Bluetank – M8A1 Cargo tractor.

When attending the Stockholm Hobbymässan some years ago, I spotted this kit, hiding, almost out of sight. I’m not really a fan of modern armour, but I knew, I had to have this … much to the amusement of some of my modelling friends, who scorned some of the crude, and soft details. It didn’t matter though; something about this vehicle stood out … it was unusual and sparked that interest, that all modellers feel, when they look at a kit and imagine it already half built.

The M8 was based on the M41 walker bulldog chassis, but was extended and 1 extra road wheel added. Thanks to Charles King for these first 2 images … they were taken at the IPMS Open 2006.

The Kit

Opening the box, the quality (or lack of) is immediately apparent. Spare tracks are moulded on to the roof of the cab. The vinyl tracks are almost devoid of detail and are totally wrong. The gates have a nice wood pattern but this is pronounced rather than engraved. The backsides have no engraving at all and are full of ejection marks.

The swing arms for the lower hull have a pre-formed wire spring to fix to each one, to allow articulation, but the plastic washers for the inside are not included, so each swing arm must be glued, or suitable washers sourced. All grill parts are moulded solid.

Cotton thread is supplied for the lift at the back and some metal pins for the drive wheel, idler and the dozer blade fixings. The instructions are the exploded view type and are definitely not first generation copies, so this makes some part-placing difficult. There’s all the usual mould problems with seems and flash, but nothing that can’t be fixed easily. Fit is surprisingly good, but some pre-made holes are too large for the connecting part, and need filling. The instructions include details for a few figures, but these are not included either. A sheet of clear plastic is supplied for the cab windows and measurements are given in the instructions on the size to cut. The cabs have no inner details other than a poorly detailed seat and some basic dash details.

Decent references for this kit are hard to come by. Thanks very much to those who offered support and supplied the few images that I did get! As so little is known about the vehicle, there is a little room for ”gizzmology”. The kit can be built easily by the less experienced, but could also be an excellent base, for more advanced techniques.

The Lower Hull and Running Gear

The road wheels have very soft details with no definition between wheels and tyres, plus the drive sprocket and tracks are totally wrong. This could be a copy of the old Nitto kit, but it also looks like something that was meant to run with remote control, once upon a time. AFV Club do upgrade sets for both the tracks and running gear. If you use the AFV Club vinyl M41 tracks you need 2 sets, because of the extended chassis base. The individual sets actually have enough tracks to complete the full length but not enough pads, so there are about 7 missing on both bottoms and this is not really seen.

I bought 2 sets of individuals (# 35046), but didn’t want to use the second set just for some pads that can’t be seen anyway. Unfortunately 2 sets of running gear are needed as well, because the chassis is extended with an extra road wheel, and one set is not enough. AFV Club’s must be the single nicest track set I’ve ever used. They go together so easily, workable and a pretty decent price. The kit drive-sprockets does not fit the tracks properly so it has to be doctored … maybe getting Tamiyas old M41 parts would be an alternative.

The upper hull

The remaining assembly went together easily enough. The majority of the work being cleaning ejector pin marks of the sidings and filling too-large locating holes. Airwaves make an etch set (# 35032) dedicated to this kit, but in honesty, it is probably the weakest etch set I’ve ever worked with.

The grills are too small so you have to build an internal frame to fit and the straps are way too big. It would be much better to use scraps instead, or a just buy a standard etched grill set and scratch the rest from foil and wire.

The cabs have very little detail, so there’s some fun to be had in adding details and practise scratch-building. Unfortunately (or fortunately in some cases) this wont really be seen, as the windows are so small.

Painting was one of my first attempts at pre-shading. Starting with Tamiya olive drab.. the whole vehicle was sprayed. Then I lightened the colour with desert yellow and sprayed the middle of panels with this, to give a natural (?) bleached/faded affect. Then I lightened it a second time and got the middle of the wooden sides and bigger panels.

Dressing it up

To make the most of the details, they were dry-brushed using a lighter version of the base colour. This colour was successively lightened by desert yellow, but then dry brushing was limited to only the most raised details. Washes followed around details and in recesses. This was tied together by spraying very thinned olive drab and earth colours lower down … my version of filters.

Johnson’s floor polish was sprayed over the entire model, to act as a base for the decals. Even though there are very few decals used, the whole model was sprayed. This darkens the overall colour, which is a good reason to use lighter base colours. Decals were set using micro sol and set. Another coat of Johnson’s was sprayed over the set decals.

The stowage items are a mixed bunch from Italeri, Academy and Verlinden, plus chains made from junk jewellery. None come with the kit. The ration boxes are from “St. George Design” (Thanks to Paul Rains). The figure is from Legends Productions (LF0057 US Tanker at Vietnam war). The .50 cal is also replaced with one from the very useful Academy set (# 1384 – US machine gun set) which also includes decals for the ammo boxes.

The two mortars come from Academy (Tamiya copies). They are included in their older Mutt kits. Tamiya also have this in their original kits, plus have released it as a separate mortar and crew set.

Final Touches

The base is a standard oval shaped picture frame, built up in the middle with polystyrene, and the groundwork is a mix of wall-filler (gips), sand and white glue. It is painted a red-brown colour using Humbrol enamels and pastels.

The plants are all aquarium and small plastic plants from the supermarket and pet-shop. They were painted by airbrushing and tidied up with dry brushing and washes. This takes away the “plastic” look of the original pieces. The remaining foliage is railroading static grass and long grasses.

The tracks pads are glued into place using superglue. Ordinary modelling cement will not work, as they appear to be some sort of vinyl material. This is advantageous as the tracks can be painted separately and the black pads don’t need painting at all. A quick over-spray of the thinned red-brown groundwork colour blends them nicely.

The figure is painted using Humbrol enamels also, and is placed to give the both the human factor and scale to the scene.

As a model on the shelf or in images like these, it looks the part, but on really close inspection .. it wont be mistaken for Tamiya or recent Dragon quality. Its still an enjoyable build of an unusual subject, and unfortunately, “the only game in town”. As AFV Club have the tracks and running gear already, they would appear to be the best bet, for having a modern version of this very interesting vehicle. One can only dream!!

/Frank G