Painting the M3

[Armortek]

Coming soon and only available to registered forum members ..

A Master Class in painting and weathering the M3 Lee Medium Tank.

Vote for your favourite colour scheme - it may be the one we do !!

[Vince Cutajar]

Looks to be interesting.

Vince

[Chris Hall]

Now that IS a good idea !

My Lee is going to be about as plain as you can get - S.C.C. (Standard Camouflage Colour) 13, unofficially called 'Jungle Green', used in the Far East from 1943. No white stars until late 1944, so just unit markings, tank name and WD number, and bridging disk.

As for weathering, Burma was surprisingly dusty (apart from the Monsoon season). This was used to great effect during the 'Admin Box', as there was a Japanese 75mm A/T gun that covered one of the Chaungs (dried up river beds used as roads). As the Japanese were very unimaginative and never re-sited the gun, 25th Dragoons developed the tactic of sharply braking just before the danger point. This created a cloud of rolling dust, the Japanese duly fired, and then the tank drove on while the gun was reloading ! The danger of being predictable ..........

Thanks for the idea - a challenge for Chris !

Chris (the other one)

[Adrian Harris]

13th Armoured Regiment, US 1st Armoured Division in Tunisia were the main users, but they're just olive drab with various applications of local mud

Adrian.

[Robert Reid]

I like Adrian's idea... because that covers a lot of 'ground' when it comes to weathering for desert climates.

And a lot of our kits are 'at home' in the desert, so to speak!

Will this be an online class or does one have to come to Armortek to participate???

Cheers,

RPR

[Stephen White]

I looked in some detail at the climate and terrain of the Tunisian campaign when I was doing my Pz III, which modelled a tank of 15 Pz Div, who opposed US 1st Armored Div. Tunisia was anything but a desert. The winter and early Spring of 1943 was wet, cold, muddy and there was not a grain of sand in sight. Tunisia is mountainous and the few passable roads became quagmires, so mud and more mud are the order of the day. As the Spring came on, culminating in the Battle of Kasserine Pass, the ground became dry and dusty. Kasserine marked a right of passage for US armor. To put it tactfully, they learnt a lot in a short time from the battle experienced Panzers, led by Hauptmann Hans Guenther Stotten, who was awarded Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross for his leadership and gallantry in action. So lots of scope for weathering but more Somme than sand.

I'd love to see a 13th Armored Regt M3 model sitting alongside the Pz III, if the latter's new owner would agree.

Stephen

[Robert E Morey]

wow this should be cool to see. I vote for the units that battled the Africa corps as well - 1st Armored Div! Will be cool no matter what!
Bob

[Stephen Mason]

That sounds a really good idea Stephen and to see these two iconic WW11 tanks coming face to face again, albeit in a smaller scale, would be great and I am sure some very good atmospheric photographs and video could be taken.
Yes the new owner would agree to this

[Pete Nash]

I aim to do mine in an Operation Bertram Scheme

[Armortek]

A little teaser on the painting so far.
Quite a bit more work needed on the model and then we will be ready to start posting a picture series & a couple of videos.

This could qualify for the "Real or Fake" category.

Painting the M3 Lee

[Armortek]

A few more pictures.
More details will follow as we guide through the steps taken on this model.

[Adrian Harris]

This picture was posted on Facebook this week and shows just how "sand blasted" desert tanks could become.

I presume walking around on them wearing boots covered in sand won't be helping the paint any.

Adrian.