Airfix World War 1 Female Tank - 1/76

[Eric Mc]

Something a bit different for me as I rarely venture into the world of scale Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV). However, I was asked quite a while ago if I could build this for an acquaintance as he has a keen interest in The Great War. It's taken me far too long but it is finally finished.

The kit was originally issued by Airfix back in 1967 so that needs to be borne in mind when building it. Having said that, it actually went together without too many issues. Tank afficianados (of which I am not one) will tell you that it is inaccurate in a number of areas but in this case, ignorance of the real thing is a bonus and it looks OK to me. The most difficult part of the build were the paint scheme and attaching the steering mechanism at the rear.

My build was from the 2009 "Red Box" reissue and the moulds appear to have survived the decades without too much deterioration.

[Cardinal]

Good work. Looks like that tank is just arriving to the front, on the account it appears so clean.

[Eric Mc]

I didn't want to muddy it up too much.

There is quite a bit of weathering applied but it was mainly done to mute the colours a bit and blend them in because when initially painted it all looked a bit stark.
Every machine starts off clean.

[KellerModeller]

That's looking good! You should visit "AFV world" frequently

[Eric Mc]

Yes - it's a strange eperience coming in here.

[jssel]

Hi Eric. Very nice build. Any comment about the vinyl tracks? Mine split at every curve. Curious how yours turned out so well.

[Eric Mc]

Sounds like your rubber might have been perished. How old was the boxing?

Mine was from a kit given to me about five years ago so the rubber tracks seemed to be in good shape.

[TeeELL]

Just for interest and, perhaps, future reference, I am in the process of designing a correction for the roof and cab of the Airfix kit along with resin tracks.



The cab was more detailed but the file was corrupted so I’ve had to start again. The roof has all the necessary corrections taken from plans and photos - the challenge was to get the ‘rivets’ to match the originals.
The tracks suit the Airfix, Emhar and Masterbox versions - a bit surprising given the 2 different scales.

[Eric Mc]

Too late for me now but interesting comparing the two. Is the Airfix "roof" more accurate for the male version?

[TeeELL]

Eric,
The Airfix kit roof and cab were originally copied from a Mk2 ‘supply’ tank (at the time no true Mk1 was available and Bovingdon had ‘bodged’ a Mk2 with a set of tail wheels, hence the ‘cheese dish’ on the roof and the access panel on the cab. The Airfix ‘male’ tank model was the first issued with the ‘female’ version arriving some years later, the only difference between the kits being the type of side sponsons.
There are also errors with the track tensioners as from the Mk2 onwards the design was changed to improve access/adjustment range.

I plan to address all the issues, including creating a corrected pair of ‘male’ sponsons, but it is a low priority just now.

[Eric Mc]

I know very little about tanks so it's good to learn a bit. This build is for an acquaintance of mine so I'll pass on the info to him.

[TeeELL]

Certainly. I have to say I am particularly pleased with the tracks as they have the ‘look’ of the real ones being made of individual shaped plates (they are printed in lengths and curves to fit around the ‘horns’.)

This is a Masterbox Mk1 showing ‘my’ tracks compared to the ‘rubber band’ tracks supplied in the kit.



You can see the differences between the Masterbox and Airfix versions of a Mk1. That said, even the MB version isn’t entirely accurate.

[B4en]

Welcome to the dark side Eric! Very nice rendition of the old Airfix kit. Hope your friend likes it.

I remember when Airfix brought out the 'female' version of the kit - I was genuinely excited thinking it would be a fully remastered tank. Ah well, a man can dream...

Those tracks do look good Tony.

[iggie]

Very nice little build Eric. Notwithstanding the inherent errors of the Airfix tooling which are clearly not your fault, that's a great entry into this part of the forum!

[Eric Mc]

I have a few more AFVs in the works so I'll appear here again from time to time.