One of my last projects to wrap up for 2012 is my 1/72 M3/Grant I of the British Army 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, 7th Armoured Brigade of the famous “Desert Rats”, May 1942 at the Battle of Gazala. This is the old Airfix kit that was first released in 1969. The kit when built out of the box assembles more as the US version “Lee” than the “Grant”. I built this for a couple of reasons, the first was that I knew very little about the M3 (what is the Lee, what is Grant?), and secondly that it was a build as a thank you to one of my uncles for inspiring and teaching me as a little kid to what it today something I am kind of good at, and my favorite hobby.
The kit has only a few minor changes from being built out of the box. It misses the sand-guards and a couple of other lumps and bumps that were unique to the Grant, plus I think the antenna may not be quite correct. The kit also comes with a Lee turret, so I built that too just to see what it was like. The differences other than that were minor. The reason for the turrets was that the British thought the silhouette was too high, and therefore went with the lower profile type. Anyway, the kit stacks up quite well for an old mold. The paint work was a lot of fun, and I think she looks like a machine sitting on the sands south of Knightsbridge, waiting for Rommel in late May 1942. A true little “Desert Rat”..
I’m really proud of her as she sits in my collection cabinet. - Adam