best idea, but the list of contenders is very long for that award)