Lee Tank Information

Late production Lee with cast hull, long barrel 75mm cannon, and heavy suspension, with Canal Defense Light turret.  You can see in the background there are spare gun turrets and more CDLs.

I put a bit of wooden dowel on the bottom of the CDL turret to make it fit better on the Lee.

The workspace as the Lees get built.

M3A5 Lee tanks for Makin Island.

M3 Lee for the US Army in North Africa, Germany, and eventually the USSR.

A few mis-cast parts that were replaced by Reviresco, without charge.  Great customer service.

The typical Lee M3 tank used by the US Army from the Reviresco package.

So my total Lee / Grant plan is:

3 Grant tanks for US Army with the British Army in North Africa.

17 Lee M3A5 diesel engine tanks for Makin Island battle.

2 Lee M3 Lee tanks for WWII German.

54 M3 Lee tanks for US Army North Africa.

36 Lee tanks of various makes for use in CONUS along with the 17 Makin Island tanks, to include two M3A3 diesel engined welded hull tanks that can be swapped out for two of the Makin Island tanks.

10 Lee M3 Lee tanks for the USSR Lend Lease.

122 total Lee / Grant tanks.  Nearly all are Reviresco, but a few are Heiser Models.
 

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.

 

Paints

Rust-Oleum purchased Testors and they came out with the old Olive Drab spray paint again.

It covers very well, here is a resin Paul Heiser US Army 2 1/2 ton truck and a Reviresco M3 Lee medium tank in metal.

M3 medium Lee tank, used on Makin in the Pacific and in North Africa in a couple battalions by US Army troops.

I like the resin trucks because they are nice and sturdy and few parts to assemble.

 The tires are craft pain, Apple Barrel Jet Black and the canvas is the ancient Testors brush on 1165 Flat Olive.  I think I have used that since about 1970!