Italeri – 7063 – M3A1 Scout Car

Description:

M3A1 Scout Car

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a U.S. M3 Scout Car, nicknamed White Scout Car by the  British Commonwealth who also used it.

The main variant produced, the M3A1, was an open top light armoured car, usually fitted with two machine guns, a 0.5 cal (12.7 mm) M2 Browning heavy machine gun and one or two .30 cal (7.62 mm) M1919 Browning machine guns, all mounted on a skate rail. The kit only provides two machine guns, one .50 and one .30.

The kit is a reissue of the old ESCI Kit, tooled in 1976, with a new decal sheet. Already issued by Italeri in 2009. Released again in 2023, keeping the original 2009 decal sheet, which includes one U.S marking (Tunissia 1943), two Soviet markings, lend lease program, dated 1944 and one Free French Forces marking, dated 1944 too.

Kit includes two figures of little quality for today standards. The kit consists of 77 parts, with option to be build with the top closing canvas as depicted in the box cover, though the markings included show all open top vehicles fitted with the two machine guns. Kit is well tooled, though design is from 70s and assembly fit may not be so well engineered as more recent kits. Some ejection pins marks are present but the model can build into a nice representation of the M3A1, recommendable for all levels of modelers.