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Well, I'm done: 4 1/2 years, 2573 hours, 10,960 parts & pieces. I know it's not the real thing, but it's at least armor. I thought you characters might like to have a look at it since many of you have been so helpful with information on M5A1s which helped me enormously.

Here's to you, gentlemen.

Great job, Bob. Now we know where you've been.

Quite a sight, inside and out!

Wow! Way cool!!!!

But as you were going to all that trouble you should have built a 1:1 scale version

Cracking job!
Is it scratch-built & does it run?

WOW! What a nice model. I have seen the plastic 1:6 M5A1s offered by 21st Century Toys so I have a comparison between an "OK model" and the fantastic result you have here. It was obviously either a labor of love or some deeply psychotic episode

That little beast could be in a museum.

Thanks for the kind words, Gentlemen; much appreciated!

Doug: Yes, I've been locked in an armor halfway house for the past almost-five years and am allowed to mingle with real people with the proviso that I keep working on the tank.

Smashy: I think building a real one would have far less trouble.

Pzkpfw-e: No, not scratch-built. I started with the 21st Century Toys model, them tore it completely down and scratch-built about 80% of it. My debris field of discarded 21st CT parts is impressive. Yes, it's an RC model; fully functional with lighting in headlights, spotlight, and front & rear blackout driving lights.

binder001: It was, at one time, the 1/6 21st Century Toys model. The difference between it and mine is, oh, 4 1/2 years, 2573 hours, and 10,960 parts & pieces. Labor of love? No, some deeply psychotic episode, I believe.

A lovely job - well done!

Bob, one word:

Stunning!

Hanno

Bob, Did you get out to the M5A1 at Snelling for reference?
Dan in Buffalo

Looks like the real deal. Well done! I have a question about the M5A1. I notice some of them have something added to the right side of the turret. What is it?

- MarkHolloway

Looks like the real deal. Well done! I have a question about the M5A1. I notice some of them have something added to the right side of the turret. What is it?

Mark,
Shielded stowage for the .30 cal. ammo.
D.

- panamadan

Bob, Did you get out to the M5A1 at Snelling for reference?
Dan in Buffalo

Hi Dan,

Yes, I did. I was allowed to crawl over, under, around, and through their mid-production M5A1. The photos I took were a great help. Here are just a few.











I also went back to Ft. Knox in 2007 and did the same with theirs: hundreds of photos which were an asset. I was able to get to the Ordnance Museum at APG and photograph the M5A1 inside in 2008. Last, a friend of mine, Jim Mesko, who has written over 30 books for Squadron/Signal, sent me over a thousand jpegs on two disks of a third M5A1 undergoing restoration in Ohio. I think I have over 4000 pics of M5 and M5A1 tanks in various places around the world; great reference material if one keeps in mind a restored tank does not necessarily reflect how one looked in 1944. Still, photographs are invaluable for close-up details. I'm a modeler who is at the level where "if I can see it, I can build it." But first and foremost, I have to be able to see it. Alas, this affliction condemns one to crawling underneath these things with camera; not a clean operation in anyone's book.........sigh.

My vehicle is a mid-production M5A1 named Cognac, the 32nd tank of Company C, 33rd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division, and it took part in the fighting around St. Fromond during the crossing of the River Vire in June 1944.

Cheers!

- Hanno_Spoelstra

Bob, one word:

Stunning!

Hanno

Thanks, Hanno; I appreciate the kind word very much!

binder001 surmises this build is some kind of psychotic episode. To refute this I present some graphic evidence taken during the making of the turret spotlight whose original manufacturer was GUIDE.



Lathing is not a clean operation.



The components of the spotlight: the mounting handle, the light housing, the shield, a bright white LED, a reflector cut from a small flashlight, and a clear vacuum-formed lens.



The assembled spotlight with the shield clipped onto it.



The Ordnance drawing numbers are brass photoetch letters & numbers. The three spring clips on the shield work like the originals to clip the shield to the lamp housing.

Well, on second thought, perhaps binder001 is right.....

Bob,
They have done a bang up job there at Snelling. I got to see it last spring-I understand it came from Haiti.
Dan