Just some pics (below) of one of my latest projects, the 1/72 Mark IV “Male” tank (circa WWI), by EMHAR. This was probably the fastest (serious) build I’ve ever done, having gone from box-opening to finished product in less than 36 hours–my first ever “weekend” build. Comments and critiques welcome–I’ll leave out my own self-assessment for now to see if people have similar opinions and observations.
The only thing that stood out to me was the seems in the main gun barrels and the holes look like they need to be opend up more. If this is the way they are supposed to be I apologize as I do not know much about these early tanks.
Other than that it looks fantastic!
yeah, I can’t believe I missed the gun-barrel seams. The barrel openings are smaller than they should be, I agree, but I wasn’t sufficiently confident in my drilling abilities (first time ever with a pin vice) to use a bit so large it could split or penetrate the plastic. The pics are obviously a major close-up, and the barrels don’t look so bad in person. [:D]
WOW!
For 1/72, I never would have guessed! It looks like a full-sized tank!
I LOVE this tank–I’ve got one in my stash too, and I’m pleased to see that it builds up so well. (I’ve heard the 1/35 kit is less than stellar?)
I think it came put beautifully! I can’t see anything bad that deserves calling out?
excellent, congratrs on a really nice build.
Terry.
Ok, so…some self-assessment now.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head… [;)]
OH! and the 1/35 kit? I’ve seen the ‘tadpole’ long-tailed version built up at my LHS–one of those neglected display cases in the back, y’know? I wasn’t impressed with the build, so I can’t comment that much on how well or badly the kit was manufactured–the former disguises imperfections in the latter, I’m afraid. I’ll bet the kit lacks much of the detail that could be (should be?) employed in something that size, though.
The weathering is fantastic IMO, and in 1/72nd scale to boot. The only critiques I have is the same as what has been stated.
Cheers
Rob
Well, drill the barrel and zap that seam, looks like you’re good to go!
And, if you’ll hit the high areas of the tracks with a graphite pencil, 
that’ll take it up another notch.
I agree… wish they’d make a good looking kit sometime in the near future.
Disastermaster
Look pretty good to me, nice one.
I’ve just drilled out the DshK barrel on a 1/76 fujimi IS2, with my shakey hands! My advise might be try a cordless dremel or something similar with a small counter sinking bit to do the larger barrels, that way you don’t drill too far but can still open up the barrel diameter. Smaller barrels, use the pin vise, make sure the barrel end is flat, and use a pin or blade tip to make a hole for the drill to bite without slipping, and take it steady.
Oh, and --“P.S.”, Bguy–could you edit your first post there to edit the title to the kind of tank this is? “One of my latest builds–Emhar British Mk IV”?
That way, if someone is trying to search the forums for info on this tank or model, your post can be used for reference?
Thanks!!!
Thanks doog. I’m not certain I’m in the market for a Dremmel right now, but given their usefulness, what kind of starter Dremmel setup would you recomend?
Thanks for editing that, BGuy.
Hmmm…a Dremel? I got a cheap, generic one off of eBay for like, $29.00 or so. Just a basic set up, great for modeling applications.
Look for “rotary tool”.
great build, looks 35 not 72, nice job !
Nice build. I too would have never guessed that it was 1/72. Other than what you have already said about improvements. The only thing I would recommend is to use a mask to give the markings a hard edge. I think the soft edge that you have might be out of scale. Then again I don’t know a lot about the WWI tanks. Last thing and it is not your build would be the presentation of it. I know there is a way to build a cheap photo box out here. Here is the link.
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
That would take your builds up to the next level.
Hope this helps a little and keep up the excellent builds.
moose-thanks for the link. I think I just might build the light box project–looks simple enough. As for the masking on the white/red markings I’m afraid I DID use masking but there was some serious bleed-through, not to mention the aforementioned unevenesss due to my moving quickly.
A tip for masking is to use silly putty. the doog did a tut about it and I have had excellent results. You can trim it with a knife to achive a straight line. Also I used it around PE parts and had no problems with it sticking or pulling parts up.
Hope this helps.
Very fine effort, especially the paint job. I built the 1/35 version several years ago, and would concur that the fir was less than wonderful. I used a lot of filler on that build, especially fairing the sponsons into the sides of the tank, and getting the girders to fit. However, you can get away with a lot when the whole thing is legitimately caked in Flanders mud…
I got round the problem with the tracks by gently scoring between each track linkm so that they remain flat around the drive sprockets and idlers. I don’t recall the tracks being too short, but it would have been easy enough to fill the gap between the two ends with a piece of plastic card, and then just superglue the tracks in place, ensuring that the join is in the bottom run, where the lack of detail on the gap-filler won’t be seen.
I also got round some of the more egregious problems with the girders by making a couple of fascines from twigs from the garden, tieing them together with some model ship rigging thread, and then tieing them to the top of the girders where the seams were at their worst.
I finished my model as a Beutenpanzer - a Mk.IV which had been captured by the Germans, and used against their original owners (turns out there were far more of these than there were of Germany’s own A7V tank). Thus I didn’t have to worry about the ID stripes.
However, I also made EMHAR’s Whippet tank, and this did have the stripes. They were provided as decals, but I wasn’t convinced that they would settle down well enough, so, before main camo painting, I sprayed the relevant area white, then used the decal to measure the width of the areas that needed to remain white, and the area to be painted red. Having masked off the white stripes with Tamiya tape, I then sprayed the red. I masked this when it was dry, and, keeping the masking over the white stripes on, then sprayed the rst of the vehicle, removing the masking over the stripes when it was time for filters, highlighting and weathering.
Cheers,
Chris.
You can pick up a rotary tool for £10 or so, here in UK complete with a set of bits, Dremel’s do cost more. When I got mine and they threw in a free cordless one, which is all I use now
I don’t have much to add beyond what the others have noticed. 95 percent of it is really good [tup]. The paint and weathering are excellent. I agree about the unditching rails being a bit flaky, but I don’t know that Emhar really provided much to work with there. I built their 1/35 MkIV and decided that they were such a disaster that the tank would be better off leaving them off. In the photos, the treads don’t look too bad and the short section underneath is not noticable. I think that greater care with the identification stripes would have helped, although I suppose one could look at it as though the crew hastily applied markings in the field.
For me though the real kicker is the seam on the gun tube and the lack of roundness in the bore. I think those two fairly minor issues have a tremendous negative impact on the overall look of an otherwise fine build.
Andy