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- Jakko
Since Andrew @adt70hk recently bought some S-Models M3A3s and I mentioned I built some of those as turretless Stuart Recces some years ago, here’s a quick how-to 
I used this kit:
Since the Stuart Recce lacked a turret, I had to build an interior, which just took a few bits of plastic card and some spare figures from Plastic Soldier Company (I think they’re from their M5 halftrack, sawed down to fit):
Really, its just a firewall made from some plastic card to fit inside the hull, a drive shaft tunnel from some more plastic card, a transmission from a block of resin offcuts — which I did that way because I happened to have some of about the right size, you could easily do this from some more plastic too — and some boxes on the floor and in the sponsons. Since you’ll only see this through a small turret opening, you don’t really need more to give a good impression of there being a full interior.
After painting the inside and glueing the hull top to the bottom, I built a stowage bin on the hull rear and added some British details to the turret:
Since the turrets are removable, I can use the vehicle as either a Recce or a standard Stuart V. Technically, the Recce version should probably have some armour plate around the turret ring and a couple of machine guns, but this works for me
Here’s the full four I made:
I used this kit:
Since the Stuart Recce lacked a turret, I had to build an interior, which just took a few bits of plastic card and some spare figures from Plastic Soldier Company (I think they’re from their M5 halftrack, sawed down to fit):
Really, its just a firewall made from some plastic card to fit inside the hull, a drive shaft tunnel from some more plastic card, a transmission from a block of resin offcuts — which I did that way because I happened to have some of about the right size, you could easily do this from some more plastic too — and some boxes on the floor and in the sponsons. Since you’ll only see this through a small turret opening, you don’t really need more to give a good impression of there being a full interior.
After painting the inside and glueing the hull top to the bottom, I built a stowage bin on the hull rear and added some British details to the turret:
Since the turrets are removable, I can use the vehicle as either a Recce or a standard Stuart V. Technically, the Recce version should probably have some armour plate around the turret ring and a couple of machine guns, but this works for me
Here’s the full four I made:
