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LONG APPEND WARNING and review of GASO.LINE White scout car M3 A1 kit
June 21 2008, 12:52 PM
The GASO.LINE White scout car M3 A1 is a great kit. I think one of the best of all GASO.LINE vehicle kits they have ever done. I feel that GASO.LINE kits have been unfairly trashed in other forum appends. In this case and certainly this kit I think they show just how good they can be at this scale.
Overall kit design:
The kit consists of two major parts: The full frame/chassis that has the front fenders cast as part of that and the engine/crew compartment. Essentially these two parts are most of the kit. You cut off the casting blocks, glue them together and the rest of the kit you just stick onto these two parts. I would add that on this kit at least, there was no warpage of either part whatsoever. (Even when I have seen this on resin kits some extremely hot water fixes it right up.)
Even though the engine/crew compartment is a big single piece casting it is highly detailed including an undercut inside the cab for the driver/co-driver's feet. I am still stunned and surpized at the detail on these big one piece castings and it is something that really can only be done in resin.
The interior of the crew compartment that is cast with the rest of the body has the treadplate floor and interior wall details including door hinges, support for skate rail etc. There are equipment lockers with hinge detailing. Some might find the rivet detailing on the exterior to be too overstated. I didn't count them but the rivets are tiny and I think it all appears very fine. Not sure who Olivier got to do the masters on this but they are very very talented. I did spot one tiny air bubble hole on the inside but just a pin prick size. Truly awesome kit engineering here.
The one knock on doing this as one big casting is the engine compartment is one solid resin block, Not really possible open the hood unless you are going to do one messy cutting and scratch job there. The driver/codriver doors are also cast with the big body casting but are only the lower halves of the doors with the upper door halves and the armored windscreen as separate parts. You will need to cut the doors away if you want them opened (and be careful not to damage the doors' interior detailing). If you must cut them open, at least the walls are very thin and with half doors you are "halfway" done?
Exterior:
The chassis/fender piece is a very detailed big one piece casting. The driver/co-driver "door platforms" have a very fine cast treadplate surface . The engine "sump", exhaust, and transmission as well as the short drive to the main power differential is cast with this part as is the front suspension. Again despite all of it being in one piece it is very finely detailed.
Aside from these two big parts, the kit exterior is then mostly adding a drive train and under chassis details including: rear suspension, the axles with the differentials, drive shafts, a guard for transmission, muffler, and the four wheels of course. Wheels have great tread and hub detail. There is no steering linkage so you would have to add if you wanted one. If you want to angle the front wheels that is going to mean some careful cutting on the front axle as well.
You will need to add a couple handles of bent wire to rear of vehicle. (All the wire needed to make parts is included in the kit BTW.)
There is the "roller" type front bumper, an open "slatted" front grill, and separate rear bumper and towing hitch. The headlights could be drilled out for MV lenses but are otherwise nice. There are two finely cast headlight guards with a cast grid "screen". These are really delicate and will take some fiddly work with a very sharp blade to clean them up.
There are separate tow hooks, gas cans, well cast pioneer tools, and various nicely detailed "tent" rolls and packs you can add to outside the vehicle on the sides, back, and fenders as you see fit. I like it that everything is in the box.
There is option to have the upper halves of the armored doors up or down (and interior details are on the inside upper door halves if they are down). The front armored windscreen can be optionally up or down as the cab windscreen support itself is a separately cast part. You add the armored windscreen on top of that. You will need to make some wire supports if you pose the armored windscreen up.
Interior:
Inside the cabin/crew compartment there is large one piece rectangular "gun skate rail" that runs around the inside of the entire compartment. Careful cutting this off the casting plugs. My kit's rail was slightly warped but since the rail attaches to the whole wall of inside the crew compartment the warpage gets "fixed" as you glue it in. Again it is impressive casting.
There are driver/ co driver seats and steering wheel. You will have to add the wheel mount and brake from wire and stick shift using a metal pin. There is a "ghost" of the clutch and accelerator pedals on the floor but it is barely there. I like that the dash board is separately cast part on this kit. Fine detail here what would look decent with careful painting. Just remember the main dial faces on these White vehicles were a "silver grey" and not black.
There are six crew seats to add to the back (Six! Must have been crowded in there on the real deal with full load!) To top it off there is a pole antenna mount and .50 cal and .30 cal machine guns. These guns have the skate rail mounts and the .50 has separate handles, ammo box, and tiny brass gun barrel. Nice! The pole antenna mount is curious as there is no radio in the kit.
One big missing item is there is no "canvas" top for the crew compartment included. It would be a shame to hide that beautifully detailed interior but if you must model a closed top vehicle you are going to have to make your own cover. From tissue and thin white glue maybe?
Markings:
And then GASO.LINE pulls a "dirty trick" in this kit. Decals for four different vehicles are included!
There is a "Free French" 1st Armored version (Mai oui! But of course!), a British OR Canadian 11th Armored vehicle, and a Russian 41st Brigade/7th Mech Corps. Sacre Bleu! So now you have to pick which one or get more kits! I like the Canadian one the best (maybe with black "mouse ears" camo?). The Russian version looks appealing too.
I am inspired to order another one of these for an interesting U.S. (Sicily?) conversion. This was a general's ride. It had two tone camo, two .50 cals. and a kind of "roof" over front and back half. Of course GASO.LINE "helpfully" has a photo of this vehicle in the instructions too! Don't TEMP me Frodo!
Other Notes:
GASO.LINE instructions take some getting used to. They are essentially small b/w photos of the kit as it is being built/assembled. There are usually photos of all the kit parts cut off and ready to use and a parts list with the parts numbers on the photos. Then the assembly photos show these part's numbers as they are being added to kit in the assembly photos sequence. This should be no challenge but it appears the instructions have been run through a "French" photo copier and lost in the translation (hehe!) is any sharp picture resolution. Ok it's really bad resolution. Some parts are hard to identify and place from the fussy photos and at times you can be left having to figure out part by process of elimination what part goes exactly where - esp. if there are many parts that are very similar.
If you have never done a resin kit ever then you could do no worse than start here. There are some big blocks you have to cut off and other VERY fine fragile parts to carefully separate and clean. This is how it goes with almost all resin kits but not really too bad on this one. Get a JLC saw and some various grades of sanding sticks and start cutting - but...
ALWAYS ALWAYS be careful of all resin dust! This is dangerous stuff. You must protect your lungs. Respirators are okay but only protect the wearer. All that dust will get into your environment, clothes, and into everyone else (including pets etc.) Don't risk it. I recommend wet cutting and sanding at all times. Get a small spray/mist bottle of soapy water and CONSTANTLY spray the kit, tools, and yourself with water, Use an old tray or paper to catch the run off, get all the cutting and sanding work done before you start assembling, then throw all the debris out when you are done with that stage. Sounds messy and it is messy but remember you must keep it clean. Using the soapy spray while you cut and sand has a side benefit that you are washing any oils or agents off the parts as you go.
Also to add these kits are not cheap! I have had problems at times with GASO.LINE kits but Olivier and the people at GASO.LINE do stand behind their products. I have written to explain the occasionally missing, miss-cast, lost, or broken part and Olivier has always come though with a replacement. They take pride in their work and are very reasonable at customer service and I appreciate that. That is good to know if you are spending big bucks (Euros) on these kits from France.
Conclusion:
Buy this kit with confidence. With some careful cutting right out of the box and just basic skills with small resin parts it will build up into a really sharp looking model. Only thing is that I think I pine even more for a M2/M3 Halftrack kit. After all this kit is almost "halfway" there!
very complete review. I'm currently waiting to hear from Meeta as to price and availability of the M3A1.
For a couple reasons, I have a (somewhat masochistic) fondness for this vehicle. Several years ago I volunteered at the 1st Infantry Division museum in Winfield, Illinois to help with their 3 running vehicles. One of them was an M3A1 Scout car. We would drive them in 4th of July parades and once while I was driving the scout car, it died on me right after we existed the parade route. We used the halftrack (the third running vehicle in the collection was a Korean war era jeep) to tow the thing to a driveway where we could start it up again. It took awhile, but we started it (vapor lock was the immediate diagnosis. Back at the museum garage, it was also found that the fuel filter needed replacing. Anyway, it made for a hot, uncomfortable and long Independence Day!
The other reason I like this vehicle is I have a strong interest in the vehicles used by the Israelis and Arabs. The Israelis used M3A1's in both the standard configuration and a really cool closed top vehicle with a turret. I'd like to build one kit in this configuration.
This is probably more than you wanted to read, but thanks again for the kit review.