I
have started working on an M3A1 using the Academy kit and the
Formations upper hull kit and the new lower hull kit. I hadn't seen any
other online reviews of the lower hull that Rob has put out, so I
thought I would post a few photos and a short review of the hull since
it is quite a nice kit. Please pardon the fuzzy photos.
The purpose of the hull is twofold, 1) it will allow the modeler to easily use the superb AFV Club M3/M5 suspension kit with the Academy of Tamiya M3/M3A1’s and 2) it corrects the detail shortcomings of the Academy kit, both interior and exterior. The part is cast in the usual cream colored resin. My part had no surface bubbles and no warping. The kit includes all of the return roller spindles and the final drive covers.
The part fits up very well in its designed role of working with the Formations M3A1 upper hull, and consequently it is a drop fit into any of the Academy hulls. It will also looks like it would work well with the Tamiya M3 hull with slight modification.
The detail captured on the part is wonderful. The differential housing has the subtle cast texture that is apparent on the actual tank part. The Academy M3A1 interior details can easily be used and modification of the lower hull interior is no longer necessary for a presentable model. The details appear to be correct for the M3 and M3A1 riveted design, as opposed to the M3A3 welded design. The kit takes advantage of the nice lower rear hull plate included amongst the numerous parts thrown in with the AFV Club suspension kit.
The casting sprue was located on the inside upper lip of the differential housing and careful removal was required. The thickness of the differential housing casting lip had to be adjusted to the correct thickness. What appears to be a gap in the photo below is actually the graphite I used to mark the high spots while I was getting a tight fit in the upper/lower hull joint.
The sponson bottoms are located exactly at the same height of the Academy part and a slight tweak must be applied to get the fender attachment to look right. The biggest visual flaw with the Academy hull is the fender intersection with the sponson. The fenders bottom edges do not actually intersect the sponson lower edge at the ends of the sponson sides, but should intersect under the sponson. The Academy part is too deep; the sponson lower edge is too far down. This is easily remedied by moving the lower edge of the sponson up the correct amount in between the fender intersection points by beveling. The lower hull sponson bottoms are also beveled.
All in all it’s a great kit. I think if I could get an actual free weekend I could crank out a very nicely detailed M3A1. I need to get a hold of another one for my M3 project.
Here’s the link to the Formations page with some more pictures:
http://www.formationsmodels.com/474421.html
Mike Canaday
The purpose of the hull is twofold, 1) it will allow the modeler to easily use the superb AFV Club M3/M5 suspension kit with the Academy of Tamiya M3/M3A1’s and 2) it corrects the detail shortcomings of the Academy kit, both interior and exterior. The part is cast in the usual cream colored resin. My part had no surface bubbles and no warping. The kit includes all of the return roller spindles and the final drive covers.
The part fits up very well in its designed role of working with the Formations M3A1 upper hull, and consequently it is a drop fit into any of the Academy hulls. It will also looks like it would work well with the Tamiya M3 hull with slight modification.
The detail captured on the part is wonderful. The differential housing has the subtle cast texture that is apparent on the actual tank part. The Academy M3A1 interior details can easily be used and modification of the lower hull interior is no longer necessary for a presentable model. The details appear to be correct for the M3 and M3A1 riveted design, as opposed to the M3A3 welded design. The kit takes advantage of the nice lower rear hull plate included amongst the numerous parts thrown in with the AFV Club suspension kit.
The casting sprue was located on the inside upper lip of the differential housing and careful removal was required. The thickness of the differential housing casting lip had to be adjusted to the correct thickness. What appears to be a gap in the photo below is actually the graphite I used to mark the high spots while I was getting a tight fit in the upper/lower hull joint.
The sponson bottoms are located exactly at the same height of the Academy part and a slight tweak must be applied to get the fender attachment to look right. The biggest visual flaw with the Academy hull is the fender intersection with the sponson. The fenders bottom edges do not actually intersect the sponson lower edge at the ends of the sponson sides, but should intersect under the sponson. The Academy part is too deep; the sponson lower edge is too far down. This is easily remedied by moving the lower edge of the sponson up the correct amount in between the fender intersection points by beveling. The lower hull sponson bottoms are also beveled.
All in all it’s a great kit. I think if I could get an actual free weekend I could crank out a very nicely detailed M3A1. I need to get a hold of another one for my M3 project.
Here’s the link to the Formations page with some more pictures:
http://www.formationsmodels.com/474421.html
Mike Canaday