ESCI (Italeri) 1/72 M3 Scout Car

[cploverby]

I have decided to embark on an old tride and true kit that we all know and love.
As we all know this kit has a few short comings ....
Such as Pin Marks on the "Visable" surfaces here and there.


And parts that are just Horrific as far as deatail is concerned.


Aside from that, let's not dwell on the walls being too thick and things like that.
Well I decided the the skate rail was all wrong and want a new one.
Unfortunately I did not take a pic first before I butchered the one from the kit....
But...I did take these pic's of the walls.






I then assembled the basic structure of the vehicle and started to make a new Skate rail from .080" (2mm) channel.




Now the gun mounts were molded "on to" the skate rail,
so I cut them off and modified one for my purposes.


Well remember the horrific .30 cal I showed you above....
Well I sized up a Roco one and found it to be "in scale".
So I modified it for my purposes.




Now the .50 cal was void of detail on the rt. side
so I added the detail as best as I could and removed a coule items as well.


I will add a Dragon ammo can and spade grips.

I have since molded the .30 cal and here are the results of that.




Now I have "test-fitted" the whole thing.








Well thats all for now....all this small work make me tired.
Please tell me what you think.

[cploverby]

Here are a couple more things that I have done.
No dought that everyone has noticed that the Head-lamps are just "bumps" on the fenders, yes?




Well with a #15 scaple I have cured that.




Then I drilled out the mounting holes for "My" head-lamps.




My next step was to equip this baby with radios.
Thanks to Roco I have them.






well I off to make other pieces now ....more later. :good:

[deafpanzer]

Knock out pins!?!? The horror! Looks like you have it under control... looking real good with all of modifications you are doing.

[robbo]

Nice fixes mate, your certainly making the kit better

[wbill76]

Nice job updating an older kit...amazing how far the molding has come when you look at those MGs.

[bbd468]

WOW... nice work on that tiny thing. Looks great!

Gary

[cploverby]

Don't know if I mentioned it, but the set will come with 2 sets of .30 cal
this is what the second set will look like.


Now I had to to do some micro scratch building to make the "correct" tripod for the .30 cal.
this is the "Proper" stowage for the tripods on the M3 scout Car.


also I took my .50 cal and did some micro surgery and redid it as a new master.
so here are some shots of it.






here it is with a little paint to help show the details.






and here it is "side by side" with the first incarnation to show a small difference.


well that was want kept me busy since my last post.

[TRM]

Nice bit o' scratch work on this one! Big difference on the Mg's. You are making some nice progress...keep it going!!!

[cploverby]

Oh God...it seems it's been days since I've been here......
Wait! It HAS been days.....
I have been hard at work here, and it seems that I am burning out?
I hope not!
Lets "recap" (on a small part of this)
One of the big bones of contention in this kit, is the "skate rail",
for one thing, it is Not an "I" beam or a piece of "channel" as it should be.
And, it only has two (2) gun mounts on it when it should have three (3).
Yes I finally got a pic of one before modification (thanks Charlie).


Here is the one I made.


Here is the first cast of it in resin (yes I finally molded it)




And here are two showing the casting mounted to the M3 (with guns) next to a fresh cast.


Another BIG short-coming is the level of deatil and quality of the Machine Guns offered with the kit.
The .50 cal and .30 cal are just Horrible.


So I took what I had and made attempts at making the best MG's I could.






Now I an tackling the Gas Cans.


I did one, and then decide to Document the conversion of the second.


Here is where I cut away the "gas can"


Then with a "denatal burr" I hollowed out the mount portion.


I then placed the "chosen" gas can with in it.
I had to keep test fitting over and over again till it got where "I" wanted it




I thought I was almost done, then I remembered that many, many pic's show,
that troops carried the cavas bucket strapped to one gas can.....so I tried my hand at that as well.










Now I am trying to tackle the "brush guards" for the head lamps.....
We'll see how that goes.

[wbill76]

Yep, like Dicky, I have to keep reminding myself that this is in 1/72! You're doing a great job overhauling this old kit and bringing up the detail standard.

[cploverby]

Thank s for the compliments guys.
I am now tackling the head-light brush guards......
what a PIA.
This thing is so small and frail......
I don't think I can mold and cast it.
I have to redo the wind shield armor......
after all the work I did on it......
it fell on the floor and (before I knew it) I stepped on it.

[cploverby]

Man am I tired....gonna take a break.
Tomorroow will be a day off from this.
Today I got some major construction done.....
First was this PIA that I will call the Brush Guard.
First thing "I" noticed was that it was too short.
So I made one......
but I am not sure if it's worth the effort.
"I" think it's to fragile for molding.


The next thing I did was to build the new windshiels armor.
Those Knock out marks were just driving me crazy.
Don't let the pic fool you....the new piece just "looks" bigger because it's closer to the camera.


AS I said tomorrow will be a day off from working on this......
I have to help my Girlfriend rip the carpet out of her G'mas Bedroom. (joy)

[captfue]

For 1/72that is great detail, almost revials 1/48 or 1/35. Great job

[cploverby]

OK...now I am startin on the doors.....
Here is the driver's door from the "Out-Side".


Here it is from the "In-Side".


Here it is "in place" with the armor flap in the "up" possistion.


Here it is with the flap folded "down".


This was an "all day" project, so to morrow I'll tackle the other door.

[bigjohn]

The detail on such a small scale are amazing !!!!!!!!

[wbill76]

I can see why it would be an all-day effort for the one door...amazing level of detail for the scale, truly impressive.

[threadbear]

Good stuff. I remember these kits when they were all the rage! But I certainly dont remember them being so bad! This is real modelling! Well done!

[cploverby]

OK......I was s'posed to work on the other door.....
but then something shinny distracted me.....
and I chose to do this.
The Tow Hooks are represented by just "bumps" on the plate.




So I took tow hooks from Paul Heiser's 1/87 detail set and did this.

[cploverby]

Alright......Today has been a busy one for me......
I tried and it worked the brush guards survived the molding proccess.






I even went as far as doing the "wooden" ammo box for the .30 cal






I am done for the day......

[danb]

That is impressive a high amount of detail for such a small scale hats off to ya fella top job

Dan B

[bbd468]

I agree!!! Great job on this little M3.

Gary

[cploverby]

Hi All,
I want to say "Thank You" to those who are offering words of incouragement,
If I do not reply directly to you, and this hurts your feelings .... I apologise.
I suffer from an Attention Disorder, and I often go on thinking that I did something ,
when the case is that I did not.
So if anyone feels "slighted" agin ...I apologise.
Right now I am behind on this and am trying to get back on it.
I am trying to get back into the groove on this....
I stopped two days ago to work on other things, and dredd doing the other door.
I just have to pull myself up by my Boot Straps.....I just can't reach them...lol

[cploverby]

OK!
I am getting closer to getting this off the ground.
I thought that I'd give you all a "sneak peak".















I think once I finish the other door it will be ready for production. :scratch:

[captfue]

Really great work

[robbo]

Very neat build mate

[wing_nut]

Damn that's nice work. But be prepared... all my future casting question will be directed to you.

[cploverby]

Ok...This Is DONE!!!
Had a Major set back at first with the molding......
I had all the parts set up and ready to go....
I poured the rubber......

Then...it happened........
the mold fell off the table and landed face down on the carpet. :shock:
I "thought" I grabbed it quick enough....
but there was no way of knowing the extent of the damage. :cry:
Not...until this morning, when the rubber was all cured.
I looked at it, two of the tires had broken free and floated to the surface before the rubber cured.
"SIGH"....I started to look and see how many of the parts did the same thing........
almost all of them.... so I spent three hours doing exploratory surgery to find all the parts.
then three more hours repairing the parts, resetting them for molding, and poring the rubber again.
THEN.....THEN.....I had to force my self to leave the shop.....and take a long nap.
Otherwise I'd have kept screwing with the molds before they cured, and if I ruined them again.....
I'd just go and SHOOT myself.
Well as you can see if you're reading this......
I didn't shoot myself, AND everything must be going right....because I am here to POST. :yahoo:

Soooooooo......here we go
Here first I am posting the Pre/Early War version.
The main differences from the War Time version?
Different Tires, different .30 cal(s), and the Black-Out Drive Lamp by the Driver's Side Headlight.






Now for the War Time Version.
You will see that I have circled certain points of interest, some have strictly to do with the War Time Version,
I.E. the Black Out Lamp, but the rest are just to Grab you attention.























Now here are a few close ups of a few parts.











If you're interested Feel Free to contact me at:
cpl_overby(at)yahoo.com

[cploverby]

Hi All even though I am done with the Scout Car,
I feel the need to show you all what needs to be done when you embark on your own M3 Project.

















I believe this is all that you'll need to do in order to help the parts fit.

[eastrock]

looks great, Sir!!!

cheers!!
ER

[wbill76]

While I'm sure the mold scare was a close one, the second attempt turned out very well, always fun to follow along with these projects to see you work your braille-scale magic!