tank model reviews

1/72 SCALE

1/35 SCALE

1/72 SCALE 

Mk. IV "Female" Heavy Battle Tank:  

This is a nice little kit.  It is a fairly accurate production of a Mk. IV "Female".  The Mk. IV was the most widely used heavy tank of World War I.  The "Female" designation came about because of difference of armament.  The "Males" carried two 6pdr. cannons on the side sponsons (the boxes sticking out of the sides of the tank) and two Vickers on the back half of each sponson.  The "Female" carried only Hotchkiss machine guns in all of the sponson postions.  The "Female" heavy tanks were designed to protect the "Males" from infantry.  They were also to take out infantry in the trenches as they traveled along the length of the trenches.

If you want a small kit of a World War I tank that can be assembled in about thirty minutes this is for you.  The finished dimensions are about 4 1/2 inches long, 1 1/4 inches tall, and 1 3/4 inches wide.  For those of you who prefer the metric system there are 2.54cm/inch...you do the math.  There are about 20+ pieces so there is not to much to keep track of.  The details on the model are not bad.  The rivets are a little large and the guns could have been done a little better but overall everything is fairly to scale.  The guns are glued into position and do not pivot in the sponsons so think ahead of time how you want them to be.  The tracks consist of two pieces for each side that need to be glued together (use only crazy glue to do this).  Be careful how they go because they are about 1/16 of an inch to short so make the gap on the bottom side of the model.  If you want to be a little persnickety about this model you should take a very fine drill or blade and cut out the view-slits because they are a little shallow.  I did not bother with this but I wish I had.  The other pieces of the model fit together well except for the de-trenching rails that travel over the top of the tank.  They are very thin and need to be trimmed to acquire the proper angle so they fit.  I would suggest dry-fitting (no glue) these pieces first to achieve the best fit.  

The model kit comes with four different decal options.  There are three for different British tanks and one for a tank captured by the Germans.  There is no real prescribed paint scheme.  The instructions refer to some cryptic paint numbers.  I just went by the cover of the box and painted the tank olive drab as suggested by the British Tank Museum in Bovington.  There is some debate over the true color of these tanks.  Some of the earlier models were camouflaged and it is said that some produced were gunship gray.  For a decent camouflage pattern refer to 'The World's Great Tanks' by Roger Ford  or search around on the internet.  The tank captured by the Germans consists of field gray, brown, and mustard.

This model is also available from EMHAR in the "Male" version in 1/72 scale and both versions are available in 1/35 scale.

1/35 SCALE

Mk. IV "Female" Heavy Battle Tank:

This model is almost an exact replica of its smaller sister the 1/72 scale Mk. IV "Female" also made by EMHAR.  There are some differences though that I should note.  The guns do move in the sponsons and the side plates consist of two pieces instead of just one.  The two piece side plates are sort of an annoyance because they do not fit together as well as they should.  You will have to dry fit and trim for awhile before the gap between them is fixed.  A little putty would help too.  There is also a little warping in the top and bottom sections of the body of the model.  I had to twist the model slightly and glue in some bracing made of part trees on the inside to ensure that the thing stayed straight.  I would suggest once you glue the top and bottom together that you dry fit everything that you can to make sure that you take the twist out of the model.  If you do not do this there will be some pretty large and ugly gaps.

Another thing about this model is that the plastic is hard to the point of being brittle at times.  Because of this I would recommend using extra caution of your fingers while you are cutting.  I had a problem of little flecks shattering off of the model when I took the pieces off of the parts tree.  A sharper blade or a good pair of modeling shears would have solved my problem.

For the most part this model is the big sister to the 1/72nd scale Mk.IV.  The same strengths and weaknesses are apparent in both.  It also comes with the same marking decals as the 1/72nd version.  If you are a WW I buff like I am you will like this model.  To the best of my knowledge there are no other models like it available except a resin cast from a company I do not remember the name of.  

When I get around to it I am going to either make some de-trenching timbers and chains to add to the top of my model or the chicken-wire roof that was used to keep grenades from the top of the tank.  Hopefully by that time I will have access to a digital camera or at least a good film camera to take some shots for you so be sure to check back.

Mk. A "Whippet" Medium Tank:

The Mk. A medium tank was designed to fill the gaps created by the slower heavy tanks on the battlefield.  This was during the time in history when people still had cavalry on the brain.  If horses got shot full of holes there had to be an alternative so they could still call something the cavalry.  In comes the Whippet.  At breakneck speeds of almost 8mph this bizarre cracker box with firepower was supposed to exploit the holes made in defensive positions and machinegun down fleeing infantry.  To this end it is not sure how successful the Whippet was.  Most of the people who got to say what was real and what could be written down for posterity were still very much in love with horses and men flinging themselves in front of the hail of bullets seeing as how they didn't have to do it themselves.  

If you think the Mk. IV is a strange contraption the Whippet is even more so.  The engines are in the front and the fuel tank is in the nose behind a wedge shaped arrangement of armor plate.  The crew compartment is in the rear of the tank in a sort of fixed turret.  The guns consist of four to five Hotchkiss machineguns set in ball and socket mounts in the front, sides, and rear of the crew compartment.  The treads look about how a more modern tank's treads would look except that the Mk. A had no suspension (ouch...).  

This model went together nicely.  It exhibits the same out of scale rivet detail that is apparent on the Mk. IV's put out by EMHAR but it is a minor detail.  The exhaust pipes for the engines come out on either side with a muffler and exit pipe.  The exit pipe looks pretty bad.  I would suggest finding a piece of metal tubing that is about the same size and either slip it over or totally remove the original.  The guns could also be improved on.  The ends of the barrels are rounded off and look sort of crummy.  I have not replaced all of them yet but I have scratch built one using thin aluminum tubing and fine gauge wire for the recoil springs.  There is an armor plate overhang in the back of the crew compartment that is too thick and this could be replaced with copper sheet but I learned to live with it and just left the original.  The rear gun port is in the wrong place also.  I think it is correct from the original draughtsman layouts but once it hit production they changed the position of the gun.  I did not know about this until I did a little research on the web.  Of course as it always works out this is after I had assembled and painted the model so I just dealt with it.

Speaking of painting and finishing there are about six decal options.  There are no real painting instructions for this model except the cryptic company codes for whatever paint they expect you to buy.  The nose of the tank and the front tips of the track runs have decals for them that consist of white-red-white vertical stripes.  I discarded these as an option and masked of the parts and painted them instead.  I think this came out better than the decals ever would have.  For the body of the tank I first tried to paint it a field drab but this color came out to light of a green.  I just settled for standard old OD green and it looks alright but it is a little dark now.  I would think a dark tan would look nice but how historically accurate this might be is beyond me.  The other decals consist of unit numbers and christened names.  I have not bothered to apply those decals either.  Instead I opted to hand paint them since the real Whippet would have had crudely painted numbers on it also.  

Everything on this model is completed except the installation of the guns and cementing of the roof.  That is one very nice thing about this model is that the roof of the crew compartment is not an integral part of the construction until the very end.  This allows you to paint the model with out having to mask anything because you can put the guns in towards the end.

This model is pretty nice but utilizes the same hard plastic as the others. The treads consist of three pieces to a side that need to be cemented with crazy glue.  They are probably the worst feature of the model.  I am looking for aftermarket replacements that feature individual links or at least have better detail.  The other parts have sharp detail and there is not much, if any, mold line present.  I liked it and enjoyed (still enjoying) putting the thing together.