Vickers E Mk B

[cph64]

This weeks filler is the Mirage kit of the Vickers E Mk B kindly donated by Zak. There are more parts than I care to count, so won't!! Markings are for one used in Shanghai in 1937  3 colours, another just says China 1936, 2 colours and lastly on used by Finland in 1940. The colour quoted for this is Humbrol 30, Dark Green, but one reference says they were delivered in Bronze Green so I'll be using Vallejo Primer which is a close match for this. They were delivered without armament and in order to ensure compatibility with the Renault FTs they were equipped with the same Puteaux SA 17 37mm gun and Hotchkiss MG. When Russia attacked in November 1939 the only unit to have a full complement of 16 tanks was 4 ErHvK, with 3 ErHvK only having a handful. After an unsuccessful attack near Viipuri in February 1940 the inadequacies of their armament and poor performance in the snow led the Finns to learn some lessons and so at the cessation of hostilities they upgraded the tank with Russian 45mm guns from burnt out T-26s and these were used in the Continuation War But that's another model.

[cph64]

After spending time treating the garden bench set I'd repaired yesterday, 1:1 scale modelling, it was time to finish painting the running gear. As an aside has anyone else had their jar of Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black go off? I've had to trow the last part of one jar as it went lumpy and wouldn't coat as if it was separating and my other jar is going the same way.
This kit is trying to be too clever for itself as closer inspection of the sprues, whilst building, shows parts not only for the Mk B but also the superstructure for the twin turreted Mk A and parts for the Polish 7Tp, hence the 148 parts and consequently you have to be careful lining up the appropriate superstructure parts.
Regarding the turret you're supposed to join the Puteaux and machine gun together then pass them through the glacis plate. There's no way this was achievable so I fitted them individually to the plate, glued the retaining brackets on then fitted the glacis plate to the turret. The instructions would have you try and fit the brackets after the plate is fitted to the turret. I also deviated from the instructions and fitted the mudguards after I'd built the superstructure fully.

[zak]

As I remember, its quite a tiny kit.

[cph64]

Indeed it is small, as were most British tanks of that period. I've fitted the headlights and covers, the tool box to the mudguard and airbrushed the Bronze Green. Memo to self fully read labels, it does say UK Bronze Green on the Vallejo 70.607 Surface Primer bottle. Yet another senior moment!! The brackets for the mudguards are yet to fitted but as there will be a lot of handling when it comes to fitting the running gear I decided to leave them and the silencer off for now.

[Bigkev]

Nice Chris,
remember small is beautiful.
Nice work,
Bigkev

[chriswil42]

Looking good.

[MSea]

Great Chris, will it go into a snow scene ?

[cph64]

I'm thinking about MSea. Not much done today as Tracy left me a job whilst she went off with the Grand kids and then \I had some garden furniture to prep, so I've only added the top rollers and the drive sprockets which have had some teeth removed as experience has taught me that tracks never go over them easily!!

[cph64]

 Finally completed and painted, I had but the Hakariski (Finnish swastika) on the turret, as per the kit instructions, only to find out that at the battle around Honkaniemi on Feb 25 1940 they had no markings apart from a small 3 digit number plate at the rear. I have found no details for such and so they're not present. This meant a rub down to remove the turret decals and a respray. Each unit of the running gear is made up of 15 parts which meant progress was steady and I'd like to thank Messers Carden and Loyd for designing something that is an interesting build in 1/72nd!!! Weathering will be done once I've worked out the diorama (you've got your way MSea!!). The second photo shows a rough placing of items to get something of an idea and 3 and 4 are the photos used as reference with the last photo being everything primed ready to start painting. I've had these figures in my stash a long, long time so can't remember who made them or where or when I bought them!!

[Bob C]

Nice work Chris, I can’t work in that tiny scale.

[Bigkev]

Nice work Chris, I can’t work in that tiny scale.

Ditto!
Bigkev

[cph64]

Thanks guys. I had some 'interesting' moments with the small parts.

[chriswil42]

Diorams appear to be IN.

[cph64]

Further work on the figures and Maxim using a mixture of Vallejo and Tamiya paints. A few more touch ups required followed by some weathering using Flory washes and Citadel Nuln Oil.

[Bigkev]

Nice paintwork Chris.
Bigkev