M3A1 Half Track (1 Viewer)

noli-poli

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Anyone making the M3A1 in 2006...Andy?, Ana?
 

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Yeah, Force of Valor does, LOL

FOV M3A1.jpg Streetfighting A.jpg


Okay, okay so it isn't King and Country but it's still pretty cool and if you’re not too much of a purist you might have some fun until Andy comes up with his own version.

Besides if Andy did everything you wanted, when you wanted, you wouldn’t have anything to look forward to. LOL

Heck there's a look you can do with a little imagination. See what a very close friend of mine did for with a $19.99 Century 21 Flak 88 gun. It looks pretty good with the KC Waffen SS gunnery crew don't they?

Flak 88, Part IIA.jpg

Hope you can see the pic's.
 
Nice pictures Desk.
I've got the FOV version and it's a cool piece. Is that the FOV Hanomag in the top picture? That comes with some really well posed figures.

Re K&C version. The Bulge Mortar Half Track is a good looking piece. I don't have it, but it 'd be interesting to see how it looks with the FOV M3A1 with a bit of allowance for the size difference.
 
Both 21C and FoV are making (or have made recently) the M3A1 halftrack in 1/32nd scale. Personally I like the body and details on the FoV better, but the track suspension on the 21C looks a little more "scale". Not a huge amount of differences in either. The 21C does have oversized hinges on the hood, doors and troop compartment, which are visually annoying to me. The 21C is available at about 50-60% of the price of the FoV. Currently I have a redetailing project with 2 21Cs and one FoV underway. I need to learn how to post pictures and I could send side-by-side shots.

K&C produced an M3 APC halftrack some time ago, and have done the M16 AA halftrack and the M21 Mortar Motor Carriage. The last two mentioned are fine models. If you were real desperate for an M3A1, get the M21, ad the MG "pulpit" and cover the rear bed with a tarp. The rear tarp is not uncommon in combat photos, especially after the weather turned cold and cruddy in the winter of 1944-45.

US halftracks can be a lot of fun.

Gary
 
Andy made one of these halftracks (DD09) in polystone back in 1999. The vehicle was kind of primative, but one of the figures with the set, a G.I. leaning on the back of the cab looking backwards over his shoulder, was a pretty nice figure for the time. I would love to see both Andy and Ana take a whack at this vehicle with K&C and HB's present sculpting and painting skills.

Just as an aside, one of the things I have always hated about polystone tracked vehicles is the extra polystone around the wheels (which to me looks nothing like mud or snow, and a whole lot like extra polystone not cleaned from the mold). Honour Bound's new Panther seems to have eliminated this problem. I can't wait to see K&C's response.
 
Eazy said:
Nice pictures Desk.
I've got the FOV version and it's a cool piece. Is that the FOV Hanomag in the top picture? That comes with some really well posed figures.

Re K&C version. The Bulge Mortar Half Track is a good looking piece. I don't have it, but it 'd be interesting to see how it looks with the FOV M3A1 with a bit of allowance for the size difference.


Yes it is the Hanomag and it comes with four very cool pieces including two figures escorting a wounding soldier. The three guys are well painted and are perfectly engineered so they don't require bases to keep them standing. FOV is of course smaller scale (1:32) than KC but I collect them along with a ever expanding collection of KC.

KC is great and I'll continue to collect them but it isn't financially feasible for Andy or any other manufacturer to provide every pose and every vehicle all at once to us.

For a Diorama guy like me, this gives me the creativity to experiment with other products like Conte, ONTC, Britains, and even painted TSSD figures as you can see.

Streetfighting 03 A.jpg
 
desk11desk12 said:
Yeah, Force of Valor does, LOL

View attachment 336 View attachment 335


Okay, okay so it isn't King and Country but it's still pretty cool and if you’re not too much of a purist you might have some fun until Andy comes up with his own version.

Besides if Andy did everything you wanted, when you wanted, you wouldn’t have anything to look forward to. LOL

Heck there's a look you can do with a little imagination. See what a very close friend of mine did for with a $19.99 Century 21 Flak 88 gun. It looks pretty good with the KC Waffen SS gunnery crew don't they?

View attachment 337

Hope you can see the pic's.

Thanks for your POV. You would need to display the FOV version away from the K&C to get the "depth of field" I have both the 21C and FOV. Putting these side by side w/ K&C is like me riding in a tyke...just me I guess.

NP
 
Hi Desk,

Thos pics look pretty good. Any chance of seeing them in a larger size with higher res?
 
What great dioramas. They are compact, tell the story, and look very real. I continue to be amazed at how well FOV makes their vehicles. Yeah, I know, K&C does a great job too, but as Louis pointed out in one of his recent posts, the resin seems to make the suspension look muddy or not very well detailed (to paraphrase).

Would it not be be wonderful if some manufacturer could put together a tracked vehicle series that has metal tracks (like Minichamps only in 1/30), detailing like K&C, and the afforability of FOV. Dream on, I say, dream on.
:) Michael
 
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sceic2 said:
Would it not be be wonderful if some manufacturer could put together a tracked vehicle series that has metal tracks (like Minichamps only in 1/30)

Trivia - since we were on US halftracks, the halftracks used a track that was like a big rubber band cast over steel cables, so the models are right as is.
 
binder001 said:
sceic2 said:
Would it not be be wonderful if some manufacturer could put together a tracked vehicle series that has metal tracks (like Minichamps only in 1/30)

Trivia - since we were on US halftracks, the halftracks used a track that was like a big rubber band cast over steel cables, so the models are right as is.

Your comment is well noted. While some AFV had "rubberized" treads, I was refering more to tanks and SA. Still wouldn't be great to see a K&C tank with rotating wheels, working suspension, metal tracks and a clear vision of view between sets of treads and suspensions without resin or overcast in the way. I understand this would add to the cost of production and that is possibly why other manufacturers are using a combination of plastic and metal. But in the ideal world .... :D Michael
 
I coldn't agree with you more. I have never liked the polystone tracked vehicles, and I think that if Figarti can make combination polystone/metal tanks with a suspension and bogie wheels for less than $120, I don't see why King & Country can't.
 
Louis Badolato said:
I coldn't agree with you more. I have never liked the polystone tracked vehicles, and I think that if Figarti can make combination polystone/metal tanks with a suspension and bogie wheels for less than $120, I don't see why King & Country can't.

I agree, K & C would increase sales if they had a decent track/suspension set up because this is the main 'problem' that collectors (and potential collectors) have with the K & C tanks.

The other problem is that the K & C vehicle figures are usually 'cutoff' to fit in the shallow turret hatch holes etc. I can't see why their vehicles don't have deeper holes to contain 'complete' figures. With the FOV range you can take the figure out and stand them beside the tank/vehicle if desired.
 
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Who made the buildings? They look pretty good. The whole scene looks great.
 
Louis Badolato said:
I coldn't agree with you more. I have never liked the polystone tracked vehicles, and I think that if Figarti can make combination polystone/metal tanks with a suspension and bogie wheels for less than $120, I don't see why King & Country can't.
Dear Louis,
As you know, Andy tried polystone tracked vehicles because the K&C wooden and resin tanks were very expensive and not selling v. well. Now, K&C can pre-sell 1000 polystone tanks. Over the years, the sculpting and painting have greatly improved, though there always has been a problem with the K&C tank suspension and bogie wheels -- even the Britains tanks are better. The big difference at this time is K&C has to contract with third party factories to produce their tanks, factories which have profit margins. Figarti has their own factory -- their own salaried employees who can spend all day doing labor intensive jobs like cleaning flash off the parts, assembling the suspension and bogie wheels, or putting together separate links to make the track for the first Japanese Type I tank. However, this may change in the future now that K&C have opened their own "Master Painting Studio" in China -- K&C could open their own factory to make tanks. :)
 
Andy's brilliant innovation, going from expensive hand built vehicles to much more reasonably priced polystone vehicles, is undoubtedly one of the major factors in K&C's huge recent success. Despite my repeated, and vigorous protests of the move (I loved the beautifully well made wood, metal and resin vehicles), I have to admit that Andy clearly made the right decision for King & Country. That being said, Andy's constant improvement in all other areas of his products has not reached the suspension systems of his tracked vehicles (the details on the other portions of these vehicles have dramitically improved, but the tracks still look like crud). Between the recent opening of K&C's own factory for limited edition pieces, and the fact that Honour Bound in addition to Figarti has made the improvements without substantially increasing the price of the vehicles ($105 for Honour Bound, $120 for Figarti), it may be time for Andy to "clean up" the problem. However, I have every confidence that Andy will do what is best for K&C, whether or not it pleases me.
 
jazzeum said:
Who made the buildings? They look pretty good. The whole scene looks great.
Thanks for asking Brad,

The buildings are Form Tech from the Conte Playsets; most of the accessories (food supplies, large & small rubble, camo net, barrels) are from Build-A-Rama. The stone wall surrounding the Flak 88 is from ONTC, streets are from JGM, street lamps are from Imperial Productions, cobble stone ground section is from Kancali and the propaganda posters are from Verlinden.

That is a little bit more then you asked for but what the heck it takes the entire toy soldier industry to build an authentic WWII scene doesn’t it. I wish I was as talented as some to build it entirely from scratch.

Carlos
 

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