I like the fact that not only are you talking us through the build and all the extras that your doing on this excellent vintage kit, but your also telling us the history of the tank your building. Thank you for sharing all of that with us. Great build.

You are absolutely right about the "armor style" that a lot of KZfaq modelers use. They go heavy on color modulation, chipping, weathering. To the point sometimes that the tanks look more like wrecks pulled out of a lake 50 years after the war than they look like armor in the field. The lifespan of an average Tiger or King Tiger tank was measured in months - Sure they got dirty, sure exposed steel got rusty fast. But these things still had New Car Smell when they met their ends.

Great build - you've done a very nice job. The details like the stowage and the recognition panel really make it stand out.

For eeathering and road splayer . Try using a worn out toothbrush . Load it with very watered down paint . Start at tanks front working your way back . An flick bristlrs with your thumb . Give a very realistic weathering afect .

I really like what you've done here, so relaxing to build kits for fun again and thumb a nose at the rivet counters.

A really terrific modified job....a challenge well completed and a great story behind the build. This is a really good prequel to the development of the diorama so will be very keen to see your take on Normandy when it's built. Great job!

Looks great and the interior also. Amazing!

Well done!! I especially liked the idea of working the decals to make them look painted on!!

Great modelling! Love that blanket, now I understand the pink on the back of the Sherman in the movie Fury .

Great vid! I love the way you give facts and info on the tank as you build.

US (and Canadian Ram) tracks were "live" (containing rubber bushings) and did not generally "sag", unlike German and Soviet tracks of the era. So, don't beat yourself up over using the vinyl ones. The standard for both M3 and M5 was a rubber block with two steel pins that mated with the end connectors, which also carried the guide teeth.. So, the centers are a rubber black. The inside face gets a bit of burnsihing from where the rubber bogies roll against them. The insides of the guide teeth get more wear, on average, than the outsides.

Awesome build buddy. Thanks for sharing😉👍🤓

I watched two of your videos before I figured out what the heck you were referencing when you mentioned "deckals" when you meant Decals. I like the fact that you give us historical information about the tanks you build! Thanks for sharing!

Super well done paint work and weathering.

Liked the build and the fact you built up an old Tamiya kit.

Really nice build. Thanks for sharing. I really loved the DC comic books based on these tanks. I read them back in the sixties, when I was a kid.

looks great....nicely done

outstanding modeling work keep up the good work

Thanks for the wielding tip!

Very nice work and loved the history insight. Subscribed!!!!!

I agree completely with your approach of avoiding all the various "paint enhancements" (such as preshading) to a relatively new vehicle. The trend toward more and more down and dirty finishes on armor is mostly a case of monkey see monkey do given the large number of videos extolling it's use despite photo documentation to the contrary. Many modelers go so far as to claim that this is a more realistic finish. I couldn't agree less.

Looks great can't wait to see the diorama

Very Nice, like the details, good work , Thank you for sharing

Good idea about the welding lines, and sanding the thick decals.

Fantastic work 👌🏼

This is a really cool model and your narrating is very good! Subbed.

i love this! it looks so good! also the wielding tip is good one thanks alot!

Nice work, well done.

I like the way your M5 turned out. The weathering, particularly on the tracks and suspension looks perfect. It was June after all so there wouldn't be too much mud. When doing equipment storage, remember that anything resting on the hull has to be clear of the turret when it traverses, and as one gentleman posted below, it will shake, rattle, and roll off if not tied down. Also, the radio aerial is too thin. Watch the movie Fury, the scene where they are driving into the tank park, for a better idea of the thickness and taper. I crewed on U.S. Army M60s with C-3-35 Armor in Germany in 1968/1969. Those minor points aside, it is a beautiful build! Would love to see your diorama when you get it done.

I just got a kick out of the fact this kit was first issued in 1977. I built this kit back in 1978 or 1979. It was a fun kit to build and had my tanker firing the .30 caliber machine gun. The plastic tracks on all these kits from the 70's and 80's were always a challenge to get the sag especially on the German tanks. One way was to use thread through the track between the wheel and around the torsion bar and pull the track down onto the road wheel. I did that on my Panther and Tiger and it looked great. The other challenge when connecting the tracks was using a heated flathead screw driver to flatten the connectors without melting the track around it.

A great build of a 30-40 year o.d kit, well mate, trust you are keeping safe in these troubled ti es

outstanding work nice build

Very nicely build Golden oldy !!!

Nice work! You really made that old kit shine! On the comment you made about the resin sandbag piece, having spare gear located on it, well, they wouldn't have. Maybe a musset bag, spare roadwheel and tracks, yes. Ammo pouches, not attached to web belts, or even web gear, spare mags and weapons, nope! I think that resin piece is an old Verlinden piece. I've seen the 'spare items' on some of their other accessories. All your other stowage looked great!

Subscribed and alarm set. The welding tip looked great. Although a little skeptical while watching turned out great. The finished model looked very good.

Nice Build. The tracks and mud effects look awesome. I'm okay with color modulation as long as it subtle and not over done. In a lot of cases it seems to be over done, but to each his own.

I actually picked up this kit at a Swedish airplane museum. It's a really fun build, even though I didn't do any of these awesome mods.

I've always felt the purpose of color modulation is to simulate the effects of sunlight which is much brighter than the indoor light the tank is being displayed in. Natural sunlight exposes much harsher shadows and highlights than synthetic light

Great job!

Impressive....much skill!

Very nice friend....Good work.

lovely work really enjoyed the video! and thank you for the shoutout!

I made a fantastic air recognition pannal out my tabbaco packet! Shane's is a great tutorial but not accurate folding! Look up some real one's the plastic from the tabbaco packet I used was great for the wipe down plastic used fornthe pannal the bag was canvas that's the long one on the resin on the front you have is for! It's actually the first time I've seen the stowage bag for them in a resin plug! The ends of the pannal were fabric stiched border to keep it all together with the white pannal on the back of the 140 pannal but they were long very long and narrow! That could be cut in half again to replicate a real one! And the early m5a1 never had the 30 cal shield on side of turret, Tamiyas burn iron is or German camo black brown we use for chips is great for the gun base adding bry brush gun metal or using the gun metal down first using aks worn effects over that then using the burnt iron or black and wearing the paint through! It's very realistic

Tamiya.. Still rocks great old kit

Great video great build!

Nice build. Well done. Just a few quick tips. On tanks, if you do as much painting on the running gear as possible before you assemble it, it makes life so much easier. Especially the road wheels and return rollers. You can paint those completely. When using spares for extra detail that’s not included in the kit (like the seats), especially if you’re building for a “competition” or commission, make sure you have tons of reference photos so you accurately reflect the real thing (those seats were an obvious miss). But, kudos on detailing the interior and opening that baby up. You should do all the battle damage prior to any paint. One thing I’ve found that works great for antennas (for armor and even man portable radios) is guitar strings. The smallest ones that have a single wire with another one wound around it. Cut the whole thing to length, then grasp it just a little up from the base (about 1/8 to 1/25 inch), and start pulling the wound wire from the top so it spirals up with an increasing gap between until it just looks right, cut off the outer wire between 1/5 and 3/4 the way up the inner wire (maybe a little more, start high and work your way down until it looks good). Now of course that not always accurate, so again check your reference and don’t go with just one source. 😉 Thanks for sharing your work. 👍👍

Nice job

Looks Great

Looks awesome....

Nice video and a good history lesson. I want to do a diorama of the hedgerow fighting. I’d like to see how yours turned out. Mine is going to rather large, I’ve been buying models up for twenty years. Now that I’m on disability I’ve got time to work on them.

I like it and will use your skills on mine which is in 1/6th scale!!!

Top job

Love the Stuart and you’ve done a excellent build.Think the modifications you built and added worked so well.I don’t know if anybody does make one..But Id love to make the ‘Satan flamethrower Stuart version from the pacific..Though your Normandy version is cool I airbrush with Vallejo and I find airbrush flow improver really helps..Works great to help Tamiya paint as well..Hope you don’t mind me mentioning.Though I’m sure you know..Thank you and all the best from Blighty🇬🇧🇨🇦👍

Modeling is about doing what you like, the way you like, for your own reason, for your enjoyment. Unless you are doing paid professional modeling, enjoyment is the key word. Art vs realism matched to the modelers capabilities should result in an enjoyable experience. Thanks for your views.

Nice job on a STILL very nice kit! You need to weather/grime up the inside of the large, top hatch and tie down the equipment on the air recognition panel. Those entrenching tools would be vibrated off the rear deck 100 feet down the road!

You should have ground off those bags on top of the sandbags.Use putty to build up the bags and texture. Yes more work but you never see the bags and mag pouches there. I see this all the time with modelers, most never served in the military much less an armored unit so it's understandable. What you might see in WWII is just rolled up canvas, we put our duffel bags on top tied to the tie downs on our tracks.

pretty nice vid. im a newcomer on your channel keep going I like that content

You should use black brown paint to made drybrush scratches. Silver/steel is good for aircrafts.

Well executed. Maybe a bit of a thin layer of dust around the tracks here and there would go well with the mud marks. The rythm of your video is perfect. 20 minutes well spent. Thank you.

Enjoyed the video / build. The imagineered interior is better than nothing to be sure. My suggestion would be to paint the hatch interior surfaces OD, like the outside and re-check how they rest open on an M5A1.

this is soo cool

waw, amazing!

Nice build, man. One suggestion would be to "secure" all that stowage (unless your dio will be of the crew all off the vehicle doing maintenance, or performing hygiene, or eating or something). After the vehicle move about a foot, all that shit would fall off.

Oh, I found your channel!

Awesomeness 👌

Beautiful Super art

I think the damage you did would have been best served before painting. I like what you're doing. As a lomg time armour modeller and a former tanker myself, I will attest to the paint not chipping down to bare metal like you did this. To replicate chipping and scratches a good black brown or german chokoladen braun would better suit it. Keep going man cwn't wait to see the diorama!

Fine Model

Rubber band tracks are fine for US tanks, they use a live track that has very little sag, usually only a inch or two on the real ones, the use a block of wood on the center support roller and adjust to half a inch to the next rollers. If you ever slip a track on the side of a incline, you will know why, done that.

If you put something in between the body of the tank and the rubber tracks and leave it there for a day or two, you’ll get the sagging track look.

you can heat up some water and put the tracks in the water after pouring the water in a bowl

"Deckel" (wait, this guy must be Canadian)... Yup! :) Anyway, great video with a good pace and very fun to watch. Excellent result as well, you should be proud! For the record, "decal"is just pronounced "de-cal", like "decaf" basically ;)

It’s made in Japan, obviously it has the best quality even for a old kit

very nice build. great job.

i didnt like it cuse it looks better then mine

Awesome build. My only critique is on the parts that took damage and exposed raw steel. You should put some rust color and streaking off those since they have been exposed to the atmosphere.

More tanks.

Only thing I would tell you to change is the pure white of the inner side of hatches. I'd think tanks in use would have some patina made by fumes and dust actually darkening that white

Don't brush but instead rub the gun metal pigment with a special silicon tool, eraser, or even with your finger. You'll see the difference.

Just found your channel. Really enjoyed the video! great idea with the history while you're building! This channel should go far! Where in Canada are you? I'm in Ontario.

next time use 2 part putty for Better weld seems, and flair the top of the plastic for the weld cuts, then blend in the 2 part putty for those better weld beads!

I’m working on a Catalina bomber right now and it’s not painted exactly how it would have been in a couple places because I like making my own bomber and fighter squads

Everytime I see a Stewart tank. I remember the movie tank girl. Lol!

You should do some more tanks

Nicely done sir. If I may make a suggestion however....all of the tanks made in WWII were primed in a rust resistant primer that was extremely tough and very dark. If the paint chipped, it'd show the primer and a dark, oxidized metal, not bright steel. But again, very nice and this makes me want to build a Stuart

Were there any m5’s in Normandy that had the sand guards?

...nice.

Not a fan of the resin sandbacks but that has to do more with the actual sculpt than anything. Otherwise, I really dig it.

Great tutorial, what was that multi colored sanding stick you were using.

Looks like a battered Stuart to me. But you should do something about the hatches. Otherwise no comment... 🙂

P.S. I use 1 or 2 lbs test fishing line for antenia wires .

Tank crews were not issued M1923 Thompson Machine gun. Tank crews were issued M3 Grease Guns, they were in use in the 1980s.

You can make rubber tracks sag by holding them down where you want them to be sagged with pegs and heat them up with a hair dryer

Some leaves would make it 1% more realistic haha

I recently started this kit and was wondering why it came with extra bits of kit? I have a few panels and an M-2 .50 cal machine gun to name a few that aren't on the instructions. Is there a use for them or a set of build instructions? Thanks in advance.

didnt that red canvas on the rear block the cooling area for the radiators ???

That's a lot of white showing when the hatches are open..Would that be correct?

Hi, where do you get the tarp for the airplanes? You make it yourself or you buy it and paint it. Sorry, I don't understand English completely. I use a translator.

Overall I really enjoyed this build but I have a few criticisms. The whole tank looks too clean. If you look up reference photos on Google of M5 Stuarts there's quite a lot of grime, dirt and other stuff. A tank that's been driving through the fields of Northern France should either look a lot dustier and as a result more matte, or they should be covered in wet mud. Your pigments are also too contrasting with each other and they look kind of like completely dry and wet earth that have been added on at random and with no in-between. A nice touch would also be to maybe bend up the front fenders a little bit from going through all those hedges. I also saw some pictures Stuarts camouflaged with branches and leaves, which could look quite fitting depending on the diorama you're doing. The scratch built interior details and the different resin elements are nice touches and give the tank a lot of personality. They make it look lived in, and I guess that's why the relatively clean exterior looks kind of... Off in comparison. For very in-depth videos on doing armour model weathering I would really recommend a channel called Night Shift. He's an excellent builder and painter, and he makes in-depth tutorials for loads of different weathering techniques.

The sandbags look like blocks of concrete and way out of scale, and the kit bags would not be just thrown on top, but placed around the turret for easy access !!