M3 - M3A1 Half-track Personnel Carrier by Franco Fusco
By the end of the 1930s, the American army was interested in acquiring an armoured half-track for use in reconnaissance tasks and as an artillery tractor. In the autumn of 1938, White installed the rear track of a prototype of a half-track truck onto the front part of the M2A1 Scout Car. Thus began the development of the Half-track Car M2.
To equip mechanised infantry with a Personnel Carrier, the M2 was modified by extending the aft compartment, reconfiguring the internal arrangements, and adding a rear access door.
The M3 could transport 13 men, an entire infantry squad, and was equipped with a pedestal mount for a Browning machine gun. A total of more than 12,300 M3s and 4,600 M5s (the equivalent for Allied armies through Lend-lease) were produced.
In October 1943 began the production of the M3A1, which introduced the M49 ring mount for the .50 cal. Browning and socket mounts for the .30 cal.
MG. In total, more than 2800 M3A1 and 2900 M5A1 (the equivalent for Allied armies through Lend-lease) were produced; moreover, over 3900 of various models of Half-tracks were rebuilt to the M3A1 standard. Both M3s and M3A1s were used in Normandy.
UK received more than 6000 Half-tracks of various models including M3s although the majority where M5s (M5 is slightly different from M3 mainly for the flat fenders, the welding of the armour and the rounded hull rear corners). Half-tracks were used by recce units, engineers, as command vehicles, GMCs and so on, while the Universal Carrier was preferred as troop carrier.
The M3 wasn't perfect and couldn't match tanks in cross country mobility, but it proved to be superior to others foreign equivalent. It was based on civilian automotive parts, thus was economical to produce and easier to learn how to drive. Compared to the Bren Carrier it was easier to maintain, offered better protection, could carry double the number of troops and enjoyed almost the same off-road qualities. Compared to the SdKfz 251 it was easier to maintain, had better mobility, larger internal space but was slightly inferior in protection.
The Bundle will allow you to have on your table the M3 and M3A1 Personnel Carrier in 28mm scale. You can choose between a front winch and a bumper mounted unditching roller while alternative parts will allow to customise further your models. To crew your Half-tracks Peter Dennis has designed a squad of US armoured doughs and one of UK Tommies.
Notes
The bundle consists of 5 sheets for the Half-track and the crews and 14 sheets for the instructions. To build the Half-track you will need to print 3 single face A4 sheets.
Once downloaded, the sheets can be printed as often as you like, which means you can build any number of Half-tracks very cheaply.
You will need scissors, a craft knife, glue, 120 g/sm and 160 g/sm (recommended weight) paper, all of which are described in the included how-to section.
The sheets are laid down in A4 format. Print your sheets at ìfit to pageî setting (Adobe Acrobat) onto A4 paper and US legal sized paper, on US letter size will print at 93%.
You can, of course, print the Half-track and its crew in any scale you choose, making it extremely flexible in this respect.
Our Motto is Paper Vehicles, Proper Vehicles!
Enjoy