A34 Comet by king derelict - FINISHED - Vespid - 1/72 - PLASTIC

[king derelict]

I decided on a couple of small projects before another 1/700 ship. Here we have the Vespid 1/72 kit of the A34 Comet British tank.

i have no recollection of buying this kit and it’s my first time trying a Vespid kit, Chinese I think.

I suspect it must have been weak will and a sale somewhere.

As I understand it, the Comet was a late war production aiming to correct the faults of the Cromwell tank. Significantly upgunned, better armor and an improved drivetrain for the already reliable engine.

it entered the field in March 1945 and then served with the British and other armies well into the fifties.

Inside the box is a large amount of parts, nicely molded, a small fret of PE, a brass barrel for the main gun and a resin option for the mantlet which looks nice.

The instructions look clear although the paint schemes are hard to interpret. We’re going with brush olive drab.

I actually got the DSPIAE circle cutter working and knocked out twenty masks for the road wheels fairly quickly. The key seems to be to use the lightest possible touch with the traveling blade.

The road wheel tyres have been sprayed with Tamiya NATO Black and are ready to assemble.

 

i have question for the knowledgeable AFV people among us. Conventional wisdom seems to lean towards tank tracks being painted to show rust and a silver color where contact with the terrain has abraded the track. I recently read that tank tracks are made of manganese steel which is pale gold and does not corrode significantly. Any thoughts? Especially looking for help from @Egilman and @Baker. Thanks!

Thank you for looking in.

alan

 

 

 

 

[Baker]

Nice.

Looks much better than the Matchbox kit from a long time ago.

I don't know an immediate answer to your question, it's going to take some searching.

 

Scale 1/1, fore sale 😇

https://tracksandtrade.com/nl/kavel/1944-comet-a34-mk1-model-a-celerity

 

Edited May 5 by Baker

[Baker]

Looks like all the metals are rusting

except the tracks

"Brand new" Comets 

Halle, Germany 1947.

the shadow on the bottom right is not me 🤣

Edited May 5 by Baker

[king derelict]

11 hours ago, Baker said:

Nice.

Looks much better than the Matchbox kit from a long time ago.

I don't know an immediate answer to your question, it's going to take some searching.

 

Scale 1/1, fore sale 😇

https://tracksandtrade.com/nl/kavel/1944-comet-a34-mk1-model-a-celerity

 

Thank you very much for all the great information and photos Patrick. It’s very helpful. The Comet for sale has some excellent detail photos. And looks like a bargain to buy- maybe.

The photos seem to suggest dark brown is still a good color but not so much silver / bright steel.

I don’t think Ive ever knowingly seen manganese steel. It doesn’t feature in jet engines.

Thanks again 

Alan

[Baker]

This one is from the Parola tank museum in Finland. (great museum) Own photo, 2nd tank.

 

 

[Egilman]

Hey Brother,

 

Tank Tracks? Painting.... A long sinuous discussion track...

 

First off, what you paint them depends... Yes it depends on when in the tanks life you want to represent... A new on the ramp tank, a recently issued tank, (Baker gave you a GREAT shot of a recently issued tank, which means original manufacturers tracks) or an old road or battle worn veteran tank... They all look different..

 

A new tank on the delivery ramp? Same color as the tank with bare metal cleat bottoms....

 

A new issued tank just out on manuevers? As I said, Baker gave you an exemplar photo... Perfect, the sprocket ends show the same color as the tank, the track bodies have picked up a coating of dust and the Cleats have almost worn off the initial paint coat on their bottoms showing plain steel.... Perfect for a well maintained or newly issued tank... A note: Tank tracks wear out quickly... One of the major supply issues with tanks is not only fuel and ammo, but replacement tracks... Especially in WWII, all metal tracks were painted in their tanks base color... For a British tank would be British Army Green...

 

A battle worn tank? I would start by black basing the track overall then using dry brushing and washes bring out the rust browns and dirt browns remembering to leave patches of the green showing, for a tank that has really seen the muck then you can go the mucky dirty look with hard basing some kind of medium on the track to show the lumps then the browns and greys to represent the colors of muck...

the world of track painting is just as varied as WWII camuflage, get a few decent color pics and experiment until you gat the look you like...

 

Backer's pic of the late war newly deployed Comet is priceless in this regard...

 

Personally I would go with it....

 

EG

Edited May 5 by Egilman

[king derelict]

5 hours ago, Baker said:

This one is from the Parola tank museum in Finland. (great museum) Own photo, 2nd tank.

 

 

Thank you again Patrick, very useful. Looks like a terrific museum too

Alan

[king derelict]

3 hours ago, Egilman said:

Tank Tracks? Painting.... A long sinuous discussion track.

Thank you so much EG. That is a lot of information that you pulled together and it’s very much appreciated. The Comets had a pretty short war so I’m planning on a nearly new condition. Some wear on the cleats and some dust on the lower hull. Patrick’s photo also shows that using the resin mantlet was a good choice. It matches the real thing a lot better.

Thanks again.

alan

[king derelict]

I assembled the running gear today. No issues, everything fits nicely. Then onto the tracks. The tracks are link and length again but the individual links have more positive locating features so I’m hopeful that this will be an easier build. The instructions call for 7 links at each end of the track pieces and there are exactly 28 links in the kit. No pressure. 

ive fitted the lower sections so far and then got brave and added the first link. It fits to the adjacent track section nicely so I’m hopeful.

Thanks for looking in, the likes and the excellent input to help me out.

alan

[Old Collingwood]

Looks like an Excellent kit Alan  and those tracks  look  really nice.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

2 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Looks like an Excellent kit Alan  and those tracks  look  really nice.

 

OC.

It’s really a good kit, nice details and generally well thought out. The track links are better than the Flyhawk ones but still rather fiddle. Im finding it works better if I add a couple of links at a time and then let them dry, otherwise the slightest nudge ends up disturbing the whole section in work.

alan

[king derelict]

I’m back. Guests have departed for the traditional wet holiday weekend in Wales. So I’m picking up the Comet and moving forwards. The single links of the tracks were a bit fiddly but much better than the Flyhawk ones. It looks a lot neater too although I seemed to need less links than the instructions suggested. I used the information from @Egilman and @Baker to paint the tracks. Further reading online shows this to be a thoroughly confusing subject so I’m extremely grateful for the guidance. I painted the tracks black, followed up with British Army dark green and then dark brown. I then painted the cleats in buff to represent the abraded surfaces. A dilute black oil wash finished them for now. I think they compare pretty well with the new tanks in Patrick’s photo.

i then added the deck and turret and started building up some details. The instructions are a bit vague in places so the photos kindly provided by Patrick are extremely useful to place some of the parts. The hatches allow you to pose them open so I chose to do that although there is no detail inside and it’s too dark inside anyway 

The photo etch is very soft and easy to cut and bend but very small. 

A few bits left to do but the most intricate, the sight on the turret is complete.

Not many parts left on the sprues and then some touching up and weathering. The weathering is going to be very light. This is a post war Comet, a garrison vehicle so I plan to add some road dust and call it done.

Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments.

alan

 

 

 

 

 

 

[king derelict]

Far too many distractions but Ive been getting bits done here and there.

 last two bits of PE were a puzzle.

The instructions show P4 as mounted on the turret but not where. 

The helpful photos provided by Patrick once again came in very handy and confirmed that there is nothing similar on the real machine.

Again P9 is supposed to be situated in front of the driver’s hatch but the photos show nothing there so these pieces have been omitted.

That done the tank was ready for paint touch up and a gloss coat ready for the decals. The decals came off the backing paper nicely and laid down smoothly.

 spade was added and the towing cable. The kit supplies a length of braided wire for this but no indication of placement or length. Once again those photos …… Many thanks again @Baker

The wire looked under scale and too springy to use easily so I substituted a piece of rigging cord painted light grey (galvanized I assume) and added the kit supplied eyes to each end. This was added to the front deck and suddenly it was obvious what some of the PE bits were for.

ive used some diluted buff acrylic paint to simulate a light coat of road dust. I can’t imagine that peacetime tanks were encouraged to be scruffy.

I enjoyed building this kit and actually found it to be easier but still well detailed compared to the Flyhawk kits. I’m very tempted to try another Vespid kit but I’m trying to hold to a moratorium on buying anything else until the pile is reduced.

Many thanks for looking in, for the likes and very helpful support.

Over to the little drummer boy now I think.

alan

[Baker]

Great work  👍

[ccoyle]

Well done!

[GrandpaPhil]

Very nicely done!

[Egilman]

Very Nice....

 

Well done...

[AJohnson]

Very good Sir!  

[king derelict]

19 hours ago, Baker said:

Great work  👍

Thank you very much Patrick. The photos were lifesavers at some points in the build. They were super helpful. Instructions don’t seem to be Vespids strong point.

alan

[king derelict]

11 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Well done!

Thank you Chris.

generally it was very enjoyable 

alan

[king derelict]

7 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Very nicely done!

Thank you very much Phil.

Vespid have an interesting range of subjects so another one is tempting.

alan

[king derelict]

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

Very Nice....

 

Well done...

Thank you very much EG

Your detailed advice on track painting was extremely helpful. I learnt a lot. Manganese Steel sounds horrible to machine but I’m assuming that the sprocket wheels must be made of something similar otherwise the tracks would quickly wear the teeth off them.

alan

 

[king derelict]

4 hours ago, AJohnson said:

Very good Sir!  

Thank you very much Andrew.

It’s great to see the Gannet moving forward. That’s a terrific subject.

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

Very nicely done Alan.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Your Comet turned out nicely, Phil. The weathering suits it well.

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Very nicely done Alan.

 

OC.

Thank you very much OC. It’s a nice kit to build.

Alan

[king derelict]

10 hours ago, Canute said:

Your Comet turned out nicely, Phil. The weathering suits it well.

Thanks Ken. I think it possible to over weather tanks, especially in 1/72.

alan

[Javlin]

Alan you showed me something new today ...Comet never heard of it?The build came out really Nice with the turret having vague references to a Panzer like the design of this one.

[king derelict]

Thanks Jav, Vespid seems to make a nice AFV kit. I will confess, I hadn’t heard of the Comet until I saw the kit online. Although it saw some action at the end of the war, it wasn’t a classic WW2 tank and for some reason it wasnt used in Korea I think we had the last of the Churchills and the Centurion. Not sure why Comets didn’t go, as I understand it, they were a tank that solved most of the Churchills problems.

Alan