Great to hear you are recovering according to plan, Mike 
Looking forward to see more of your build later 
1 Like
5 Likes
Construction finished - painting seems very simple. Weathering maybe not so much.
More to follow soon
9 Likes
I’m calling this one done. Ensign Jesse Brown’s F4U-4 Corsair from Devotion. Built from Revell of Germany’s kit. It was finished enough for the Black History Month display at February’s Model Mania display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. But it took a bit of battle damage on the way home. Finally got it all put back together.
Now I just have to complete the pair by finishing off Lieutenant (J.G.) Tom Hudner’s ride.
10 Likes
My USS Enterprise CVN-65 is now complete. The airwing and deck equipment still need to be done but we are into the final stretch now!
More pictures on my build log 
10 Likes
Great builds guys.
Love the Corsair Mark. Just something about the canted wings that appeals. Good to see she was not damaged beyond repair.
The floaty (and almost floaty) things are looking great too.
I never realised just how much detail the sub kit actually had Jesper. Will make an interesting painting project.
The ‘Big E’ is a real stand out Rory. Just so much to look at and admire. I have enjoyed watching this one come together.
Beautiful builds. Mark and Rory. Great entries to the campaign 
A bit of progress on U-96. The main colors are on. Next are some detail painting. The decals and a gloss coat.
Then some weathering which I have no idea of doing yet 
10 Likes
With time running out on this campaign, it seemed like a good time to pull the Academy M3 Lee out of the garage and start work on Lulubelle.
It turns out the kit was started long ago and thus does not qualify for the campaign. July sure turned out to be a rough month on the model front. Oh well. I will add this one to my Unfinished Business queue. It is model number 30.
5 Likes
Given you’ve only assembled a few of the bogies, I’d ask Pete if it’s OK anyway! I’d certainly like to see what you can do with it.
6 Likes
The general rule is no more than 25% started qualifies. Up to Pete, of course.
Michael 
2 Likes
@Damraska Doug, I’ll accept this as okay for this group build. As the guys indicate, there is not much done so far. Looking forward to seeing how Lulebelle comes out.
3 Likes
Oh yay. Thank you! That saves me the trouble of ordering a Los Angeles sub.
If I recall correctly, when the Academy M3 was first released it came with the wrong bogie housings. They are too tall. MRC managers decided to offer a free replacement sprue that corrects the problem. That is why the UPC code on the side of the box is gone. I vaguely remember cutting out and assembling a bogie to make sure the new parts fit. Strangely, it appears I used return rollers from a Dragon kit. I have no idea why. I also remember comparing various parts to a Tamiya M3 Lee. That explains the cleaned up hull and turret.
I have never built a tank interior. This could get interesting.
…
I will be using Academy kit 13206, issued in 2006, as the basis for Lulubelle, an American M3 Lee medium tank featured in the 1943 movie Sahara, starring Humphrey Bogart.
The Sherman Minutia website offers a large amount of information on the M3 Lee tank. The proprietors of Sherman Minutia believe Lulubelle was a tank of the 752nd tank battalion, accepted for service in November 1941, used at the US Army Desert Training Center. Sahara was filmed at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park near the Salton Sea with production running from 29 January to 17 April 1943. It is believed the US 4th Armored Division provided equipment for the film.
The picture above shows numerous details of Lulubelle as she appeared in the film.
- ‘Fancy’ type sprockets
- T41 track
- Open spoke cast road wheels
- Open spoke cast idlers
- Top mounted return rollers
- Three piece transmission cover
- Long version of the 75mm gun without a counter-weight
- Long version of the 37mm gun without a counter weight
- Grouser box on the hull front, just above the transmission cover
- Grouser box on the fighting compartment roof, near the front
- Stowage boxes on the left and right rear corners of the hull
- The shape and style of the antenna pot
- Other pictures show the ‘Quick Fix’ exhaust modification installed
- Side doors are installed and functional
- Color is very probably Olive Drab
- Markings are very probably white with Blue Drab serial numbers
I am not an expert on the M3 or M4 tank and my understanding of details ends here.
Some reviewers of the Academy kit report that the front face of the turret is sloped incorrectly. Comparing the Academy turret to pictures and plans confirms this issue. To me, it looks like the top of the turret mantlet is about 1.5 mm too far forward. Only a person with a fair bit of knowledge about the M3 Lee would notice this. Fixing the slope could cause problems with the mantlet. I may or may not fix this issue.
My kit does not include tracks. The ones I intended to purchase sold out today so, in the spirit of July being a complete Suck Fest, I have no clue how I will solve that problem.
Another issue involves an escape hatch on the floor of the fighting compartment. This was added when the side doors were welded shut and, eventually, eliminated. The Academy model includes the escape hatch on the floor of the fighting compartment. The escape hatch does not appear on the belly plate. Since Lulubelle was accepted in late 1941 and very obviously has functional side doors, the belly hatch on the fighting compartment floor needs to go.
Academy represented the screen over the engine as molded plastic. On the real vehicle, it is possible to look through the screen and see the engine. I am not adding an engine but may add the screen.
The first order of business will involve fitting bogies to the hull. Mounting pins for the bogies extend into the hull. On the inside surface, these mounting pins must be sanded flat and filled because they show on the fighting compartment walls. After that, I need to figure out how to approach painting the interior.
6 Likes
Progress! Bogies trucks are built up and seams filled but still need stiffening brackets fitted. Three piece transmission cover is in place and seams filled. There was a small gap between the transmission cover and the hull bottom, but that was easy to shim with some plastic card. The interior is starting to come together. There are a lot of knock out pin marks on the undersides of the fenders to fill or sand out.
I am still puzzling out a way to paint the interior. If I want the interior parts primed and painted on all sides, that needs to happen before assembly. On my Jeep for the Summer Nostalgia campaign, I masked all contact surfaces before applying primer and base paint. This model is more complicated, but the same system should work.
After many hours of searching, I found and ordered two sets of T41 tracks from a US retailer. Hopefully, the order fills and gets to me in time.
So far, the Academy kit I am using seems almost perfect for Lulubelle. As mentioned in my previous post, the front of the turret is definitely a few degrees off. I intend to test fit both versions of the 75mm gun and pick the one that looks most like the picture in my previous post. The kit does not include grouser boxes or grousers. Scratch building the boxes is easy. Making the grousers will take some effort.
7 Likes
I don’t know what sort of track you’ve ordered so I don’t know whether this applies in this case, but I’ve heard that with rubber band tracks one must glue the pivoting beams holding the road wheels for the end bogies in a horizontal position and allow them to set firmly, otherwise the tension in the tracks will pull up the outermost road wheels and the tank will look like it’s sitting on wooden horse rockers…
Cheers,
M
3 Likes
Thank you for the advice!
Years ago, I built a Porsche Tiger with individual link tracks. Even though I glued all the trucks in place before adding the tracks, two wheels ended up higher than the others. I took the finished project to my local model club. The most experienced modeler in the club took one look at the Tiger and said something like, “Your suspension is floating.” Well…Yeah. Ever since, after gluing all the suspension elements, I place the model on a level surface to dry, usually with a book or two on top, to make sure everything ends up true.
For me, American medium tank suspensions are difficult to paint. Things could get ugly.
2 Likes
Yes. I have seen many Sherman rocking horses in my time…
Okay Everyone. Just a heads up… One month to go until the ‘film will be in the can’ and the shoot will be ‘a wrap’.
1 Like
Totally no pressure or anything.
…
Academy is kinda the Mirror Universe version of Tamiya. Their models look great in the box but are actually evil versions of kits from another universe.
This photo shows the back plate of the M3 which should end up flush with the side hull plates. That would be a big nope.
This picture shows an issue that really has me puzzled. The side plate should end up flush with the sponson floor. It does not. In order to rectify the problem, I tried popping open a seam and lowering the side plate. That does not work but I did end up borking a section of the interior, which is fun.
The model includes about 100 knock out pin marks that show and need filling or sanding out. There are some sink holes for good measure. Fit is typical of an Academy model. Things seem to be going well and then…they are not. 
A lot of flat plates fit together to form the faceted hull but, rather obviously, something went amiss.
One nice thing about this model is that it provides a large number of spare parts. Some of them will end up on a Tamiya M3 Lee waiting in the closet. While far less accurate than this model, all major parts of the Tamiya M3 fit quite well.
5 Likes
Lulubelle is starting to take shape.
All six suspension bogies were numbered and tack glued to the hull. All swing arms were glued in place and left to dry on a flat surface. The bogies can now be broken off for painting.
The hull was glued back together. A shim along the bottom of the left side plate will bring it even with the corresponding sponson. The right side does not have this issue.
The front face of the turret was sanded back to increase the slope. The mantlet still needs some adjustment.
The edges of various hull plates were shaved and sanded back to achieve a level surface. A few plates now need shimming.
The tail plate was broken off, various hull plates shaved back, and then the tail plate restored. This solved the overhang problem.
At this point, all major shape issues are resolved or have a resolution in progress. The large number of ejector pin and sink marks make progress slow. So far, all interior parts fit fairly well.
7 Likes
Knock out pin marks. They’re what’s for dinner.
The bracing struts around the inside of the engine deck were added to hide gaps.
The heat in California makes building by day a serious problem. It occurred to me that I can cut out parts by day, card them up, and then rapidly build at night. This plan mostly worked but the constant need to fill knock out pin holes complicates everything with this project. Even the tiny little reinforcing ribs that go on top of each bogie truck have a knock out pin hole to fill. The funniest one on the entire model is on the vision block used by the 75mm gunner. It is right in the middle of the vision block glass, which is recessed inside the housing, making it impossible to fix with filler.
The turret now looks like it has a really horrible disease. In the past, I would have done this with Mr. Surfacer but that is too toxic. Instead, I used Testor’s Contour Putty. Yes. I know. It was almost as bad as Mr. Surfacer. We will all find out in a future episode if this actually works.
After adding all that texture, it occurred to me that Vallejo makes a dozen texture products to simulate things like concrete and stucco. One of those will surely work as an excellent, non-toxic way to simulate cast and rolled armor.
I have identified many more things to address with the Academy M3 Lee.
-
Lulubelle mounts the short barreled 75mm gun. The long barrel needs to come off.
-
Lulubelle may use a different exhaust configuration than the one supplied. The three possibilities are fish tail exhausts, round exhaust cleaners, and box exhaust cleaners. The kit comes with round exhaust cleaners. Lulubelle may use square ones. There is a scene in the movie were Humphrey Bogart works on the engine. That should provide the necessary clarification.
-
Related to (2), Lulubelle may have extended armor plates on the rear to protect the exhaust cleaners. The scene mentioned above should also help clarify this matter.
-
The model includes many vision ports that may be posed open. Unfortunately, the vision port flaps do not contain any interior detail. There is also a deep ejector pin hole in the center back of each vision port flap. Of course there is.
-
The machine gun cupola allows hatches to be posed open, but the cupola contains no interior detail. The vision ports on the cupola can be posed open but lead to a wall of plastic.
-
With the exception of the 37mm gun breech, the turret does not contain any interior detail. The vision port on the rear of the turret is not functional and leads to nowhere.
-
The interior is missing a lot of detail such as bolt heads for the bogie mounting plates, bolts and flanges used to connect the armor plates, the interior elements of vision blocks, and the interior detail on the roof hatch.
-
Fit problems and poor instructions plague the model. The worst fit issue is encountered when assembling the 37mm gun. The light machine gun simply cannot fit as described. Some parts of the 75mm gun make no sense and seem to hang in space.
-
As mentioned in (7), the hull top hatch does not have any interior detail. Specifically, it is missing a latch.
Instructions for a Miniart M3 Lee provide extremely good drawings for adding details to this model. Unfortunately, time is of the essence and scratch building an accurate interior would take weeks. Therefore, I will do…something.
Edit: I am using the wrong terminology with regards the M3 Lee exhaust systems. There are only two configurations–Pepper Pot (the style in the Academy M3 Lee) and Fish Tail with external Air Cleaners.
5 Likes