MODEL OTAKU: M5A1 Stuart

Finally finished the AFV Club M5A1. Loved the kit. Went together very well though AFV Club has a habit of leaving ejector pin marks in very annoying places like the inside of hatches that are a pain to remove. I also added MV lenses, a scratchbuilt hedgerow cutter and AFV Club individual link tracks (why these aren't included in the kit is a mystery to me) which had sink marks in the face of each and every track link. Ouch. Lots of sanding. Decals are stock. Weathering was post shading, washes and pastels. Very light chipping was done with a #9B aritst's pencil. The periscopes are detailed with exposed 35mm photo film.

The cotton machine gun ammo belt on the M1919 is cigarette rolling paper crimped over the outside ribbing on a Tamiya paint lid. I threw it on there for the heck of it to see how it would look. Still not sure if it works.

I added the Verlinden interior and PE which was ok, but nothing to write home about.

Stowage is facial tissue, cheesecloth and a Tamiya ration box. The aircraft panel marker is lead foil, as are the tool tiedown straps.

The mud was a first time experiment and I was plesantly surprised with the outcome. It's ground pastel chalk and laquer thinner. I mixed some static grass in the built up mud in on the hull.

Model Otaku (ﾌﾟﾗﾓｵﾀｸ) - Japanese for "Model Geek"

This is my modeling site. I’ve been building models for as long as I can remember. The first kits I can remember actually building myself and not having my Dad help me with were those quarter scale Aurora tank kits from the late 1960’s that came with the vacuform battlefield display stands. The detail and fit were horrible but the box art was cool and they were just the thing to get a kid hooked. I remember well riding my bike past Willow Grove Naval Air Station on countless trips to the strip mall with the Allied Hobbies shop. I spent my lawn mowing money practically before I earned it. Like many guys from my generation I took a hiatus from the hobby to go to college, start a family and approach near middle age. When my son got old enough to give models a try I started to remember what I had been missing. I finally got back into the hobby at the level I was at as a kid while I was deployed to Iraq. I didn’t have a lot of time or space to build while I was there but I was able to put a few kits together and partake of the astounding generosity of the modelers back on the home front who donated kits and supplies for the troops. Now it’s my cheap form of psychotherapy. Nothing seems to purge the demons quite like fiddling with small pieces of plastic, resin and photoetch brass! Usually on the rare occasions when I complete a project I have it put in the local hobby shop case for a while, then take it home and put it on the shelves in my basement workshop. It always seemed a shame to me to have them where no one but me could enjoy them. I hope you’ll enjoy viewing my feeble efforts.

1 comment:

UnknownMarch 5, 2014 at 11:16 PM
Pleasing to the eye, nice restrained weathering. I just finished my first tank, Tamiya's M5a1, and was doing a Yahoo search of this tank model and came across this example. Again, very realistic. I am hoping to find a site where I can post pictures of my M5 for critique, criticism, and critical review.