What Has Mike Been Working On?

For the last two years I have been working on catching up with projects that have been languishing, in some cases for 20 years or more.  This is my M47 tank project.  I had to buy a few more to get as many as I needed.  The plan is to have a full battalion of 54, an "anti-tank" company of 20, an additional company of 17 tanks using vehicle modifications that were not generally fielded by the US Army but were tested or at least studied.  Most of those are not yet finished.  I also wanted two reconnaissance units with one M47 each.  One unit in Arctic white and the other in olive drab like the rest of these tanks.  I also did three M47 as Tiger II tanks for the movie The Battle of the Bulge.

My World War One, Interwar, and World War Two artillery was in need of some work.  So you see a lot of towed artillery here.  They include 4.2 inch gun conversions of the Roco 155mm towed howitzer, several versions of the French 75mm gun, and several version of the Roco 105mm towed howitzer.  Some of them are conversions to the initial production version with small shield and wooden wagon wheels.  Others have been converted to the Airborne 105mm howitzer with the short barrel and no shield.

My spares box was filled with junk truck parts and so I cobbled together a number of different radar, and communication van vehicles.  There is also a bunch of Heiser 2 1/2 ton trucks built just as stock trucks, a few Roco 37mm AT guns, and artillery towing Caterpillar tractors.  The upper left corner are some toys made in the 1930s that I use for huge coast defense mortars.

I am also working on my Sherman tanks.  I purchases and built a full battalion of Heiser Models Sherman M4A3 tanks and built them all as identical versions. Then I built and tidied up all my remaining Shermans and Sherman bits from the spares box.  Most of these are primer painted waiting for the olive drab.

Now I am building Lee tanks and here is some of the progress on that project.  Not pictured are a bunch of other trucks and artillery that is not finished getting painted.
 

Lee Tank Parts and Sorting

The Germans captured several Lee tanks, from the US Army and Russia, mostly.  My plan is to field one as the Kummersdorf Army testing tank, captured by the Germans in North Africa from North Africa.  The other one I intend to use a a captured tank from Russia and I am going to paint it as a George Washington Legion tank.  It probably did not exist, or if it did exist is was a propaganda rather than actual combat unit.  I am building a small, platoon size unit with a couple tanks and a few other vehicles.  The troops will fight on the Russian front and are equipped with a variety of US and German weapons and equipment.

Grant tanks, the main difference is the turret, sand skirts, and the storage boxes from American Lee tanks.

I have been inspecting and sorting my Lee tanks and putting them into boxes once they are complete as North African Lee tanks.

Part of my plan is to build a battalion of Lee tanks for North African, US Army use.  I am still doing some of the research.

I got some small boxes to hold my Lee / CDL turrets in when they are not in use on the tanks.

Extra parts.  As I build the Lees I choose from two different 37mm guns, three different 75mm guns.
 three sets of side hatches or not side hatches, different storage boxes and other bits and bobs.

Building Lee Tanks

I have built several of these tanks and so I have a good idea on how to build them efficiently. 

My Makin Island tank company plan requires 19 tank models.  I opened the packages of the tanks and inspected and sorted all the parts.  They will use the short barrel 75mm cannon with the counter-weight on the end.  Reviresco includes three choices for main guns, including the short barrel without the counter-weight and long barrel gun.  The 37mm gun has the counterweight, and Reviresco kit includes the 37mm with and without the counter-weight.  Each of the tanks have three ventilators, and two tank track boxes; these are optional parts in the kits. 

Each tank had two identical but mirror image storage boxes mounted on the left and right rear corners.  Reviresco gives several different storage boxes and it took a while to sort them.

I purchased these models over a period of perhaps 20 years, and some degradation of the mold has taken place over that time, but overall the model parts are very clean.  What flash there was mostly was on the tracks.  It was easily cleaned off.  I save old, dull, X-Acto #11 blades in a special "Used" storage box.  While they are too dull to cleanly cut plastic, they work just fine to cut soft metal.  I used the used blades to cut only a few pieces and then they go into the trash.

I put two Lee tanks in each of my little plastic trays to keep the parts straight.  I mostly sorted them, trimmed the flash from parts, and then glued them together sequentially.  That way I gained experience on each part as I did the work, so that by the last tank I was really good at trimming the flash or placing the glue.

The models were built mostly according to the instructions with no significant variation. 
 

Lee Tanks

In World War Two as many as a company of 17 Lee M3A5 diesel powered tanks were landed on Makin Island with the 27th US Army Infantry Division at the same time the Marines landed on Tarawa.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about specifically how many were landed and what specific versions were used.  At least one source shows a photo of a Lee tank on Makin and says it could be a welded hull M3A3 diesel engine tank.  It does look like it could be, but the photo is of poor quality.  The US Army did tend to assign tanks by engine type, rather than the manufacture of the hull.  So having riveted hull and welded hull tanks in the same unit could be possible.

The 193rd Tank Battalion had been formed from National Guard units from Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, on September 1, 1940.  Eventually they were issued Lee tanks and moved to Hawaii.

 

I am building one company of 17 Lee tanks, with the Reviresco M3A5 diesel engine, riveted hull version and two extra M3A3 welded hull, diesel engine version as alternates.

The Reviresco model is made of soft metal and has many extra and alternate parts.  Reviresco makes several versions of the Lee, and a Grant.  With these models you can probably make all the sub-versions of the Lee except the Canal Defense Light and the very late production versions with the "heavy" VVSS Sherman tank type suspension.  Both the Roco Minitanks and Heiser Models Sherman tanks suspensions both fit the Reviresco kits with only a little bit of easy modification.

Bill Jr. Models made a Canal Defense light turret and it fits the Reviresco model with a little bit of fiddling.  I add a small piece of wooden dowel to the bottom of the CDL turret to make it more stable.  While the CDL often had some modifications to the hull, I just all the new turret and call it close enough so my Lee tanks can serve Early War as tanks and Late War as Canal Defense Lights.

 

Tank Crew and Lee

Tank from Reviersco and troops by Orion.

The make a good 1943 tank crew I think.

Use the tank for cover.

Lean over the fender and fire.

Lurking at the rear.
 

Lee Company +

My line up of Lee & Grant tanks, HO scale by Heiser Models and Reviersco.

There are so many versions I have taken to numbering each sub variant.  This is a Lee with diesel engine, no storage boxes on the back, no roof ventilators, and short barrel gun with counterweight.

The first three tanks at the bottom are the Grant, used by the British, and given a new turret with a radio in it at the request of the British.  The US actually manned three of them in British North Africa to gain combat experience.

I like the steampunk look with the rivets and all the guns.

Some of these I have had for a while and they are painted with white primer.  The newer ones have been painted with gray primer.

This one has been painted with Testors now discontinued 1911 Olive Drab as a paint test to see how it looked on these metal models.

Some like this welded Lee are still bare metal.

This cast hull Lee is painted with flat white primer.  I don't think it covered well so I went to the dark gray primer.

 Same tank type in bare metal.

Lee Series Diesel Engine Tank

US M3A4 Lee tank with diesel engine.

There were at least 22 different versions of the Lee tank.  Note this one has side hatches that open.

And a short barrel gun with a counterweight on the end.

Others have side hatched that are welded closed and still later versions had no hole for the side hatch.  Others had the short barrel gun with no counterweight and late production versions had a very long barrel.

Note the air exhaust openings, the rear is much different on the diesel version compared to the gasoline version.

This tank is also riveted, but diesel tanks were made in welded versions too.

The Lee was also made with a smooth round cast hull, but not with diesel engine.

I call this type version 18.
 

Lee and the Jeeps

Painting Lee tanks.

Using the now discontinued Model Master 1911 Olive Drab.

Tank looks really good painted up.

Good by old friend!  Rust-Oleum purchased Testors and discontinued many of their paints, this was one of them.

Primer painting.

Using this paint.

 Paul Heiser Jeeps, also hard to find these days.