M3A1light tank Soviet Union 1942 1/72 Mirage hobby

[David Lovell]

I'm going to build and run this along side the M12 so I've got two olive drabbers to work with at the same time

Although box art shows it a bit 4bo I didn't think they bothered to over paint the drab ?would it have been supplied with the thirty calls there's even the pintle mounted one in the kit? The instructions are the cad type not my personal favourite but still


Just noticed the nice shrink hole above the hull mg

Looks quite crispy so fingers crossed

They even give yo some nice little butterfly nuts as well. Rubber tracks but nicely detailed should ma,e a start tomorrow not to much to do with this one

[RonGlass]

Looking forward to this, sure to put the magnifiers to task Dave !

[David Lovell]

Looking forward to this, sure to put the magnifiers to task Dave !

Cheers Ron im knocking on a bit now but quite happy to sit! here and say the eyes are the one of the only bits still in reasonable working order :tongue-out3:

[David Lovell]

Evening all ,I decided to fix/glue this one with some mig red magma just for a change I love the brushes in these bottles but you have to remember to off load some first as they can carry way to much cement ,biggest down fall being the bottles aren't very stable so came up with this

Its a tin of silly putty type stuff I use for masking (not that I've used this particular tin yet)but good value one produ t two jobs.
Nice little kit thoes parts I showed I thought were wing nuts werent they were the lifting ring thingy's for the turret

The rubber tracks were fine nicely detailed glued easily with ca room to spare with the length ,I always join at the bottom bit of a leap of faith you don't want slack and don't want to stretch to fit before taking a dive with the snips, that's how I cut mine anyway. Tried to thin the kit light brush guards but resulted in total collapse of parts so made my own from some brass rod. Remember that hole

Well here's another with no part or in struction how to deal with it
Covered it in the end with one of the sponson mg blanking plates, all done ready for primer




Sorry bit rushed gotta go streaming speedway at poole . Dave

[scottie3158]

Very nice mate that must be tiny.

[vizenz]

The little one looks good David!

[Jim R]

Hopefully a better kit than the UM M12. Looks to have gone together well. It certainly is small.

[Guest]

Hopefully a better kit than the UM M12

Well, it’s certainly got one thing going for it, and that’s the fact that it’s not UM

[David Lovell]

Very nice mate that must be tiny.

The little one looks good David!

Thanks guys it certainly is on the small side but a nice easy clean kit to build ,the usual problems at this scale most of the tools broke just by looking at them cant moan I suppose the effect of moulding something to scale that is so small but better than my pet hate of moulded on tools tow cables and gun carriage locks ive stuff in the stash that stays there for that reason ,my turn to be childish :tongue-out: Dave

[David Lovell]

Well, it’s certainly got one thing going for it, and that’s the fact that it’s not UM :smiling3:

Come on Jakko we got the UM kit done that includes help from you Jim and co I throughly enjoyed it working through the problems ,I accept there not great little kits but there not that bad either ,there subject choice is fantastic ,I built the mini art 72nd stug a load of over engineered/ detailed parts then put moulded on tools!!? Got to the end never even finished painting it ,its down to the individual I suppose to find what there prepared to put in to get out ,with all the Olympics going on its best left at its not the winning that counts its the taking part that goes for the builders and manufacturers Dave

[Guest]

Come on Jakko we got the UM kit done

I know What I meant was that UM is one of the manufacturers whose kits need the most work to get a good result put of them, or even to put them together at all. I agree with you that every kit can be built, but if I have a choice I’ll generally pick the one that I think will be the less effort.

with all the Olympics going on its best left at its not the winning that counts its the taking part

You may want to tell that to the people taking part there

[David Lovell]

Afternoon all ,I like using the coloured extra thins they show your not as tidy as you think you are with the clear stuff but all the same once you lay some primer down. As usual mig one shot straight from the bottle




There was enough left in the pot to re prime the crash test dummy(1/48th KV1) nice once the primers down completely changes the build you can see its really nicely detailed ,thought the brush guards weren't to bad either ,looking at the front I lost the right hand head light you can see in the pre primer pics I carved one from a piece of green spru forgot the track pic that shows you get a fair bit of slack ,who can remember as a kid stretching the one piece airfix tracks over the wheels and it being so small always broke the drive sprockets off they were the days.

Alls good for the OD it'll make a change from the usual 4BO should get some done over the weekend fingers crossed if not next week no rush as long as long as I do the chores whilst she's at work the days are my own. Dave

[scottie3158]

Dave,
That certainly is a generous amount of track. Or is it these type of tracks fitted another vehicle as well and they simply use them for both kits.

[David Lovell]

Dave,
That certainly is a generous amount of track. Or is it these type of tracks fitted another vehicle as well and they simply use them for both kits.

I thought that as well but you only sip off three or four links dont think it would be big enough to fit sherman type chassis. Dave

[Guest]

If they’re correctly sized, they wouldn’t fit a Sherman, because the light tanks had a narrower track. But there also aren’t any light tank variants that are so much longer that they would need three or four more links. The M5-series is slightly longer than the M3, off the top of my head (I may be wrong) but not by this much.