Medium Tank M3 Lee And IJA Type 95 Light Tank

06Oct
by patmcf

Well, not a lot to say on this one as it is just an additional WWII diorama to show off another of my favourite tanks of that era. This time it is the M3 Lee which has always appealed to me and as it also served in the East which meant that I was able to put it in the same jungle setting as in my previous one.  I have also added an IJA one as well, The Chi-Ha tank which was a bit more difficult as I’m not very good at camouflage painting (that’s why I’ve tried to hide it!).  I have also made another tank, the IJA Type 95 Light Tank which I’m saving for another diorama.  I would like to use these little IJA tanks more often but the cost of these little beauties is a bit high for what you get.

I have placed these two completed dioramas side by side in a few photos.

Just because I like to make things difficult for myself I plan to do a three part diorama a bit further down the track all going well. Each of them will be the same size as these two and along the same theme.  So watch

this space!

24 thoughts on “Medium Tank M3 Lee And IJA Type 95 Light Tank”

  1. maenoferren22

    Looking great Pat, for a while it was like a game of where’s Wally. All the pictures hadn’t loaded and I couldn’t see the Japanese tank anywhere. Next one tell us all there is a well camouflaged tank in it, but don’t add it . Will keep everyone amused for hours! Regarding the M3 I was going to print some up for my convention as I really like them too.

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    1. patmcf

      Ha ha ! Thanks mate It was my first time solo posting a blog as I have to learn to do myself as my Tech adviser is moving out to finish her Tiny house so I couldn’t work out how to rearrange the photos into the order I wanted .I hope to improve in the future but up till then mate enjoy the game😲😆

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  2. John@justneedsvarnish

    Pat, as usual, that is excellent, the whole package! 🙂 Some of my favourites are in there, Matchbox Japanese infantry, alongside trusty Airfix figures on both sides! Which M3 model did you go for? I want to get a couple for the Brits in Burma in 1944 but haven’t made my mind up which models to go for!

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks John ,they are all truly good figures even the old Airfix guys . The M3 is a Hasegawa brand but beware the 75mm gun doesn’t move sideways only up and down ,I don’t know if that will effect you but when used on a diorama it kind of limits it’s use .I still have a nackered old Airfix one from long ago and it’s 75 moved every direction really well but I’m not sure if that might have changed since.

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  3. Paul H

    I like it. Especially the two dios Fitting together. I suppose and an ever expandable theme, there could be no Limit to how many add ons one could make.

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks Paul ,the idea of fitting these two together came late so they really don’t sit together as such , but when I do the next ones I will make them so they will and as you say will be endless !

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    1. patmcf

      Thanks Dave I do like doing jungle themes as bamboo is my favourite grass ,it being the biggest form I bet you knew that 😉.These two don’t really fit together as one they only look lie that due to the bamboo and photo shot angles but when I do another series along this line I’m going to make them continuous so as Paul mentioned there is no limit to how many can be done except old shaky hands and dodgy eyesight !

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  8. Marvin

    I’m not sure what to admire more – the jungle, the figures or the tanks. So I’ll just have to love them all equally. The trees and bamboo are fab. My grandad faught in Burma and it reminds me of like the nightmarish terrain of the Arakan with the jungle concealing everything.

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    1. patmcf

      We have something in common Then mate ,like you grandad my dad was in Malaya in WWII as an artilleryman and was captured in the fall of Singapore and was then put to work on the Thia-Burma railway and from his stories it would have been as you said a bloody nightmare .It was bad enough further south but the stories I read about upon Arakan

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      3. Marvin

        Wow, that’s astonishing. He must have been a tough guy to survive that. I remember him saying about how the Japanese would call out his and his mates names telling them to surrender , to psych them out, etc. Looking at your great dio, I was thinking of another story my grandad told me. He never used to talk about the war very much at all but I always remember him telling me about how he was a runner through the jungle carrying messages – a particularly frightening job at the best of times I would have thought. But on this one occasion, he ran straight into a tiger! He said he thought it was a jouvenile. They both got a big shock and turned and ran in the opposite direction. Anyway, I thought that would make a nice scene in a dio!

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      4. patmcf

        No the boys who fought there didn’t talk much about it ,I suppose that if one went through what they did you would try to put it out of your mind .It was only when dad got old did he tell us some serious stuff but before then it was mostly humours tales like your granpa’s , a funny one you can tell the grandkids ! I remember asking dad why one it had so much respect from all the others to which he simply said Oh he was a dispatch rider !like you say bloody perilous job never knowing what’s around the next twist on those jungle paths .I recon you should do your granpa’s story as a little dip ,I would think you would do it justice !

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  10. Azazel

    I love both of these.
    Despite the fact that I mostly do sci-fi and fantasy, dioramas like these in the old Tamiya catalogues were one of my first inspirations, even from when I was too young to hold a brush with any skill at all, and these both bring that feeling back. I love the inbuilt narrative of this kind of diorama as well, along with all of the questions they pose..

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