So far the kit seems passable, although like all airfix kits the first one seems to fight you to make you earn the understanding required to build it. There is now a rather large gap at the front of the bonnet that will need some careful putty work to fill.
One complaint - there is no roof on the driver's cabin as shown on the box. Pictures of actual vehicles seem to be hard to come by from overhead angles, so I'm going to trust the box and just bodge on some plastic-card to put some form of covering on there. It'll also save me having to paint what passes for internal detail in the cabin. It may be innaccurate, but I've made my decision and I stand by it.
Three more to go, then painting. Pictures will be delivered when the sun comes up and the putty has dried.
[EDIT] Pictures! They always show up the flaws.... click thumbnails for larger.
[Second Edit] As expected, the second kit is going together perfectly. It's a dramatically different shade of green plastic too.
The M3A1 Airfix kit lost its canopy after the mould was damaged in the early eighties.
ReplyDeleteBrit forces used the M5 and M14 versions of the halftrack, you can wiki it to see the differences if you like.
Matador Models have a nice article on the Airfix kit.
http://matadormodels.co.uk/tank_museum/zairfix_m3half_1.htm
I also know that the instructions in the Airfix kits had the mudguards mounted the wrong way. I am unsure if this has been corrected.
Good to see you have been making some progress on your quest.
Keep up the posting.
Paul (this may be a repeat comment, internet a bit slow today)