Your improvements look great G.  

PlasticJunkie, Brandon, Gamera,

Thanks guys!  It feels weird hammering away on a subject that I have no interest in save for the nostalgia.  It is fun though.    I'd better finish up so I can get back to work on the stuff I do care about!

   Hang in there G, the end is in sight.....then some other cool hunk of iron will grab your eye and.....BOOM your a treadhead LOL. Enjoying your build.

Hey guys, I got some primer on to see how things looked.

Now and then a thread pops up questioning the use of primer, and here is my answer.

The Tamiya Stuart 30 Cals look outstanding!

Lots of little stuff to fix/adjust, but all easy enough.

Some of the holes for the tool locating pins were off.  I'll just elongate select holes to allow the pins to drop in.  I plugged the holes for the tow rope, since I am planning to replace it with some leftover nylon string and tow eyes.

I used my home brew putty to texture the mufflers in preparation for weathering them.

A friend got me some decals for Lulubelle from the movie Sahara, so I'll be using them for the kit.  It offers markings from both movies, so I just gotta go watch the movies to decide which one to go with.

I agree, the later 30 cal barrels look good. I guess you know the turret vision port surround needs to be faired into the turret casting itself, must be the reason you mentioned the use of primer.....

RBaer

I guess you know the turret vision port surround needs to be faired into the turret casting itself, must be the reason you mentioned the use of primer.....

Yes!  And I just learned that the transmission bolt strip is part of the overall casting, not a separate part!  All easy to work out, so not feeling too much stress.

One thing I am wondering about is the painting of the bogeys.  If I do it my old way, it would mean painting everything separately, assembling, filling/sanding, repainting, then weathering.  I see many guys just assemble everything, then paint/weather.  I'd like to give that a try.  Does anyone have pointers?  Prepaint the insides of the bogeys and the wheel hubs?  Not necessary?

That looks good. If you can attach the wheels separtly I paint them so. With bogies like this I'd just go ahead and put the wheels in there and then paint them with a brush after spraying the whole tank with olive drab.

Gamera,

Yeah, I bit the bullet and pre-painted the insides of the bogeys flat black, then glued them together.  Once the ugly mismatched seams are made less ugly and less mismatched, I'll douse everything with flat black before starting the actual painting process.

After all the bogeys were assembled, I dry fit them on the hull to check to see how tight the kit "rubber band" tracks were.

They are a tight fit, but not "rip the idler wheels off their axle mounts" tight.  I had a M4 Sherman and a Leopard from Italeri that did just that.  

And now the tedious filling of all the sloppy workmanship begins.

The transmisison bolt strip is actually part of the nose casting, but there was a step the way I glued it on.  It's too late to fix this, so I'll just fill in the gaps and let the step go.

The headlight guards turned out a lot better and required only minor filling.  I added the headlight assemblies, but not before drilling out the solid lenses.  I have some old Grief lenses that are turning yellow so what the heck I'll use them.  They will be oversprayed with a dust coat anyway.

That is looking fine G. Nothing like whipping one of these ancient mummies into shape!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QLzthSkfM

Yup, crack that kit!

When an older kit is found, you must whip it.

Before a new one comes around, you must whip it.

When something’s fitting wrong, you must whip it.

I say whip it.

Whip it good.

I say whip it.

Whip it good!

Real G

One thing I am wondering about is the painting of the bogeys.  If I do it my old way, it would mean painting everything separately, assembling, filling/sanding, repainting, then weathering.  I see many guys just assemble everything, then paint/weather.  I'd like to give that a try.  Does anyone have pointers?  Prepaint the insides of the bogeys and the wheel hubs?  Not necessary?

Check in below to see    

.............  how to do it

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/134935.aspx?page=5

Go wayyyy down to the 28th response.

The key pics are there but photobucket otherwise butchered this post.

G: She's coming along great! 

DM: I really like the idea of cutting the axles off to allow you to attach the road wheels later. And your idea on getting texture for the rollers- again great idea- I'm gong to file that away for my next non-E8 M4 build.

Gamera

DM: I really like the idea of cutting the axles off to allow you to attach the road wheels later. And your idea on getting texture for the rollers- again great idea- I'm gong to file that away for my next non-E8 M4 build.

Just the fruits of a simple mind.

                             Thanks Gamera....

Aaargh, I wish I had seen that tutorial before gluing stuff together!  So simple, yet so effective.  I will definitely do that on my Stuarts and M10.

Man, I wish the forum allowed hot linking to other threads; I would have looked at the tutorial and saved myself some work.  But thank you DM, it will improve my future builds.

And so the return rollers are metal?  I think the M3 Lee instructions would have you paint them black.  Another good to know thing.  And knowing is half the battle.   

I had lunch with my friend that ordered the decals today, so they are now in my grubby mitts.

They are from DEF Models, and represent the M3 Lee Lulubelle from the two versions of "Sahara".  The choice is obvious - the 1943 Humphrey Bogart version.

Now to hurry up and get those puttied areas sanded away.

Ohhhhhhhhh cool!!!

Somehow the M3 Lee looks funny to me in olive drab though, I'm just so used to seeing them in desert sand.

Looking great G. I built the Tamiya Tiger 1 when it first came out and I thought I was in modelling heaven, having previously only had access to Airfix HO/OO. Ive enjoyed reading this thread a great deal and watching your progress. Sometimes its great to ignore the demands of 'serious' modelling and just have fun. A great build, I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Well, the Bogart version is superior to the remake, so there is that.

Also, the remake has the Sherman-style TC hatch, which would need you to hack at your finished kit.

Now, off the top of my head, I cannot remember if the Bogart Lulubelle had blanked-off bow machine guns like the remake did.

Keeping the bow guns would explain how they had all the MG used in defense of the well.

From only memory, the Brits welded a plate over on the outside, US welded a plate on the inside.  But, I could have that backwards.  And, as the movie's tank was a loaner from Training Command, it might not have had the port bow slots welded over.

I can't remember if the Bogart Lulubelle was OD or sand, an given it's a B&W mmovie you can claim either.

Your kit, your pick.

Coming along nicely RG! Can't wait to see some OD on it. 

Okay gang, I was able to work a little on the M3.  I got impatient to see how all that putty work looked, so I took the model out this morning and hit it with some Tamiya spray primer.

Oops, the transmission casing has a bevel at the bolt strip, where I tried to level it before giving up.  I'll have to erase it and re-texture the area.

The turret side port was faired in.  I'll need to touch it up a bit before moving on.

The M3 Lee's armor was pretty thin, so the overlapping kit panels had to be faired in.  It was messy, but it is done.  Oops, there is a gap at the top of that hook!  Grrrr...

I model at a glacial pace, but the kit is sliding slowly but surely down the hill to completion.

It seems old kit builds are gaining traction on the forum as of late, which is nice.  I am actually enjoying applying modern techniques (plus old ones) to a kit that has been put to pasture.  I think the Tamiya M3 actually looks pretty good.  The fact that it was produced in 1974 is a testament to their tool makers.  The newer 30 Cal replacements blend right in and enhance, not embarass, the model.

Okay I lied.  There, I said it.

I was worried the kit's tight fitting "rubber band" tracks would stretch out later on, so I buckled and ordered a track set:

So here I go again with end pin connector indie link tracks.  I hate them so much I bought a set for my Tamiya M3 Stuart as well!  And I have some for the Tamiya M10 coming from another source.  The Stuart and M10 tracks are correct, but pretty stiff, and a friend said his recently completed M10 suffered disintegrating tacks after he weathered them.  This made me a bit averse to using those allegedly gluable tracks that are common these days.

Yeah, and you know how it is when you order something online - you throw stuff on the barbie just to make shipping worth it.    That little Messerschmitt fighter was a case of monkey-see-monkey-do.  See what the forum does?  It makes me buy more stuff!  Terrible.  The Be-200 is sweet though.  But I have to wonder about the shallow draft.  On the water, it almost looks like a ditched airliner.  I suppose it is meant to operate on calm water, not open ocean.  Oh, and the FM-2 is not mine.  Honest. 

Anyway, tonight I wash the M3 Lee's components and get ready for a final primer check and paint!

Real G: I don't blame you for replacing the tracks. Good call. 

They don't need to deal with a broken track link while being chased by the Giant Murder Hornet... 

Greysnake,

Yeah, but it is a two-edged sword.  The Miniart tracks have little bits of flash all over the place and the assembled track is a little too wide to fit between the kit sprockets.  You are a better man than me, because when I did a test run of 10 segments, it became obvious that I needed four hands to keep the end connectors in place.

So on to some pics:

I figured that by using some tape, the end connectors could be held in position long enough to glue the track pads together.

They are quite loose and twisty, so I will glue them in place once the entire runs are completed.  At least the track pitch appears to match the sprocket teeth.

Great ideas Greysnake!  I will try them.

Guess I'm wierd that I don't mind assembling those tracks. It's the cleaning up of all those tiny-teeny pieces that makes me cuss. I do it now while watching TV or YouTube videos. 

Gamera,

I tried the modeling-while-watching-TV thing, but apparently my brain cannot multi-task.  I am an analog dinosaur in the Digital Premium Coffee Twitter Fail Age.  Yeah, I also HATE cleaning up endless teeny-tiny flash on endless teeny-tiny parts!

One of my co-workers nicknamed me the Japaneesu Dinosaur.    So the Japaneesu Dinosaur has been dormant like Gojira for a bit, modeling-wise.  I'll try to wake up and wade back to the 1/35 shore of armor kits to continue my reign of terror.

Gotta make one of those track jigs Greysnake suggested.