Oh yeah don’t worry I check every single kit I buy before, haha
The Takom kit looks good, people say is accurate, has workable suspension, and in general Takom are considered good, so, yeah, got that one!
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That’s even more reassuring! Thank you!
It’s good to be reassured I haven’t “missed out” on a significant tank
And let me be clear, I completely respect the M3 Lee!
I know it was a serviceable tank that did its job admirably as a stopgap until the Sherman came along, and it more than held its own, and despite some reliability issues an awkwardness, it was far from the “coffin/death trap” people attribute it to be 
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I agree, the M3 was a stopgap until the Sherman was ready. It wasn’t a pretty tank or a well laid out tank. In essence, the M3 was basically a modified M2 Medium tank with a really big gun mounted in a sponson on the side.
It was terribly cramped with a crew of seven. The 75mm gun only had 30 degrees of traverse and couldn’t be laid on target without aiming the entire tank at the target. The 37mm gun on top was mostly ineffective. The Brits didn’t really want it, but were desperate enough to accept them
In a sense, you couldn’t tell the story of American or British armor without including the M3 Grant and Lee. Despite its design and shortcomings, the British couldn’t defeat the Germans in North Africa without it.
“The advent of the new American tank has torn great holes in our ranks” -Erwin Rommel
Edro
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I read through the thread to see if someone beat me to it. But I’ll reiterate the point; as a good modeler, isn’t it your duty to just buy both? I think that’s what the model companies count on, anyways.
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those n african models with the yellow markings make awesome subjects for weathering with dust
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Having built both (well, a MiniArt M3 with interior, a slightly converted MiniArt M3A5 and a Takom Grant CDL), I would argue that the MiniArt kits are more accurate. “Better” depends on what’s under consideration … Easier to build? Takom is better. More and finer detail? MiniArt is better. Don’t like photo-etch? Takom is better. Do like photo-etch? MiniArt is better. Etc.
It’s basically two kits in one. What you could do, of course, is sell the interior sprues to someone who has a MiniArt kit without interior but wants to add that to it 
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Oh trust me, had I had the room, I definitely would have gotten both 
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Oof I don’t do pigment weathering I just plain suck at it 
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Well I already placed the order for the Takom one, but regardless…
I am a certified PE hater lmao, I’d take any option other than PE, but I do it when it needs to be done (even if I don’t do it well)
Also do forgive me, I didn’t see that it’s a 2-in-1, it’s simply just a normal interior kit? I didn’t see an early Miniart Lee with no interior…
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“2-in-1” is a marketing gimmick, thirty years ago those kits would just have said they include optional parts for a different version 
What I meant with:—
… is that if you build a kit that includes an interior, in terms of time and effort it’s much like building two kits: the normal vehicle plus its insides.
Anyway, the Takom M3 medium kits are good, just not quite as refined (is perhaps the word) as the MiniArt ones. My only real issue with them is the link-and-length tracks, which I’m not a fan of (but some people are). But since you’ve also bought workable tracks (the MiniArt ones?) you’ve got that solved, too
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Ahhh okay I see
Yup, makes sense haha
Well again, I am extremely scared of interior kits
And also, I gotta say, I don’t understand them? At least versions without cutaways?
Cuz like, what’s the point? You can’t see the interior? I mean I guess if you got hatches open you can see a bit of it, but at 1/35 scale… Or I guess you can take off the turret and marvel at the splendors, but like, the engine, transmission…
I just don’t get interior kits. Don’t think I’l lever do one.
And yup, got the miniart ones! I’m very excited because the way they made the tracks workable seems very very good, unlike other double pin workable track designs like Takom’s, Ryefield’s, or the dreadful AFV club ones
The only problem is I paid 50 dollars for them on ebay 
They’re practically extinct, like the Lee itself and pretty much 50% of the things I find myself wanting to buy
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You can see a reasonable amount of the interior, but I agree that the amount of effort needed usually is a bit out of proportion to the added effect on the model. FWIW, here’s an impression what you can see on a MiniArt M3 (but with Takom markings) with absolutely all of the hatches open:
Which is why I left the turret and engine deck loose:
In practice you can see more than photos show, because with the real model you can move your head around and look deeper into the interior, but still, I don’t think I would do this again unless I had a good reason to want to show off the insides of the tank.
As for your MiniArt tracks, they will be much easier to assemble if you make yourself a simple jig:
I first assembled a couple of links the way MiniArt tells you to, but found that difficult. The jig is just four bits of wood: the two on the sides are far enough apart that the length of tracks sits nicely between them, with the strips against the sides of the track without being tight.
What I do is place three “inside” blocks (part Eg1, the side with the raised bit in the middle) against each other in the jig, drop in four end connectors onto them, apply a small bit of Tamiya extra thin cement to the middle of the middle block, then put on an outside block (Eh1) and firmly push it in place. Then add another Eg1 to one side, put on two more end connectors, add a drop of glue and an Eh1, repeat.
Doing it this way instead of assembling the track with the teeth pointing up makes it much easier, because you don’t have to drop a part Eg1 between the end connectors without pushing them away.
Added tip: write 1, 2, 3 etc. with a pencil on the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth etc. block so you don’t need to keep re-counting how far you’ve gotten
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Jakko that’s a great looking M3
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Skimmed this thread, and can’t see anybody offering the correct advice to a modeller with limited shelf space - you need to get a bigger house! 
Both Lees and Grants are worth having, if there is enough space for them.
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Okay I won’t lie, that’s a very handsome M3 Lee, and I’ll also say it’s actually really cool to be able to see a detailed interior inside, like you just shrunk an actual tank
I don’t know. I’m just scared of interior kits, and also like, most of the tanks I have or plan on having don’t have interior kits, and like, my thinking is that it’s disappointing to only have some tanks with interiors and others without
I’m just rambling at this point haha
Either way, fantastic model, super cool, looks real!
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Haha, if only…
I have so many more models I wanna add…
But alas, interior design foils me…
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What’s the story on those star markings?
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Between WW 1 & 2
" Three colored star, circle with blue background and white five pointed star with a red circle, that does not touch the blue background. Used pre-war and is identical to the marking on aircraft.[3]"
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I know that, but am curious about the reversal of colors: white star on a red disc, blue circle in the center.
I do like that look. 
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Thank you both
I don’t see the point of a full interior unless there are a good number of hatches that will let you see it. The M3 medium is sort of a borderline case, IMHO, mainly because of those big side doors. Even on the very similar Sherman, for example, you can see a lot less because it has fewer and mostly smaller hatches.
Early on, this was the style used on US Army ground vehicles. It was replaced in 1941 or ’42, I think (off the top of my head), by the same style as used on USAAC aircraft. The difference is more than just the reversal of the red and blue: on the tank marking, the disc in the middle touched the inner points of the star, while on the USAAC marking, the disc touched the lines that you can draw between the outer points, making it slightly smaller. Also notice that the star on the hull front is point-down.
If you have David Doyle’s M3 Lee Grant: The Design, Production and Service of the M3 Lee Medium Tank, The Foundation of America’sTank Industry (Stannington: AFV Modeller Publications, 2020; ISBN 978-0-9935646-8-0), the bottom photo on page 286 shows a tank with this type of marking: the centre disc is large enough to touch the star’s inner points and it’s point-down.
The MiniArt kit has the later style markings with the blue discs, but I wanted to show a very early, factory-fresh M3 medium, so I asked on a forum if anyone had the Takom markings left over.
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