Awards & Honors
Museum Photos & Historical Information

The M7, nicknamed "Priest" by the British, has always intrigued me as a subject to model. When the Italeri M7B1 first came out, I totally missed the boat. At that time I was young in modeling and interested in science-fiction subjects. The Italeri kit has been since long sought after, as there are no others in this scale to work with. I waited for a re-release, and waited, and waited, and waited.

(Naturally, after I've gone past the Point of Not-Finishing - Italeri is re-releasing the M7B1 Priest some time in 2001!)

With none forthcoming, I set some projects aside to make an attempt to model my own - using the Tamiya M3 Lee and M3 Grant Medium Tank model kits. It didn't appear to be too difficult of a modeling task. Armed with reference material, these two tank kits, and some scrapped Italeri parts I got from an old model at the local flea market - I set out to build the M7.

From the start, I figured if I was going to go to this length in modeling an M7, I wouldn't do a M7B1 like Italeri modeled. The early M7 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriages were built on the M3 Lee hulls. The actual M7 is 19 feet, 6 inches long overall. Tamiya's M3 Lee is considerably squat in this respect, aside from the other problems with the kit previously mentioned by other modelers. This called for me to stretch out the lower hull box some eight inches in scale in order to meet the overall vehicle length. This was the very first thing I did - as all the other dimensions and part placement would be in relation to this subassembly.

Chopping the hull wasn't difficult, and I chose two spots to minimize the amount of replacement rivet detail I'd have to add to the lower hull sides after cleanup. The replacement rounded rivets came from Grandt Line.

Naturally, stretching out the hull meant the Tamiya vinyl track was going into the spare part bin. It would have anyway, as it's incorrectly cast end connectors would be incongruous with the amount of work elsewhere on the miniature. This was a perfect opportunity to try out RHPS Models' track links. I thought these were outstanding - and will turn to them in future projects.

From the track links, the road wheels and idler needed to be replaced too. Tamiya's original castings have the incorrect number of spokes on these parts - five where there should be six. The replacements came from the rescued Italeri parts from the flea market. Once stripped of paint and cleaned back up - they were nearly like new. Big annoyance here was that the Tamiya pegs on their bogie trucks are way larger than the pegs used on Italeri bogie trucks - hence some drilling out was called for. After this exercise, a drill press is becoming more and more attractive.

The upper hull/fighting compartment I got from the flea market salvage exercise was not only poorly done, but broken and warped. I stripped it, glued the pieces back together and then polished out the repairs to get a clean start for further work. The stretched Tamiya M3 Lee hull really didn't affect the Italeri upper hull much, other than calling for new sponson floors, sand shield attachment rails, and extensions on the rear to mate properly with the Tamiya M3 Lee engine deck and modified rear hull overhang plate. The front fenders came from the Tamiya M3 Grant tank, as did the rear hull / engine access doors and air cleaners.

I used Aber brass weld beads on this kit, both the thin and thick variety to mimic the details on the actual vehicle. I liked them in the end. Inside the fighting compartment, I combined the rescued flea market kit with a new Italeri 105mm Howitzer model kit to make up the gun. I wished I had an entire resin or brass replacement gun instead, and I left this sub assembly removable in case such an addition makes itself available for me to retrofit to this miniature. Lastly, I used a simple blocking plate in front of the driver's position as appears in tech manual photos, instead of dropping in a Verlinden transmission sub assembly and modeling the area open and exposed. I've never seen photos of this area without the blocking plate in place.

In the photos above, I didn't snap down the upper hull to the lower hull completely, but it does show the engine doors from the Tamiya M3 Grant kit and rear fenders from the M3 Lee kit. I also made the RHPS track runs removable, which is why they're just casually set into place in the photo. Unfortunately, my late decision to model Wading Trunks for this M7 miniature meant that the rear hull doors would wind up being covered anyway. The white styrene strip along the rear edge of the Fighting Compartment wall is for mating the scratchbuilt extended Fighting Compartment Wading Trunk fitted to these vehicles for 'swimming'. I would use modified Tank Workshop resin M4 Wading Trunks for the engine breather and exhaust. I like these - and they really make the profile of the M7 tall. The extended Fighting Compartment Wading Trunk changes the look of the vehicle too. Just deciding to model these features, and then doing it, delayed completing the model a couple of months, but I'll definitely not have a M7 like anyone else's.

Modeling a 'swimmer' gave me opportunity to render a M7 HMC as it would have appeared during the Normandy Landings in 1944.

After the above photos I added scratchbuilt headlights, styrene strip headlight guards, siren, and Gun Travel Lock to the miniature. These were simple details on the real M7, and so too in miniature. I also added a small detail to the front of the Transmission Cover. I scratchbuilt a little Shipping Bracket for the miniature. I noticed this detail while visiting Jacques Littlefield's armor collection in Portola Valley, California. His head mechanic related a story about this detail to me, in which vehicles shipped overseas often had these little brackets welded to their front ends. A wooden block would be wedged to depress the brake, and a rope would be cinched to the parking brake lever, pulled taut and routed out of the driver's hatch or port, and cinched on the shipping bracket like you would a horse's rein. This would help keep the vehicle stationary during sea shipment. He commented that on all the model miniatures he's seen, no one has ever added this little detail. I sure the flimsy little bracket was quickly knocked off as soon as the vehicle hit the shore, which is why it doesn't appear in many photos. I liked the story, and the detail is so easy to add, I fitted one to my miniature too - as well as many of my upcoming WW II American tanks.

Hinges for the Stowage Boxes were stainless steel items from Eduard, and I fashioned two sets of Auxiliary Fuel Drum brackets out of Verlinden Foil. By this time in service, the Auxiliary Fuel Drums had been deleted, but some vehicles carried the brackets for awhile afterwards. I added them to my miniature to help reinforce this being an early M7 HMC. I also chose to fit Skybow's .50cal HMG to my M7 HMC miniature. Lastly, I scratchbuilt the Engine Access Panel for the rear wall of the interior of the Fighting Compartment, and made up two armored breathers for the Engine Deck before moving to paint the Beast.

These markings are Archer Fine Transfer dry-transfers. Before continuing with anymore weathering, I'd apply all the markings to the miniature so that they'd be weathered appropriately too. I wanted to mark my M7 with codes similar to other 2nd Armored Division vehicles at the time of the Normandy Invasion. Photos of M7 HMC's with these codes are scarce to say the least, so I improvised. I reasoned that these codes might have been placed on the rear wading trunk, and perhaps even the sides of the Fighting Compartment Enclosure. As the vehicle moved inland, the crew would discard this equipment - and the codes would go away as well.