Rubicon Models M5 Stuart review, and a special build

My friend Damon Anderson over at Tabletopbattle recently posted a plea to help his daughter Emma who is in need of some massively expensive surgery, and you can read Damon's plight and call to arms here, this sets the most important part of the build, which is that it was built as a fund raiser for Emma's operation. 

Following an auction to have a model that was to be kindly donated by Rubicon Models the very generous Tim selected to have the new M5 Stuart built for him, in the colours of the Desert Rats during the northern European campaign.

The M5 comes on two sprue, with a nice decal sheet and very clear set of instructions. The model allows you to build any of the main production variants of the M5, and also allows for the Kangaroo recce variant to be built as well. 

The model is very well detailed, with nicely defined tools 
and suspension especially note worthy.

 The only real weak spot in the detail is on the spare tracks on the turret, and I found them to detract a little from the over all finish, but this could be simply resolved with some sand paper, and once painted still look pretty good. 

The model is a quick and easy build, and slots into place very well. If you wish you could build it as both a Kangaroo or an M5 with careful building.

I painted the M5 using Reflective green as a base, and then airbrushing Golden Olive over as a highlight, before using AK filters and washes to weather.  Transfers came from my decal dungeon and are a composite of a few different sheets.

With the addition of the special girls name, the Stuart was done and will be winging it's way to the new home soon. 

Once again, thanks to Rubicon for providing the kit, and thanks to Tim for generously bidding, and finally here's the link again to Damon's article, and if you would like to get involved please don't hesitate to get in touch.