Vickers Twin Turret tank by King Derelict - First To Fight 1/72

[king derelict]

Hopefully I am not going to be disciplined for clogging up the board with too many silly little tank builds but I have enjoyed the simple and fun work between wrestling with the corvette build.

This is the Vickers Mark E Type A (twin turret) first built in 1928 by Vickers and rejected by the British Army but sold relatively successfully overseas to several countries. Poland bought 50 and a license to build more in-country.

First to Fight is a Polish company and this is the first kit of theirs that I have bought.

There are no instructions or decals included but on the underside of the box is a diagram showing the placement of parts and paint scheme

I wasn't sure whether it was really a wargaming model rather than a serious scale model but it seems quite nicely detailed with two sprues of parts.

The fit of parts is nice. I had to open out the holes in the turret halves to accept the pins but everything else was very well fitting with little flash.

I kept the one piece track parts separate for the initial painting. At the end of the brief assembly I had a few bits left over.

There seems to be an alternate turret base plate, an extra part for the second turret (only one turret has the part - unsure what it is) and a souple of idler wheels that don't seem to fit anywhere.

Everything got a coat of black primer and then a coat of Tamiya Buff as the first of the three colour paint scheme.

 

Now the masking starts for the darker colours. The hull looks straightforward but the turrets may be fiddly.

Have a great weekend

Alan

 

 

 

 

[Baker]

On 11/20/2021 at 1:40 AM, king derelict said:

There seems to be an alternate turret base plate, an extra part for the second turret (only one turret has the part - unsure what it is) and a souple of idler wheels that don't seem to fit anywhere.

These Vickers (and derivative) models were in service in many different countries with many variations and modifications.

 

[Egilman]

46 minutes ago, Backer said:

These Vickers (and derivative) models were in service in many different countries with many variations and modifications.

 

The US Army had them as well, The M2A2 & A3 Light Tanks, they originally had the Vickers suspension until it proved unsatisfactory...

They were known as the Mae West Tank.... (For obvious reasons) {chuckle}

[Baker]

 

16 minutes ago, Egilman said:

The US Army had them as well, The M2A2 & A3 Light Tanks, they originally had the Vickers suspension until it proved unsatisfactory...

They were known as the Mae West Tank.... (For obvious reasons) {chuckle}

Indeed.

The Vickers idea can be considered a distant ancestor of the M2, M3 and later M5 family

 

Mirage has a whole family 

http://www.mirage-hobby.com.pl/MirageHobby-AFV-72

https://henk.fox3000.com/Mirage.htm

 

[king derelict]

I seem to have had a lot of distractions in the real world lately so although progress has been made here it has been in such small steps I would have been embarrassed to publish them. A lot of the issues have been with the impacts of Omichron on my trip to see my father in the UK. I should have been in transit right now but I could not get tested in time to meet the latest UK pre-departure test requirements, so I cancelled everything late last night.

We last saw the Vickers in its base colour. Masks were added ready for the green sections of the paint scheme. Card and blue tack were used on the hull and blue tack alone on the turrets. 

 

I used a tip from @Landlubber Mike and drilled a small hole in the underside of the hull to receive a cocktail stick as a handle for painting. It worked so much better than a blob of blue tack which for me had a habit of falling off during air brushing. Thanks Mike.

I forgot to photograph the application of the green paint, so we move straight onto more masking for the final colour.

The results are shown below

A gloss coat was applied and then black washes to bring up the panel lines and details of the running gear. Detail parts were painted and a buff coat was lightly air brushed, concentrating on the lower parts of the model to get a dusty effect.

Finally a dull coat was sprayed on and the small amount of rust and parking lot damage was added. No decals supplied or shown on the box art so I think this is finished

 

 

 

 

Hopefully this is not a huge fox paw but it didn't seem worth making a separate log for a related and also simple kit that followed exactly the same process. While waiting for paint to dry etc I built the First t Fight Panzer III. Again not a lot of parts - assembly took about two hours going slow. Instructions are on the bottom of the box but the box art is actually more useful. A set of (three) decals are supplied. Detail is very nice for a simple kit.

The road wheels on the tracks have sprues joining them and I nearly missed them but once found they were easy to cut away and clean up

Black primer added, grey coat and then a gloss coat. Decals applied, dust air brushed as with the Vickers and some minor wear and tear. I also drilled out the holes in the front sprocket wheel which I thought made it a bit nicer.

So now I'm thinking about the next project; something a little more substantial while I take a rest from the Flower corvette. I'm thinking of another Flyhawk model

With a wooden deck and some PE this appeals

I'm also intrigued by this interesting model and haven't tried a Roden kit yet so would welcome any thoughts.

Thanks for looking in and indulging me in these little tanks

Alan

 

Edited December 8, 2021 by king derelict
Posted before complete

[mtaylor]

Very well done.  This is tank that I never knew existed.  That's one of the great things about MSW, is learning something new.

[Landlubber Mike]

Nice work KD!  Looks fantastic!

 

I have the Lutzow in the stash too - seems like a fantastic kit.  I think the one I have has the torpedo nets, I’ll have to check.  Will be looking for your build log on it!

[Old Collingwood]

Some great stuff there Alan  - my thinking  with the dual turrets  was if  the two gunners fell out with each other they could  just turn the turrets away from each other  LOL,    no seriously   you did a nice job of it  - love the paint work.

 

And  your ship kit  - gonna look forward to that one.

 

OC.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Old Collingwood

[Baker]

Two nice models 👍
I think I've built a few Roden Kits (a long time ago) And I've got a few more on the shelf (Opel buses).

[Egilman]

11 hours ago, king derelict said:

I'm also intrigued by this interesting model and haven't tried a Roden kit yet so would welcome any thoughts.

It's a Roden kit, I think you will be impressed with it... other than that it's a pretty typical plastic kit, paint and glue and a bit of skill which you have in abundance....

 

It is of course the 1920 Pattern Rolls Royce Armoured Car, a development of the 1914 pattern car of the same name... They were used in Ireland & Iraq before WWII and in Egypt during the early part of the war... Many were shipped back to England after Dunkirk to provide some measure of local defense.... (the British army having left 99% of it's equipment behind) They would be overall British green with wide dark sand tiger stripes.... (probably better to paint the sand first then the green as thin stripes) In Home service they were British Army Green overall... Many of them survived well into the late '40's early '50's as they were a very robust platform...

[Roger Pellett]

The armored car would fit in nicely with your tanks; same scale.

[mtaylor]

21 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Some great stuff there Alan  - my thinking  with the dual turrets  was if  the two gunners fell out with each other they could  just turn the turrets away from each other  LOL,    no seriously   you did a nice job of it  - love the paint work.

 

And  your ship kit  - gonna look forward to that one.

 

OC.

On the bright side, they couldn't turn thd turrets towards each other either.  

[king derelict]

23 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Very well done.  This is tank that I never knew existed.  That's one of the great things about MSW, is learning something new.

Thank You Mark. The twin turret design was new to me. They are nice little kits - I see some more in my future, First To Fight have quite a range

Alan

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Nice work KD!  Looks fantastic!

 

I have the Lutzow in the stash too - seems like a fantastic kit.  I think the one I have has the torpedo nets, I’ll have to check.  Will be looking for your build log on it!

Thank you Mike, I enjoyed the painting a lot. The torpedo nets are the thing that has put me off the Lutzow. It looks fearsome in 1/350 so I dread what it will be like in 1/700. Maybe stow the booms and leave it at that. Its next up after the armoured car.

Alan

[king derelict]

21 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Some great stuff there Alan  - my thinking  with the dual turrets  was if  the two gunners fell out with each other they could  just turn the turrets away from each other  LOL,    no seriously   you did a nice job of it  - love the paint work.

 

And  your ship kit  - gonna look forward to that one.

 

OC.

Thank you for the very kind comments OC.  The twin turrets seem made for confusion and they went to a single turret in the later models I think. Then the crew would just have to resort to fisticuffs.

I took advantage of a sale and thought I would try some bigger stuff at some point

Your Challenger made me want to try one so I'll be going back over yout log and hoping I can do half as well. I want to try to develop my weathering techniques and I thought a Panzer IV on campaign might be a good subject

Alan

[king derelict]

12 hours ago, Egilman said:

It's a Roden kit, I think you will be impressed with it... other than that it's a pretty typical plastic kit, paint and glue and a bit of skill which you have in abundance....

 

It is of course the 1920 Pattern Rolls Royce Armoured Car, a development of the 1914 pattern car of the same name... They were used in Ireland & Iraq before WWII and in Egypt during the early part of the war... Many were shipped back to England after Dunkirk to provide some measure of local defense.... (the British army having left 99% of it's equipment behind) They would be overall British green with wide dark sand tiger stripes.... (probably better to paint the sand first then the green as thin stripes) In Home service they were British Army Green overall... Many of them survived well into the late '40's early '50's as they were a very robust platform...

Thank you Egilman for the great research - as always. Its very helpful. I'm planning to build it as a Sudan Defence Force vehicle from the 1930s. It looks like a two tone scheme.

Alan

[king derelict]

6 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

The armored car would fit in nicely with your tanks; same scale.

Thanks Roger - its now in build - then back to 1/700 world and PE. You and OC are making me jealous

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

24 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Thank you for the very kind comments OC.  The twin turrets seem made for confusion and they went to a single turret in the later models I think. Then the crew would just have to resort to fisticuffs.

I took advantage of a sale and thought I would try some bigger stuff at some point

Your Challenger made me want to try one so I'll be going back over yout log and hoping I can do half as well. I want to try to develop my weathering techniques and I thought a Panzer IV on campaign might be a good subject

Alan

Two Superb kits there Alan,  can't wait to follow you on both of those.

 

OC.

[RGL]

Nice nice nice nice, well put together and painted. Can I suggest using a filter to bring out your paintwork? 

[king derelict]

18 hours ago, RGL said:

Nice nice nice nice, well put together and painted. Can I suggest using a filter to bring out your paintwork? 

Thanks for the nice comments Gregg. Thank you also for the filter suggestion. I need to get my photography brought up a level. What type of filter would you recommend

Thanks again

Alan

[RGL]

I like these two, a blue filter (German) and a neutral grey for greys. It works quite well. 

[king derelict]

21 hours ago, RGL said:

I like these two, a blue filter (German) and a neutral grey for greys. It works quite well. 

Many Thanks Gregg

I put an order in for those two filters and a few other items from Mig and AK (no sense in wasting postage). I look forward to trying them. I have another Hunt class destroyer and another simple tank that will make good practice pieces to try them out. Not much investment in build time to get to the painting. 

Thanks again for the technique.

Have a great weekend

Alan