Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $20 96 dark green styrene parts. Distributed by MRC. Includes M3 Halftrack, GPA Amphibian "Seep" and Harley 42WLA. This is to let you know what you see when you open the box. Each of the three models (yes, three!) are being built for the final review to follow. First things first, the boxtop tells you there's an M3 Half Track and a 1/4-Ton Amphibian Vehicle. The picture also shows a Harley Davidson WLA 45 motorcycle which is included. The Half Track is a M3A1 and the 1/4-Ton is more formally known as a Ford GPA "Seep." Rather than criticize Academy's English, I thought about how much Korean I know, and decided what really matters to us are the flash free, beautifully molded models! The sprues and decals are all sealed in separate poly bags and the sprue tree attachment points to the parts are very thin, so you should be able to remove the parts without damaging them. Academy paid attention where you want them to! The M3A1 half track is an excellent replacement for the aging 1/72 Airfix and Hasegawa models and Matchbox and Nitto's 1/76 kits. While there are multiple models of virtually every German half track no matter how obscure it was, Academy has finally come to the rescue with this state of the art U.S. half track that helped win the war with over 41,000 built in numerous variants serving around the world for decades after WWII. Though there's 66 parts, the entire cab, doors, and hood up to the radiator are slide molded as one large piece to simplify construction and assure proper alignment. Tools are crisply molded on, as are the rivets, the "T" latches and hinge details on the hood. You'd have to do some serious cutting if you wanted to open the hood or cab doors. The upper doors are separate in case you want to show them folded down, but here are 2 fine ejection marks and no detail on the insides. The dashboard has raised detail, the stickshift and steering wheel are finely molded and the floor has an acceptable tread pattern. The windshield frame has wipers molded on but no clear part is provided. The leg braces that would hold the armored windshield cover up are molded onto the hood, but sprue will do if that's how you want to model it. You have a choice of open or closed front louvers but as good as the open one looks, it's not "open" all the way through. There's no radiator to see anyway so this shouldn't bother you. You have a choice of roller or winch for the front bumper with incredibly small tow hooks, plus petite headlights for the fenders. The rear compartment comes with a diamond tread floor, separate rear door, and exterior mine racks and luggage racks (you have to add your own sprue braces if shown down). Inside, separate seat backs have stowage space behind them for rifles and equipment from your spares while the seat cushions themselves are indented from being sat on - a first on a model, I believe! The M49 ring mount appears to be scale thinness, with a jewel of a .50 caliber that just needs the spade grip handles to be separated. Two .30 caliber Brownings and mounts are quite likely to be the best .30s you've ever seen! The chassis frame is one part simplifying construction, and includes a cross-brace with drilled out lightening holes. The bottom 2/3rds of the engine is molded attached to the frame just as the real engine was, tempting you to add the top 1/3rd and open the hood! Nine more parts plus wheels and running gear complete the assembly. Though the front wheels are each one part with impressively done tire tread and very fine rivet detail, the hollowed hubs are molded closed. The 'piece de resistance' is the running gear detailed on both sides. The track run is molded as one part with the rear road wheels, idlers and drivers. Separate front components include awesome hollowed out drive wheels - but the idlers are not hollowed out! Academy came within inches of a grand slam - if the idlers were also hollowed you would have been able to forgive any of the minor things that kept this from being a perfect kit. As it is, it is the best 1/72 scale U.S. half track ever made! The Ford GPA "Seep", like far too many WWII allied military vehicles, has never before been offered injection molded in 1/72 scale. I guess that's understandable when you compare 14,625 Schwimmwagens to the mere 12,778 GPAs built! Interestingly, Marmon Herrington was given 3 Willys MA model jeeps and Ford started with their GPW jeep and both were given plans and tasked to create an amphibian version. Ford won, and its designation stood for G (government contract), P (80" wheelbase), A (amphibian). "Seep" became a popular nickname not only because it rhymed with Jeep, but because you very likely got wet in it, as the water seeped in! There's only 24 parts to this little beauty, with the hull one large piece on down to some minute little detail parts that certainly appear scale thin. The dashboard has fine raised detail, the floor, front and back decks are ribbed, and gear shifts are molded in place as well as accelerator and brake pedals. The only thing missing is clear glass for the windshield. The Harley Davidson 42WLA motorcycle with over 90,000 built during WWII (30,000 went to the USSR!), was almost as common place in the U.S. Army as was the ubiquitous jeep! Indians also served, but nowhere near the number of HDs. Though Academy doesn't identify the motorcycle, W was Harley Davidson's designation for this incarnation of its 45 cubic inch flathead motor series, L stood for their high compression model, and A for Army. The almost identical WLC model was made for Canada, while smaller amounts went to other allied nations. "All the WLAs produced after Pearl Harbor, regardless of the actual year, would be given serial numbers indicating 1942 production. Thus, war-time machines would come to be known as 42WLAs … Most WLCs were produced in 1943, and are marked 43WLC." (* from Wikipedia, see references). The six part model is a wild one, and will be one of your favorites. The first thing you'll see are the unbelievably thin spoke wheels. You would never believe anyone could create such super fine spokes in an injection molded plastic kit, but Academy has achieved it! I dare you to compare any 1/35 scale HD and I guarantee that even in larger scale, nobody has kitted plastic spoke wheels that look as realistic as these!! The frame has most of the bike molded in place, with just two tiny ejection marks that will easily clean up. The front wheel is molded with fender, headlight (screaming for an MV lens), siren and blackout light in place. Part B22 has the steering fork, springs and handlebars altogether, with only a hand control on the left side (HD didn't adopt telescopic front forks until after WWII). There are front and rear "roll/crash" bars and a rear wheel stand. There is no windshield, but not all Harley's had them. Academy did such a great molding job I'm glad they didn't provide tiny separate parts that would be hard to handle. The only other small scale injection molded HD WLA was a bonus model in the Nitto (?) and later Fujimi M-36 Jackson kit. It had 18 parts not counting the rider, with what at the time were considered fairly thin spokes (no comparison to Academy's)! But again, where Academy could have had a 'grand slam' they just fall short of a perfect model. This old Nitto kit had the solid bottom half of the windscreen, I believe you had to add your own clear top part. It also came with the optional Thompson submachine gun in its scabbard, the twin rear leather saddlebags and the front ammo can. Nitto provided a separate gear shift lever, foot rests and exhaust pipe that would improve Academy's kit. If you wanted a perfect Braille Scale WWII Harley, look for the Nitto/Fujimi M-36 Jackson (which isn't bad itself) and borrow the above parts. That would be so awesome! Academy's decals are basic bumper codes and stars, but Cookie Sewell pointed out that "…the 'number-dash-letter' is just that - e.g. 6-I for 6th Infantry (Battalion here)… They present them as '6-1'…" It would be great if they paid attention to that detail in future kits. It would have been nice to have some clear acetate film for the windshields for each of the three vehicles. I'm glad Academy hasn't over engineered the kits, providing many more, miniscule parts that especially in small scale, are just too dang small for us klutzy, not as young as we used to be modelers. Originally, Academy released these "Ground Vehicle Sets" with the idea that the vehicles would be found on an airfield so they would appeal to armor and aircraft modelers. We built over 3,400 AA half tracks so I was surprised Academy went with a 'plain Jane' infantry version. Maybe down the road they or a wise aftermarket entrepreneur will release say, an M15A1 AA version. It would be simple enough to convert Academy's M3 to a quad 50 M16 with the turret from either Nitto or Matchbox. I highly recommend you go out and buy this triple kit and by the time you get back I'll have completed my 'build' part of the review! For $20 or less discounted, this is an excellent value. The GPA is the only game in town for a vehicle almost matching the Schwimmwagen in performance and quantity built and is very nicely done. The M3A1 and the Harley came so close to being perfect models! You're going to see a lot of guys dumping their old M3s at the shows, and a lot of the Academy models built up, competing for the Gold (ahem, or '1st's in our Nationals). Available from retail and mail order shops. Academy's new site at: www.academy.co.kr/eng/index_eng.jsp or just www.academy.co.kr . Thanks to Bob Lewen of distributor Model Rectifier Corp. for the review sample and Academy for doing an excellent job on these long awaited, major Allied vehicles. References: · *Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley-Davidson_WLA. · http://www.theliberator.be/liberator.htm Harley name plate, speedometer. · "Standard Catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles" by Thomas Berndt. · "Jeep" by Jim Allen. · "Half-Track" by R.P. Hunnicutt.

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