Italeri 1/35
M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car

Background

This armored car was standard issue with the reconnaissance units of the U.S. Armored Divisions in Europe during the second half of 1944, and was extensively used by the free French Forces during the liberation of French territory. The M-8 was characterized by a futuristic shape for it’s time and high mobility. At the same time, it did not have sufficient armor and armament to fight the German tanks. The open turret did not offer any protection for the crew. After WWII, the Greyhound was widely used by many European armies.

The Kit

Italeri is a prolific model company based in Italy.

The kit comes in a tray and lid type box. The box art shows a M-8 “Greyhound” parked in what almost looks like desert terrain. It is shown in a very sun-faded olive green overall. There is a large yellow letter “C” just above the front wheels on the wheel well covers, over the side jerry can rack is white lettering that says U.S.A. 6033442-S. On the rear wheels cover is a yellow “30” followed by the nickname “Colbert” in white. This is one of the two markings included on the decal sheet in the kit.

Side panels of the box give the history of the M-8 in the languages of 12 different countries, marked with color illustrations of the flags of those countries (including English). There is a copyright date of 1998 and the kit is recommended for modelers 10 years of age and older.

Inside the box are 4 trees of very dark olive drab parts. The parts tree drawings, in the instructions just shows 2 parts trees. However, Italeri has cut one row of parts, per tree, off these trees so that they can fit the box.

The decal sheet and instructions complete the kit’s contents.

The instructions consists of a single sheet that accordion folds out into 10 pages of 12 ¾” x 7 5/8” format.

Page 1 has the history of the M-8 “Greyhound” in 8 languages, including English.

Page 2 begins with general instructions in 11 languages, including English, then the parts trees illustrations and a listing of Italeri/Model Master brand paints, suggested for finishing the model.

Pages 3 through 8 give 12 assembly steps.

Page 9 has 2 painting and marking schemes as 4-view illustrations.

1. 1. The boxart scheme (already described above) with the caption that it is a vehicle of the U.S. Army, France 1944. We are not told what unit it was with. Not shown on the boxart is that it has a large white star in a circle on top of the rear engine deck.
2. 2. A M-8 “Greyhound” of the French Army, Germany 1945. It is in overall olive drab (like the previous U.S. Army one). It carries the white nickname “Bonne Nouvell II” high on the side panel between the front and middle tires. At the front of the rear wheels cover is a white square with the black number “10” on it. Behind that is the French tri-color applied vertically. The white square with “10” on it is applied to the front and rear also, along with a license plate that has the left side of it marked with the vertical tri-color and the rest of it being black with the serial number 468170 in white letters. We are not told what unit this was with again.

Page 10 has “important information concerning this kit” on it, in no less than 20 languages (including English).

Large dark olive drab letter A parts tree holds: the hull top and bottom parts, driver’s cabin floorboard, seat backs, shift levers, steering wheel and it’s shaft, driver’s cabin side walls, M1 carbines, dashboard, tools, rear deck air intake covers, front hull plate, transmission, drive shaft, rear under-body ribbed panels, axles, leaf springs, suspension parts, wheel rim hub nuts, grab handles, headlights and their guards, muffler and tailpipe part, antenna bases, tow rings, .50cal machine gun and it’s mount and ammo can, shock absorbers etc. (105 parts) The hull top, rear body wall and two under-body ribbed panels have been chopped off this tree to make the tree fit the box.

There are no clear parts in the kit for the headlight lenses.

Large dark olive drab letter B parts tree holds: the rear driver’s cabin wall, jerry cans, side steps, the driver’s cabin roof and it’s hatches doors, turret parts, more M1-carbines in turret storage racks, the 37mm main gun parts, ammo racks for the 37mm, a coaxial .30cal machine gun, canvas sacks and rolls that go around the outside of the turret, wheels and wheel cover panels etc. (85 parts)

Conclusion

This is one neat U.S. armored car model. There are no crew figures included in the kit and parts trees are loose and not cello bagged. This is a pet peeve with me about Italeri. Parts get broken off the trees due to friction between trees.

Highly recommended. Although currently out of production with Italeri, the company does trade it’s molds back and forth with Zvezda and Bilek. So, it may appear under their labels or get re-issued by Italeri themselves.

I purchased my kit back in 1998, when it first was released by Italeri, for a sale price of $16.25. It’s full MSRP, back then, was $19.50. I got this kit at my local hobby shop.