The M2A1 was the father of the Lee and the grandfather to the Sherman.  Built as the new American medium tank in 1940, the Blitzkrieg quickly obsoleted the entire concept and the Ordnance Board designers had to quickly scrap plans for production of large numbers of M2A1s and quickly bring out the interim M3 until the more optimized M4 could be put into production. M2s and M2A1s served as training vehicles in the US until production of M3s and M4s permitted training on more representative machines.

This is a scratchbuilt kit using the running gear from the Tamiya M3Lee with a shortened lower hull, new track and road wheels and a completely scratchbuilt upper hull and turret. The engine visible through the grill was cobbled together from the upper half of an old 1/32 A/C kit engine with a few details to make it look like the Continental radial. Air cleaners and exhaust pipes were added as well. There was no need for too much detail as the screen hid almost everything. This model is painted to represent an M2A1 of the 2nd Armoured Div based at Ft. Knox in the middle of 1941.