M3 Grant – Interiors
With this model of M3 Grant I attempted for the first time to the construction of the interiors of a tank. It is an ugly and graceless vehicle, but nonetheless (or maybe for this reason!) I've always wanted to build one.
I found this Academy model (no. 13212) on the shelf of a shop. Having already appreciated this brand with one of my previous models I decided to buy it.
Inside the box there are eight sand-colored styrene sprues, the lower hull in the same material, a pair of vinyl tracks, a decal set (quite meager, actually) and the instruction sheet. I decided to build this model out of the box, except for the tracks, replaced with the Friulmodel ATL-47 metal ones.
Assembling
The interiors are quite well detailed: they include the fighting compartment (in particular, you can see the gearbox, the driver's station, with pedals and steering levers, and the ammunition reserves), the turret basket and the cannons.
During the assembling I found some difficulties, because the corresponding sprue was bent and I hardly managed to correctly fit the pieces together (especially the rear bulkhead). Nonetheless the final effect is quite satisfying, as you can see in the following photo (where I already masked some parts for the painting).
Painting
The interiors of a tank are usually painted in white, because it allows a better illumination. For this one, I used an acrylic paint, Tamiya XF-2 Flat White, sprayed with an airbrush. Then I made some scratches in dark brown with a fine paintbrush and a sponge. After that I applied an oil wash with van Dyck brown, followed by a dry-brush with white oil paint on edges and bright zones.
I also painted the details, using a mix of Vallejo 70.889 Olive Drab and Vallejo 70.976 Buff acrylics for the seats, Humbrol 63 Matt Sand enamel for the radio and Vallejo 70.957 Flat Red acrylic for the fire extinguishers (the latters will be no more visible anyway, once the model is finished).
I followed the same procedure for the turret basket and for the 75 mm cannon.
I painted the ammunition with Model Master metallized enamels. I used Brass for the cartridge cases, whereas I used Steel for the tips of the 37 mm round and for the drum magazines of the Thompson submachine guns (used by the crew for self-defence). I found more convenient painting the rounds still on the sprue and gluing them afterwards.
Here are the whole interiors!
