M3 Lee/Grant

[elias.tibbs]

Following on with an early war theme, is the M3 anywhere in the plans?

You've got the Lee for the U.S. and the grant for Great Britain and also the Soviet Union lend lease versions.

Plus the chassis could be used for an M7 priest, defrocked priest and M31 ARV

[H0ffmn]

A M-3 Lee and Grant would be great.  You could make the lower hull and suspension on a sprue and use it with the early M-4A1 Sherman that you had talked about on the forum in the past.

[Rubicon Models]

There are plans to do a lot of things, but we just need the time and the extra manpower to do it ...and YES, we are looking into doing the early M4 suspension after finishing up some of our current projects; not particularly a whole vehicle!

[H0ffmn]

Sorry, I don't understand why you would plan to release the early M-4 Sherman suspension, but not an entire vehicle to go with it. The early M-4 suspension was not used with the later M4A3 , the only available  plastic kit that it would have been used with is the Warlord M-4.
 I was just suggesting a suspension sprue that could be shared with multiple vehicles, to save on production/mold making costs.

[Rubicon Models]

We are not releasing just the suspension.  We planned to create a 3D drawing of the early M4 suspension for latter use.  It can be used with basically most M3 Lee & Grant, M4/M4A1 Sherman, and M7 Priest.  We should be able to use it when we start one of these projects at a later date.

[Marcin]

I'd love to see M3 Lee/grant model. I need them for may Africa and pacific forces, and I just love bulky monsters :-)

[ultravanillasmurf]

I have just been watching the Tank Chats on the Canadian Ram tank and Ram Kangaroo APC.

Any chance that in your designing of an M3 Medium you could design in an option for a resin Ram kit using the M3 plastic underframe? Of course it would have to have the hull sub-turret (for British use) and hull ball joint (for Canadian use) options. A suitable turret would be nice, but not required.

[ripley]

That's a neat idea smurf . But as both style of MG mounts had cast hulls , 2 hulls would be needed . Maybe the Ball joint version as a strait Kangaroo and the sub-turret version with the Ram II turret / dummy gun as an OP tank . Either way I want one of each

[ultravanillasmurf]

True about the hulls, how different is the surrounding hull? Could you get away with a drop in section to take either weapon option. Minor filling might be required.

The turret might be a separate item (Company B do a turret for the Warlord Kangaroo).

[ripley]

I think the hulls might need a lot of work to make a 2 in 1 type kit , I'm at work so no access to my photos . And there is something "off " about the Comp B turret , just looks a little weird , maybe the gun is too big .  Here's the Company B turret and a picture of the real thing . Note some guns had muzzle counter weight



And here's both hull versions , quite a difference IMO



Service Publications here in Canada has a great hard cover book on the Ram , from development to post war ( $70 Canadian ) They also have a lot of smaller 24 page type books  ($10) dealing with the vehicles /tanks Canada used in both World wars and post WW2 . Some titles , Ram I , Ram II , Skink ' Kangaroo , Churchill n Canadian Service , Otter and a load more including an Armored Train and a book about the coastal batteries that were built in WW2 , great reading IMO

[Tracks]

We are not releasing just the suspension.  We planned to create a 3D drawing of the early M4 suspension for latter use.  It can be used with basically most M3 Lee & Grant, M4/M4A1 Sherman, and M7 Priest.  We should be able to use it when we start one of these projects at a later date.

Any progress with any of these later projects?

[ultravanillasmurf]

We are not releasing just the suspension.  We planned to create a 3D drawing of the early M4 suspension for latter use.  It can be used with basically most M3 Lee & Grant, M4/M4A1 Sherman, and M7 Priest.  We should be able to use it when we start one of these projects at a later date.

Any progress with any of these later projects?

I think the M4A1 is the priority, but for anyone else looking through this thread, here is a wip of the early running gear.

[Jaeger]

I agree an M4A1 is a priority.  I would like a base chassis in order to field an M12 artillery piece.  This 155mm SPA was used in Europe as a bunker buster.  As one German commander was quoted that when the Americans began using the 155mm howitzer as a sniper weapon he knew it was time to surrender.
The M3 Lee/Grant was also used for the M31 ARV.  The base kit could be the platform for a variety of upgrade kits as was done for the Sdkfz 250/251.  An M12 kit, a Grizzly kit, a M31 kit.  imho

[Tracks]

The M4A1 will be a good addition to the series of Sherman tanks by Rubicon Models, and it will be a welcome sight to gamers/modellers, but I also think the M3 Lee/Grant will also be a welcome sight to gamers/modellers.