As you would expect this set contains sprues B and C from the M3A3 kit plus a surprise of an extra sprue with solid road wheels, solid drive sprocket and idler wheel with covered cut-outs. It should be noted that this set has the suspension only and no tracks are included.
The solid road wheels come in two styles with the large and small indentations for the lubrication points, although the nipples aren’t included but are easily added from sprue or small bolt heads, see images.
AFV Club Road Wheel | Real Road Wheel | AFV Club Road Wheel | Real Road Wheel |
The backs of the road wheels are open and this is probably the only drawback with the wheels as the shape of the bulges is spot on compared with the real wheels. The open backs would be hard to see under the hull of the finished kit but it would have been nice to have back inserts as Academy did with the solid road wheels in their M12 kit. There is also some minor sink holes around the centre of the rubber face on the wheels which will need filling.
The solid type drive sprockets have nice details and you are provided with final drive plugs to use on the Tamiya M3/M5/M8 kit hulls.AFV Club Drive Sprocket | Real Drive Sprocket |
AFV Club Idler Wheel Front | AFV Club Idler Wheel Rear |
The inclusion of the solid road wheels which were only seen on M5/M8 vehicles shorten the odds of these kits coming from AFV Club at some stage in the future but will also go a long way to improving the suspensions of the Tamiya and Academy M3/M5/M8 kits.
Highly recommended.
See a full construction article of this set HERE
The Sprues:
Page Created 18 March 2003
Updated 21 March 2003