M31
Recovery Vehicle
1/35 Kit #35008
Review by Terry Ashley

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The conversion set consists of 192 parts in light cream resin, a small fret of etched metal and a short length of twine for the cable.
The quality of the resin is excellent with no evident ‘flash’, air bubbles or other blemishes; there are the usual casting blocks to be removed as is normal with resin sets.

As well as the bits for the M31 conversion Calibre35 also address one of the main problems with the Tamiya kit, in that the kit represents an M3 with petrol engine but has the rear hull plate and exhausts for a diesel powered M3A5.
You are provided with a new rear hull plate with engine doors, new mufflers and exhausts as well as a new rear upper hull panel and rear corner panels.
Other vehicle modifications provided is the small turret hatch that replaces the cupola in the 37mm turret as well as the new door for the 75mm turret front opening. There are other modifications required but I will get to these later.

The research and attention to detail in the set is excellent with everything needed to build the M31 included from the extensive crane jib assembly to the large storage boxes around the hull, the front and rear towing assemblies, the winch assembly fitted to the underside of the hull (this is a nice touch as it is not seen on the finished kit but is an important part of an M31), the myriad of extra equipment and accessories carried to the dummy 75mm and 37mm guns fitted in place of the real ones of the M3.

The main jib crane is almost a kit in itself with well over 50 parts with a lot requiring holes to be drilled to allow them to move or fit together as well as the cable fitted around the pulleys. Care would be needed when assembling the crane to get everything in the right place but the resulting assembly looks impressive.

The rest of the assembly is fairly straightforward but there are quite a few small parts to be placed around the hull.
Also included are the two large ‘chocks’ which are fitted under the front tracks for stability when lifting or winching and the spare track racks on the large hull storage boxes are provided in etched metal for added detail.

The instructions are in the form of exploded view drawings showing the placement of parts. This can be a little confusing unless you study the instructions and understand where the parts go before gluing or cutting. If you do this then there shouldn’t be any major problems during construction, no more that is taking into account this is an extensive conversion and it’s not a shake and bake set.

As I mentioned earlier there are some other modifications required to the Tamiya kit to fully build an M31.
The main sight on top of the 75mm turret has to be cut off to fit the storage box provided (this is probably obvious?).
The two side doors have the hinges removed and are welded in place on the real M31 with the door vision slot completely removed and plated over on the left door (the bullet deflector remains) but the vision slot is retained on the right hand door. This should be easy to modify on the kit and lastly the Tamiya tracks could do with replacing as they are the original tracks with the end connectors on the ends of the pads and not between them as they should be.

Also included in the set are three 'Sherman' style ventilators (marked as ‘do not use’ in the instructions). These ventilators were fitted to late model M3s on the hull top just behind the right side hatch and on the left front corner of the hull top. The third is fitted on top of the 37mm turret to the right of the cupola. It should also be noted that on late model M3s the large hull side doors were eliminated completely and only the vision port was retained on the right side of the hull.
A nice ‘extra’ from Calibre35 as this gives you the opportunity to modify the Tamiya kit to the late production M3 for a bit more variety.
These ventilators are also used on diesel powered M3A3s and M3A5s and Calibre35 have plans to produce a conversion set to this variant in the future, this would include a new rear end and engine deck.

Another major problem with the Tamiya M3 kit is the road wheels which have six spokes instead of the correct five. Calibre35 will be coming to the rescue here also by releasing soon a set of road wheels for the M3 Lee/Grant, the spare road wheels included in this conversion are an example of what the set will contain.

Calibre35 also have plans to release a limited release update set with the M31 turret interior to add that bit extra to the conversion.

Conclusion:
Another impressive conversion set from Calibre35 which will build an excellent kit of the World’s first dedicated Armoured Recovery Vehicle.
Prior experience in working with resin parts would be a bonus as this is an extensive conversion set but at the same time there shouldn’t be anything out of reach of most modellers.
The future release of the road wheels, diesel powered conversion and turret interior will give fans of the M3 plenty of options as the M3A3/A5 conversion could be used on normal gun tanks also.

Highly recommended.

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Page Created 15 September 2002