M8 Scott with Westwind Crew

[smurfben]

Hi All,

I thought it might be nice to show off the beautiful new M8 Scott kit to y'all. Unfortunately, the only downside with Rubicon kits is the lack of crew (which it seems they're taking steps to remedy) so I've  used the Westwind half-track crew to fill in the turret. I would not recommend using the Westwind crew for their actual job since they're ridiculously small and look like children! Fortunately, they fit quite nicely inside cramped turrets! Huzzar, a use for them at last! Any who, I hope you enjoy the pics.

[Pinky]

Looks nice - I agree the M8 is a great kit.  I removed most of the sandshields from mine, which took a bit of cutting and filling but isn't difficult.  Your crew look fine - at least in this small vehicle. 

[ultravanillasmurf]

Very nice.

I think Westwind's vehicles are 1/60 scale, which might explain the size, I have a number of their figures which match BA metals.

[smurfben]

Sand shields, are they the do hickies on the side of the turret? I was curious as to what they were. How do they work?

[ripley]

The sand shields are the side pieces on the front and rear fenders as well as the strip down the side over the tracks . Developed by the British in the desert to try and keep the dust from being thrown up by the tracks , causing a large dust cloud giving away your position . Those bars on the side of the turret are grousers , a kind of traction bar which can be bolted to the track links . ( sort of like studded tires for ice )  Each tank had about 18 - 24 of them to be mounted every 5 or 6 track links  . Shermans  , Lee / Grants , M 10s , Priests  and Stuarts  all had them either mounted in racks on the side of the turret or body , or in bins . Only used on the flat pad rubber track .

[smurfben]

Ah nuts! Does that mean that I should have removed the sand shields from the American Scott? Was it just us Brits that added them?

[ultravanillasmurf]

I do not think we used the M8 HMC, the sand shields may have been a British invention, but were probably added by all Allied suppliers where required, and then removed by the users for various reasons (my guess is they were useful when in dusty conditions, but could get clogged with mud).

[Pinky]

The M8 wasn't used by the British.

The sandshields were a standard fixture.  For desert service, the British added their own design of sandshield to US tanks that were supplied to them (e.g. the M3 Honey), but later US tanks came with them fitted already.  However, in NW Europe sandshields tended to quickly disappear in service, because they trapped mud and made the suspension harder to get at.  That said, there are photos of M8s in service with their sand shields, so your model is fine.

Here's my M8 with its sandshields partially removed - this is based on a photo.

[smurfben]

Ahh I see what you mean there. Ok great, I don't feel so bad now. I did check out some images before I built the thing but there always the possibility that I was looking at British tanks by mistake. Thanks for clearing it up for me. I think I'll copy your sandshields for my M5 when I come to put that together, I really like the aesthetics of the track design.