This weekend I received my M5A1 Stuart / M5A1 Recce, along with some other goodies, from Rubicon Models and quickly set about building it. Let me tell you, I will definitely be ordering from them again!
The all plastic kit came with two sprues and a Commonwealth/ USA decal sheet to allow you to field your tank in any theatre of the war. The sprues were clean and nicely labeled with very little to no flash on the parts. One of the highlights of this kit (that I recommend all other miniature companies adopt) is that the track assembly was all one piece – the amount of time I have time I spent gluing misaligned tracks to road wheels and always having them never quite meet is way too high! The second feature that I love about this kit is that using the same hull, Rubicon allows you to build two different versions of the Stuart. The first is your choice of a standard Mid or Late War Stuart VI. However, with a quick swap of the turret for a gun ring, which is included, you have yourself a Stuart Recce/ Kangaroo.
Unfortunately I didn’t think of doing this review until I had finished the build so there are no pictures of it being assembled, but the build went quickly and besides time for letting paint dry, it only took about 30 minutes. I used Tamiya RAF Dark Green with a black wash, with black for the tracks with a silver dry brush to make them stand out.
The kit comes with some stowage and a few additional options (open/ closed hatches, hedgerow cutters) to customize your tank. To go along with my other tanks, I marked up my Stuart with a mix of Warlord and Rubicon decals in the colours of HQ Squadron, The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment. My one and probably only gripe about a Rubicon product is that the blue regiment symbols are too dull and can hardly be seen once they are on the model and have a wash over them. As per Regimental Standing Order Number 20, (despite being for a different regiment, but I’m sure that they were all pretty similar) I left the hatch open and used a Rubicon figure as my Crew Commander and finished him off with a little Esprit de corps for his Jr. Regiment with a blue ascot. Just like their plastic model, Rubicon’s metal miniatures are beautiful sculpts with no flash needed to be cleaned off. The pack comes with three figures, one with arms and the other two customizable with four sets of arms that can be intermixed for different poses in the turret. The backpacks on the tank are from the Warlord British Infantry set.
Final thoughts: This is a great kit and I would recommend it to anyone who asks. It’s a fun little model that will add to any Allied army you’re fielding and I’m now looking for any excuse to order more from Rubicon.
