M3 medium, 2nd armored division

Ben M
It would be, but how would I do the kids and stuff? It's a great picture.

John Hughes
Use 1/48 figures for the kids?

Alex K
This is fantastic photo! Go for the dio, Ben, if possible, that would be great! There surely are kid figures available in 1/35, no? SCM Search: Civilians (WW2)

Chan Li
Will you really send this hot girl to North Africa?

Ben M
No, I will build it as a pre-war tank.

Simon Nagorsnik
This is not only a great idea, this is a really fantastic idea!!
Let's go - build the bridge! build the bridge! 😁

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Count me in 👀

Ben M
Trying to figure out this tanks identifier. I-1? L-1? The tank I have decals for is D-10.

Guy Rump
Watching 👍

Mona
also watching 👍👀

Ben M
Now what I usually do is lay the color coat on too thick and totally cover the preshading .. I'm going to try hard not to do that.

John
Looking good 👍 cool dio idea too.

Rui S
I agree 👍 I'm in 😎

Ben M
Trying to figure out the markings on the tank in photo 3. The one in the kit are for D-10. Easy enough to make them D-1. The tank in the photo is clearly #1 but I can't make out the letter.

Trying to decide in the photo if there is a star aft of the side door. It's washed out by sunlight. I think there is, but I can't tell if it's a simple white star or a three-color star like the ones on the turret.

I painted the stripes around the base of the turret and on the 37mm cannon with Vallejo white grey. I think it looks a lot better than pure white.

John
If you're going to model the broken bridge I hope you've been saving your popsicle sticks. Looking good, always liked the three color star against the OD background.

Ben M
I have a lot of balsa strips. I think I can avoid buying anything to build the base. The decals are kind of leathery and thick unfortunately. I think I'll do a dilute od wash over them to knock down the colors a bit.

Ben M
Is there any wisdom on the rubber tracks that you have to melt the attachment pins on? Is it better to do this off the model and then stretch them onto the running gear or try to do it with the tracks on the tank?

John
Definitely off. They're finicky enough to get right and you need all the control you can get. You can't really stretch them over the running gear w/o running the risk of breaking the melted join. What I do if either the idler or drive sprocket has poly cap attachment is pull one off, tuck it in place on the track, then hook the other end of the track on the other end and slowly stretch a little to get the poly cap on. If you were going to glue the ones with poly caps in place, now's the time to do it.

Tamiya decals are pretty bad, not surprised at your description.

Ben M
Darn. I'll have to break the idlers off I think.

Thomas Ehrensperger
Looks great 🙂

John
If the idler's already glued I'd at least try stretching it before breaking it off. 👍

Ben M
That worked, John. Thank you!

John
Glad it worked. Tracks w/o a central guide horn are easier. Looking good! 👍

Ben M
Added a light dust coat of dilute Polly Scale depot buff and made an antenna out of wire and masking tape. Done with the tank portion of this project.

Guy Rump
Very nice build Ben 👍

Mathias Decommere
I love this build, very well done

Bobby Thumbs
get some female equality happening here mate.... get her to change the oil and the tracks as well.

Mona
a woman working on a AFV pre WW2 a rare sight in any country lol ..awesome build 👍

Gary Curling
Love the paint job👍

Mr James
Yes, the paint job looks lovely

Ben M
Thanks, it's one of my better efforts.

Lawrence Landis
Interesting project.
In the battle of Stalingrad, women drove tanks out of the factory into combat against German armor.

Derek Rothfus
I love what you did with this. The pre-shading really shines through well.

Ben M
Thank you!

Rui S
Very nice paint job 👍 looking forward to see your Dio 😎