M3 Stuart 'Honey'

[McCoy]

Hi all. Some of you is allready familiar with my works but here goes so please have some patience with me.

My first build as an adult

I'm new to this hobby if you don't count my dabbling as a kid with Matchbox a/c in 1:72 and Matchbox AFV's in 1:76. But that was mostly in the early eighties.

(I'm reusing the text I first wrote when I first published this AFV two years ago. Haven't built so many kits since then so I'm still consider myself an beginner that want's more and I still don't have an airbrush)

So after seeing other people's work I got interested to try and start all over again now when I'm older and more relaxed. So I wen't looking at the local toy store and fell for Academy's M3 Stuart "Honey" in 1:35 scale. Well I bought it at 249 SEK and went home, dug out my old Humbrol stack and started to paint with brush om the frames (I don't own an airbrush). For a start I didn't like the meager paintguide in the instruction that doesn't refer to a specific brand and colornumber and instead just give you generic colornames and that strange greyblue color, arrrgh. Well it was just to do some research and did come up with using Humbrol #93, 31 & 30.

I did find the kit easy to build with good fitting parts, next to no excesive castings to scrape of and nice instructions. The decals though was bad, I had big trouble to get 'em to stick and had to paint the stripes on the sideskirts since they wouldn't stick.

Weathering has been done with pastells and Terpinex as medium, applyed with a brush and rubbed off with a artist paper pen and cottonbuds.

All in all it took me 39 hours to complete the modell not counting my time researching colors.

[McCoy]

The interior quite early during the construction.



Well it was way too clean so I went about and added some black pastell.


The turret




The hatches, the hatch supports are thin copperthread that I took from my flytying gear. I also used copper to create a leatherstrap round the extra watercans in the back, flat medium copper tinsel from my flytying gear. You can see it on the pics of the finished modell.

[Jim O]

Great stuff. Makes me glad I'm not on dial-up...

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by McCoy

Hi all. Some of you is allready familiar with my works but here goes so please have some patience with me.

My first build as an adult

I love the weather and texture of this piece. Looks like you could start it right up.

[lufttiger]

Yeah this is a great weather job, just outstanding!

[McCoy]

Thanks LT!

Does it shine through that I like the desert war when it comes to armour?

[razorboy]

I really like that one McCoy! Great weathering job. Looks "Used".

[McCoy]

Thanks Dave!

There be sandstorms in the desert...

[Whiterook]

That's as nice, if not nicer, than the one I just saw in FineScale Modeler this month! Love the pastel weathering...how does it hold up? Did you find it necessary to seal it with dull coat?

[McCoy]

Thanks, it's not everyday ones work get compared to magazine builds...

As this is my first one I still didn't know so much n' it's not sealed so "Handle with care" apply.