The M3 Grant was the British version of the U.S. designed and built M3 “Lee” Medium Tank, the stopgap predecessor to the M4 Sherman, which saw service widely in the North African campaign but otherwsie wasn’t really seen on the battlefields of World War Two other than in and around Burma, mainly in use by Indian forces. Having the traditional 1920s design of the main gun in the hull with a smaller gun in a small turret didn’t really work that well in the armoured tactics of The Second World War so the Grant will most likely remain an icon of desert battles.
This kit comes in a large tray and lid style box on eight desert yellow sprues, two of which are the same. Also included is the hull tub, also in desert yellow, two single length vinyl tracks, a small sheet of decals and the instruction sheet. This provides the parts to build the M3 Grant with a reasonably complete interior for the turret and forward compartment.
The moulding quality is very good, there is no flash, very light mould seams and the injector pin sinkholes have been kept to a minimum and wherever possible in locations where they won’t be seen. The detail is sharp and crisp and although some of the detail is a little simplified there is still quite a bit to this kit including some casting numbers and some very nice rivet detail.
The chassis on this has received a lot of flak for being “too big” but honestly it’s around 2mm and it isn’t glaring, being a very difficult thing to pick up visually. If it really bothers you and you don’t want to go down the road of buying the very nice Tasca VVSS Set C Initial Suspension set then these can be fixed by cutting them just below and just above the wheel pin with a 1mm thick sawblade then rejoining them and redoing the sides with thin plasicard and a little filler. The result looks more accurate and will allow you to sleep at night ( just remember to do the backs as well ). The tracks are single length vinyl “rubber band” style tracks which go together well.
The hull is the earlier riveted style that was later changed to being welded due the the crews not being in favour of high velocity bolt pieces pinging around inside when the tank was hit. This is made up of several panels festooned with bolts. The transmission housing includes moulded on casting numbers, as does the cover plate for the 75mm gun. All the external hatches are separate parts which allows them to be posed open to see the interior. These have some very nicely done hinges, though the smaller ones don’t have same degree of internal detail that the larger ones do.
The engine deck includes moulded on ventilation mesh which can be bought up nicely enough with the right finish, but looks much better replaced with photo-etched mesh. Though you will then be able to see through into the empty engine bay so a basic engine mock up painted black will be needed. The tools on the engine deck are well done, though like most of their kind can be improved greatly with PE tool clamps. The sponson stowage boxes are also very well done, though they have no option to be positioned open so a job for the scratchbuilder if having them open takes your fancy.
The interior is reasonably complete with just some minor omissions, primarily any of the personal equipement and weapons of the crew, and there is also no ammunition for the .30 cal machine guns. You do get a box of drum mags for the crew’s M1928 Thompson Sub Machine Guns but no actual Thompsons. There is no engine but you do get a good transmission and driver’s area as well as quite a thorough turret basket with the possible exception that no 75mm rounds are provided, just a moulded plate with rows of shell bases as part of it. This would be easy enough to improve upon though as there are plenty of M3 Grants in museums with a wealth or reference photos available. You do get a full compliment of 37mm shells for the upper turret though.
The turret has a nice cast texture to the surface and looks quite good. It does sit a little higher than it should having a ring around the base of the turret which shouldn’t be there and giving the turret a little more air under the chin than it should have but is easy to remove. The separate hatch details are very nicely done, as is the gun mantlet. The side vision ports though are only stuck on so you’ll need to open these up yourself if they will be seen as part of the interior.
The main guns all have slide moulded one piece barrels with the muzzle hollowed out a little. These look good but those with a bent for rifled barrels will find an aluminium set can be picked up quite cheaply. There are two options for the 75mm gun, the M2 or the longer M3, and there are also four .30 cal machine guns included, one to mount co-axially with the 37mm gun, two to mount in the lower hull, the other as a spare, or possibly intended for use with a non-existant AA mount. Both the 75mm and 37mm guns have full breeches though the detail on both is a little simplified.
Decals are provided for two vehicles – Royal Army, North Africa 1943 and Royal Army, 8th Army, El Alamein 1942 -which aren’t the most descriptive, nor comprehensive of decals, but then that has always been one of the failings in Academy’s kits.
This kit has had a lot of bad press for inaccuracies, but to be honest I think a lot of that has been blown out of proportion with initial few inaccuracies once pointed out going the way of the chinese whisper and been blown out to make it sound like this is a grossly inaccurate kit that has no right to bear the name M3 Grant. The reality is that for 99.9% of the those who will build this it will be a perfectly good representaion of an M3 Grant.
If you require total perfection then yes there are some minor inaccuracies, but if you don’t know of them, or don’t care about them then this is a good kit that comes at a good price. And even if you do know about them this is still a very good base to start with if you want to go down the road of scratchbuilding the changes. It is well moulded, goes together well, looks good finished, and for a comparably small price you get a kit with quite a decent interior to boot. If you’ve writen this kit off because of bad secondhand press then give it a second look, it won’t disappoint.
Click on thumbnails to enlarge images.
