Andy has built his new Mk. I Male WWI Heavy Battle
Tank in 35th scale from Takom. This tank looks like an exciting proposition as
it comes with a lot of extras to the kit and seeing what Andy will do with them
gets our mouth-watering. Let’s see what he thought of the plastic before he
starts painting and weathering the kit.
Construction Review:
Mk. I
Male WWI Heavy Battle Tank
Takom
Kit Number# 2031
Scale - 1/35th
Price - £41.42, ¥7,740, US$63.11, €58.59 from Hobbylink Japan
Part II –
Construction Review:
We had a good look at what Takom had given us in their new
Mk. I Male kit late last year, but with the Christmas festivities over, it's
time to get stuck in to the build. A brief note before starting; the plastic in
my example had a noticeable coating of silicone mould release, so it's a good
idea to give everything a wash in warm soapy water before starting.
Step one gets underway with the construction of the driver's
cab. This is built up from four side panels and the roof plate. Despite the
various angles, the fit here was excellent and the completed cab dropped
perfectly into place on the hull roof plate. If you're fitting the forward
machine gun, you'll need to add it now, as it's fitted from the inside and
isn't accessible once the hull's together. On mine, I also opened up the vision
slits using a fine drill bit.
There is however an issue with the accuracy of the cab.
Unlike the later Mk.IV, the Mk.I had a wide cab that extended close to the edge
of the hull. The cab that Takom have included, although it's been re-tooled to
have the details of the Mk.I, is still the same narrow version used on the
Mk.IV.
Although incorrect, once the tracks are fitted, the
discrepancy isn't too obvious. Possibly an aftermarket company will step in
with a replacement resin cab. One other area which is questionable is the cab
roof. The two holes in the roof plate for the periscopes have a raised lip and
bolt detail around them, whereas photos seem to show a flat roof with two flush
holes and no bolts.
I elected to leave the moulded detail in place, but it could
easily be sanded off to better replicate the photograph. With the cab complete,
the next step covers the construction of the main hull. This is built up flat
pack style from six main panels, with the driver’s cab added to the top. The
instructions show that the panels should simply be attached to one another, but
I was a little concerned that it would be hard to keep everything square.
Instead, I used one of the track frames as a jig to line up
the panels at the correct angles, before flowing liquid cement along the
joints. Each joint was allowed to fully dry before adding the next panel. I
didn't glue the panels to the frame at this point. It's simply acting as a guide
to keep everything aligned. If you're building the version with the sponson
crane, don't forget to open up the eight holes in the hull roof plate.
With the hull built up, it was time to get the track frames
together. These have quite a lot of internal structure to add before the two
sides of the frame can be joined. Pretty much all of this framing is invisible
on the completed model, but it's good to see that Takom have none the less fully
detailed the parts. If you want to model the tank with a thrown track, then the
internal detail will be there to see.
Before the track frames can be joined, the road wheels need
to be added. Being a WWI rhomboid tank, that mean a lot of them. 108 wheels in
total, plus the idlers and drive sprockets. But, again being a WWI rhomboid, none
of them will be seen, so a few short cuts can be taken with clean up. I simply
snipped the parts from the sprue, leaving as little of the gate as possible,
glued the wheels to the axles and left them at that. There really isn't any
point in spending more time on them, unless they are going to be visible as
part of a damaged tank.
The instructions recommend leaving the wheels unglued while
assembling the track frames. This isn't really necessary, and lining up 27
individual axles into their corresponding holes, while cementing the two track
frames together would test anyone's patience. Instead, I glued the axles onto one
of the frames and left them to fully dry before adding the other frame. Don't
forget to add the extra road wheel to the upper rear of the track frame, as it
will be partially visible through the small cut-out in the inner frame.
With the wheels solidly in place, the outer track frames
were added, trapping the sprocket and idler in place. These two were left
unglued to freely rotate, but if you choose to glue them, like the rest of the
wheels, it won't affect the final build, apart from not allowing the tracks to
rotate when fitted. That's not a big issue, unless you were planning on rolling
it around the floor when it's finished.
Now we move on to the sponsons. Like the hull, these are
built up from flat panels, and again like the hull, I used the track frames as
an alignment jig while assembling them. These were left in place overnight to
fully set.
Fit was again excellent. The only part that needed any
adjustment was the narrow angled plate that forms the lower corner of the
sponson. This needed sanding slightly to get a snug fit. There was a hairline
gap at the rear edge of the panel, but that was the only area that required a
smear of filler.
The two six pounder naval guns feature very nicely detailed
breeches. I left quite a few of the smaller details off, as none of them are
seen when the guns are installed, but if you decide to make use of the sponson
trolley and crane, then the kit features a very accurate interior to the
sponson. Unfortunately, leaving one of the sponsons detached will reveal the
completely empty interior to the hull.
The two gun shields are split down the centre and the
resulting join needed a little filler and some sanding to get a smooth finish.
If you decide to fit the full sponson interior, the shields can be left to
freely rotate as the guns are mounted on poly-caps on a support frame inside
the sponson. As I wasn't fitting the full interior and I wasn't too bothered
about having the guns poseable, I glued the two shields in place.
The access doors on the rear of the sponsons (and also the
rear door on the hull) have solid moulded handles. These were carefully sliced
off, and replaced with thin copper wire.
I wanted to be able to paint the guns separately, then
install them at the end and to allow this, I also needed to leave the sponsons
separate from the hull. The only attachment point for the sponsons on the track
frames are the four corners of the cut-out. To give a bit more surface area for
them to sit onto, I added some fillets of plastic card to the inner edges of
the cut-out.
I could now bring the track frames and the main hull
together and finally start to see the Mk.I take shape. There's always a concern
when joining major assemblies together that something will be slightly out of
alignment, resulting in the tank not sitting squarely on the ground. No such
problems here. Everything lined up correctly and the frames sat strait, with no
rock or wobble.
I could now add some of the smaller details to the hull. The
first was the shield for the hydraulic jack used to raise and lower the
steering tail. I'm building the Palestine version here, which didn't carry the
tail, but period photos show that the the shield was still fitted. Whether the
jack itself was in place is unclear, so I left that off. The rear plate of the
shield features a block where the tail would attach but this is absent on photos
of the Palestine Mk.I's.
Rather than slice off the block and risk damaging the
remaining details, I decided to scratch build a replacement. This was simply
made from a rectangle of plastic card, cut to the size of the kit part. The
positions of the rivets were marked, and these were added using the spares
provided on the kit sprue.
The result was a much better match to the period photos. The
bracket for the rear lamp was added using an off-cut from an old sheet of
photo-etch.
There's very little PE included with the kit and most of it
is used with the sponson trolley and crane. However, you do get three, very
nice exhaust baffles, which add a nice touch of refinement to the upper hull.
The two headlights that mount on the front of the hull have
been moulded solid, with no clear parts included for the lenses. I do think
this is a bit of a shame, especially as the parts don't even have the shape of
the lens moulded on.
I managed to find a couple of suitably sized clear lenses in
the spares box. The lights were hollowed out with the tip of a large drill bit,
leaving a small rim, to which the lenses can be attached after painting.
Before the lights were attached, a short length of fuse wire
added to represent the cable. A small hole was drilled in the hull plate
directly behind the light, and the other end of the wire inserted into it when the
lights were glued in place.
Lastly for the tank we've got the tracks. These are the same
click link tracks that Takom have included with most of their WWI British tank
kits, and they're some of the best out there. There's a small moulding pip on
each link which is dealt with by a quick pass with a sanding stick, then they simply
click together. Despite needing 90 links per side, it only took about 20
minutes to get them cleaned up and clicked together. Once they are together,
they're really quite strong, and will stand quite a bit of rough handling, and
have enough give to allow them to be easily attached to the frames after
painting.
That concludes the build of the Mk.I, but that's not all you
get in the box. Depending on which version you choose to build, Takom have
included a sponson crane and accompanying trolley, which are used with the
Palestine version, and also a steering tail for use with the western front
options. The steering tail is well detailed, with poly-caps fitted in the wheel
hubs, allowing them to be removed for painting. If you're adding the tail,
you'll need to install it at the same time as you add the track frames to the
hull, as the tail needs to be trapped between the two frames.
The sponson trolley is also very well detailed, and matches
well to the example displayed at the Bovington Tank Museum. Like the steering
tail, it also features poly-caps in the wheels, the front wheels being poseable
via an articulated bogie. I further detailed mine by adding a woodgrain texture
by scoring the plastic with the tip of a knife blade.
Even if you forgot to drill out the holes for the crane, it
can still be attached to the upper hull. The pulley features some very delicate
PE brackets that need a little care when bending to shape and attaching, but
look very nice when in place. Brass chain is also supplied to add to the
pulleys, although for my build I'm going to place the crane frames and pulleys
on the trolley.
So that's the Mk.I built and ready for paint. It's been a
very enjoyable build and, despite what seemed like a large number of parts at
the start, the construction was actually very strait forward, helped by the
excellent fit throughout. The narrow drivers cab is a bit of a disappointment,
but isn't enough to spoil what is otherwise a great kit. Hopefully, it'll look
even better in colour and that'll be coming up in part 3
And as a brief teaser to part 3, we've been kindly supplied
with some new decal releases by Denis Anikanov of New Penguin Decals. They've
produced three sets for the male, female and the Palestine Mk.I's and I'll be
reviewing these decals and using some for the build, so stay tuned.
Andy Moore
Part III - Paint & Finishing
Thanks to Takom for sending us this kit to review & build – check their website for full details on the rest of their kits…
...Also thanks to to Dennis from Penguin Decals which Andy will use in the next part of the build...