Hi all,
A shot of this sort on and off project I've been building over the last month or two. It is the (not so) brand new AFV Club M5A1 kit. Hurrah, as it was finally a state of the art plastic kit. No need for scratch built rear hulls or resin conversions.
The hull builds up from mutiple plates, so be careful to get everything square. I used a very simple jig with callipers to do measuring. You can also see the interior detail. I suspect the AM boys will be releasing sets for this. Hobby Fan is a likely candidate. I have the older VP set in my stash, and I'll how that fits into this kit. Got one more on the
'will build one day pile'.
The upper hull is also made from multiple plates. The fighting compartment has an outer shell. Then there's the front, separate plates for the engine compartment and front mudguards. Fit is generally good, but you need to take more care than with Tamiya kits. I do rate this one higher though than the DML M2 halftrack.
I've been slowly plugging away at it, and status as of today is like this. It all seemed to go faster than expected, especially since I did lower hull, upper hull, detail bits, bogies, idler assembly, sprockets, etc as I had time. Got a spare half an hour? Build a bogie
By the way, here are the references I've collected throughout the years.
** US Tank Battles in France 1944-1945
http://www.concord-publications.com/7050/7050.htm
** US Light Tanks at War
http://www.concord-publications.com/7038/7038.htm
** M3 and M5 Stuart light tank
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...hp/title=P9115
** Modelling the M3 and M5 Stuart light tank
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...hp/title=S7638
** AFVisual: The Stuart Series
** M5 and M5A1 Stuart Technical Manual
** PDF versions of the TMs
** Military Modelling article on updating the Tamiya kit
** AFV Interiors page
Comments and feedback are welcome!
Cheers, MartinD
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