Some Fun with Older Model Kits: Stuarts and Such!

As the reader we knew he was talking with Gen Stuart’s ghost… That’s much better than talking to yourself!

Some additional Stuart Inspiration:
This time from the Knob Creek Gun Range event in 2001.
(Located right on the edge of the Ft. Knox Reservation.)

KCG 3

M-20

KCG 5
All photos Copyright Michael Koenig 2001 ~ All Rights Reserved

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Mike, awesome job with the finish on your Stewart’s. I still love that kid. I haven’t built one 40 years but I’ve got a couple of them just waiting for the opportunity.

Most may think this more than a bit silly . . .but;

I have always felt that Armor models should have a bit of heft. After all it is ARMOR! So I tend to add a small group of nails or screws to the engine compartment or under the floor out of sight wherever the model allows.

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Screws glued in with white glue and allowed to dry overnight.


Question: Have you ever been in a bar and they bring you a big frosty stein of beer and you think it is a heavy glass stein and it ends up being made of plastic, and you almost throw the beer in your face on the first sip???

That’s the same thinking I apply to my model tanks. You expect Armor to have some weight to it even in 1/35th scale.

Also I feel, the extra weight helps them sit more properly on their road wheels and tracks.

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Another of my Stuart images; this time a vehicle from Robert’s Armory seen at the Lowell, IN; Buckley Homestead event (RIP) many years ago.


Photo Copyright Mike Koenig 2003 ! All Rights Reserved

FYI ~ Shot with my 1944 US Army PH-324 Kodak 35mm Camera.

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At the Risk of this being gross overkill . . .
I show you a few tanks both finished and under construction with some basic and also not so basic interiors:

Again all I am looking for is just the hint of an interior when looking down thru open hatches.
(Usually seen while looking past an installed figure.)


Basic M4 Sherman and Sherman Firefly:
With interior paint, Weighted and Firewalls Added

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T28 Pershing and Small Hatch D-Day Sherman
Interior paint, Weighted, Closed Sponsons and Firewalls

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Russian T34
Interior paint, Scratch built seats, Rudimentary Interior and Ammo Boxes ~ waiting on crew figures

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Some slightly more detailed German Interiors:
Mostly done with just bits and bobs of plastic and just a few actual detailing parts

Tiger I and Jagdpanzer IV
Scratch built seats, Interior paint, Firewalls and in the case of the Tiger I, a rough attempt at a turret basket, turret interior and torsion bar suspension.

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Look great. A lot of fun can be had with these oldies.
Somewhere I’ve got the old M3 to use as a guinea pig for the field applied mud camouflage seen in Tunisia. My plan was to use one of those Games Workshop textured paints to create the cammo. I think a few other paint brands have released similar things since.

An idea towards possibly making that Tunisian como mud;
Citadel makes several “crackle” texture paints they generally refer to as “Alien Skin”.

The one used here is called “Agrellan Earth”. It is sort of a light mud/tan color and here I have stained it to a darker shade of earth/dirt/grime to make the “crackle” really pop out.

Shown here is the recovery spade of my Tamiya Famo Sd.Kfz. 9

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That looks good.
You’d get some interesting effects with that.
My LHS carries the full range so I’ll have to grab a bottle next time I’m in.

Cheers.

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Not a Stuart but still a recon vehicle!

Working now on the old Tamiya M-20 Scout Car with a similar idea in mind as the Stuarts.


Doing a small hilly dio base for this one so I can crank the suspension and the steering just a bit for something just a little bit different.


No fender skirts for this one. (The skits were hinged upwards for easy servicing and were removable.)

The driver’s area of our M-20 at the Patton Museum was painted white so I went with that here.


The vehicle comes with a very nicely done radio as well! The inset areas should be black and all those buttons chrome. (yes chrome ~ trust me!)

scr-528_01
SCR-528 tray mounted transmitter and receiver assembly ~ Same as in the Shermans.


M-20
M20 seen at a 2002 reenactor event held at Knob creek Gun Range near Ft. Knox, Kentucky.


M8 Gaeta, Italy, 1944

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I am going to hazard a guess and say the reason we have an M8 Stuart/Scott and also an M8 armored car is because one is Mounted Cavalry and the other is a Self Propelled Gun (Artillery).

These being considered two totally different things by the US Military.

A couple more M5 Stuart shots again from the 2002 Knob Creek Gun Range event near Ft. Knox, Kentucky: (14th Armored vehicle)


Both photos Copyright Mike Koenig 2003 ~ All Rights Reserved.

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Close enough. One was M8 Howitzer Motor Carriage, and the other was M8 Scout Car. Try to come up with how many different M1 items there were and are…

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I have built an M3 Stuart/ Honey from the 7th Armoured division; Desert Rats of the 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars. Not brilliant but not too bad.





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More M-20 Model Inspiration:
Again from the Knob Creek Gun Range event in 2001.
(Located right on the edge of the Ft. Knox Reservation.)

M-20
All photos Copyright Michael Koenig 2001 ~ All Rights Reserved

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The Decals for the M8 have arrived!
I am calling this one as done.


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Also work continues on the M20 Scout Car:

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Not really…I talk to myself all the time and I always get the BEST answers! LOL

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But don’t you get annoyed with yourself… asking questions when you already knew the answers?

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Not really… It’s kind of like opening a comment for debate!

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Oh, now I get it! Stuart’s Ghost Tank. I really had to scroll back to figure out where this was coming from.

For awhile there I thought we had some Ghosts in the Machine!