M3A1 CDL "Leaflet" tank; aka "T10 Shop Tractor"

I've reached a milestone on this project. The resin upper hull is now permanently joined to the lower hull, with the gun mount installed and able to traverse. Normally I would not install the main gun this early, but it was necessary to proceed with shaping the gun shield. The images below show the real thing and my progress so far:









I like what I see so far. The "ear" at the outside top corner still needs to be refined, and I have not started on the box portion atop the conical collar. Also, I think that I may need to add material to the bottom to increase the depth. But so far, so good! I just hope that having that gun barrel installed won't cause me too much grief as I proceed with the rest of the build.

A little progress made and a couple of pitfalls discovered. Take a look at the two shots below. I'm happy with the gun shield and calling that done. But notice that the sight rotor on the roof doesn't line up with the position of the barrel. The method of attachment does not allow that part to rotate properly to track the gun as it traverses, so eventually I will have to lock the gun in place and glue down the sight rotor to match.





The periscopes and ventilator are now in place, and I've blended them in with some Mr. Surfacer. That has revealed a few small gaps that I will take care of with more epoxy putty, textured to replicate the weld beads. You probably can't see the difference, but I also widened the ridge above the driver's head with epoxy putty to make the periscope fit better. Also visible are the two antenna pots, and there is a bit more fairing in to do there.  Sharp eyes will also notice the absence of the fender brace on the right side front fender.  It got beat up during the earlier slicing and dicing, so I will make a new one out of styrene strip

The bottom shot shows Academy's wretched oval hole in the bottom plate filled in, and yellow bits for the bottom of the VVSS. While I have kept my AMS in check on this one, I did cave in to using a spare set of Tasca VVSS parts left over when I converted and M4A2 hull to HVSS for an M50 project. You can see that the gaps in the sponsons have been filled with epoxy putty, faired in to match the curvature of the upper hull. Not shown is another little pitfall: Mounting the rear fenders. The shape under here is quite different from the standard riveted or welded hull, so I have to figure something out. The fenders themselves require some serious thinning to make them look more true to scale.



One thing I'll mention here about those fenders: They were thick rubber, not metal. Using P/E brass will get you a commendably thin fender, perhaps too thin. It will also bend like metal, because it is metal. The rubber didn't dent or crease, it would be chewed up and gouged out. Check out the photos of LuLu Bell in the Squadron Walk-Around book to see what beat-up ones really look like.

And finally, a side shot:




The gun shield looks about right proportionally, and is shoved back to meet the front of the gun rotor. The gap allows a view in behind, so I am mulling over whether or not to replicate some method of attaching the shield to the rotor. It had to be attached there, since the gun barrel would move within the shield under recoil. But I have no idea how the shield was actually attached...I've found perhaps half a dozen images of it and none show how it was attached. Something else to deal with here will be the sponson stowage box, which was fitted on the right side only. I'll have to figure out some brackets to attach it to the hull, maybe some bent bits of P/E strip with a few bolt heads.

Forgive my, my brethren, for I have sinned! Yea verily did I succumb to AMS today in most heretical fashion! I fashioned little T-shaped fittings for the wires that go to the headlight clusters and the siren. I made them from brass tubing soldered together, then cut down to size. The left side one is seen below; the silvery bit on the side of the hull. The second image shows a close-up, and it is .080" tall...




This image from the front shows the other one, right in front of the fender brace. Also visible are the casting marks and texture added to the diff cover, and the Sherman light guard used for the Shapeways siren. I still have to deal with the guards for the light clusters themselves, and those will be a challenge since the Academy parts are really thick and need to be thinned down considerably. I'm not sure that they will survive that treatment. But at least they have a very simple shape, so I can probably make them from .010" x .040" strip if I need to.

That's looking really nice and progressing steadily.

At this rate you might just finish yours before Takom release a kit of this. 

Then at least we will have you to thank for the good karma.  

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Keep up the good work.

I'd love to see an M31. There is a 'famous' M31 named Pursuit Ship that was 'appropriated' from it's former U.S. owners by the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade in Italy. As a Kiwi I'd love to make this. It had one M4 Bogey and there is a cool photo of a Lynx scout car dangling from it's crane a resulting in very compressed suspension on a slope to the rear.

The M3's that made it India to fight the Japs are another interesting option from my point of view.

And now I'm calling the assembly done, save for tracks. Next step is a careful bath to remove any dust and oils, followed by Tamiya Extra Fine primer all over once it's dry. I've had a box of Lifecolor US Olive Drab acrylics sitting around unopened for a couple of years now and this might be the project to use them on. With a good stir they ought to be fine since the bottles are all still factory sealed.