I have a Mirage Hobby kit of the 'M3 Grant'. Included are optional long-barrelled and short-barrelled 75mm guns. Would these have been specific to particular versions of the Grant? Also, the tracks appear to be rubber-block treads, but I have read that the Grants used in North Africa would have been fitted with all-steel tracks (often referred to as 'double E' pattern). As I have a fairly sizeable collection of unmade kits, I wonder whether a suitable set of tracks may be lurking in a box somewhere ... just a thought.

Correction to my earlier query ... it would appear that the tracks normally fitted to the desert-theatre Grants were the 'WE210 Double-I' pattern. These were not all-steel (as I originally claimed), but with rubber tread-blocks to provide better traction over sandy terrain. Perhaps this makes more sense.

Mirage makes a release with the later track. Like the Lee the Grant evolved over its production run.

Grants used both tracks so it's not wrong. Grants did not have the longer gun tube though. That's left over from the Lee release of the sprues. The other kit is of a later production Grant with the double e track and counter weight on the main gun. Neither one is wrong, just two different versions and periods of service.

The double e track only came on line later in the Grant's period of service.


If only someone would bother to give these tanks the same kind of attention in 1/35.

1/72

awfully cryptic of you. The Mirage Grant kits are 1/72.

There is a photo etch set to convert the smooth track to the WE210 track out there. IIRC, it was part of a set for the Mirage or Hasegawa kits. But the smooth track is still fine for a Grant especially in the battles leading up El Alamein.

Many thanks for the very useful information. At least I can make a start on the kit in relative confidence that all will be fine ... that is, when I find the opportunity, amidst all the other planned projects!

Hi Paul,

If you are interested OKB-Grigorov produce some M3 tracks that may be handy to have. I can attest to the fineness and quality of these tracks, having used them numerous times on my models...

http://shop.okbgrigorov.com/product/163/1-72-tracks-for-m3-m4-family-we210.html

All the best,

Paul

This may sound stupid as I am new to armour modelling,and have just built the Airfix Grant,and have not heard of Mirage before,is it better than the Airfix version and is it more expensive?