BlueBrixx M5 Stuart Tank Set 100653

BlueBrixx's M5 Stuart is a model of the American light tank, built from 473 blocks and measuring around 14 cm long. Designed by Adrian, released 2019.

It ran on two Cadillac car engines

That is not a simplification. The M5 Stuart was powered by a pair of Cadillac V8 automobile engines, coupled to two Hydra-Matic automatic transmissions.

The reason was supply. The earlier M3 Stuart used a Continental radial — an aircraft engine — and by 1941 every radial that could be built was wanted for aeroplanes. Cadillac proposed an alternative using what it already had on the line, drove a converted tank 800 kilometres to prove it, and got the contract.

The result was better than the engine it replaced. The V8s were quieter, easier to maintain, ran on lower-grade fuel, and the automatic gearboxes meant a driver needed far less training — which mattered enormously when crews were being produced in tens of thousands.

Around 8,900 were built. It is one of the few cases where a wartime substitution made a vehicle better rather than merely available.

The British called it the Honey

Stuart is the American name, after the Confederate cavalry general. British crews in the Western Desert, who received the tanks under Lend-Lease, called it the Honey — reportedly because a driver came back from a first test drive and said it was a honey.

They meant it. The Stuart was fast, mechanically reliable and comfortable by the standards of British tanks of 1941, which had a well-earned reputation for breaking down. Its gun was too small to fight German armour by then, so it was used for reconnaissance — the job it was actually good at.

Specifications

Pieces: 473 · Designer: Adrian · Model length: approx. 14 cm (5.5 in)