KG Wings - EMHAR 1:72 scale Mk.IV Male WWI Tank

Mk. IV Male
British Heavy Battle Tank

Tank Core

Tank Number 2341 "Fly-Paper"
F Battalion, Tank Corps
1917 West Flanders, Belgium
Battle of Passchendaele

This model added to kgwings.com on April 30, 2010

The world's first combat tank was developed for the British Army in August of 1916 during the first World War. In order to keep development a secret factory workers were told they were constructing tracked water containers code named "Water Tanks". Nearly a century later the "Tank" is one of the most recognizable weapons on the battlefield.

In 1917 the British Mark IV was introduced with many improvements including better armor, an external fuel tank at the rear of the hull and retractable sponsons for transport by rail. A total of 1,220 Mk. IV's were built in a combination of "Male" and "Female" versions.

The Mark IV "Male" carried three to four machine guns and two 6 pounder 23 caliber guns. Early Mk.IV's were armed with Lewis machine guns because of their 96 round drum magazine. Later models would use the Hotchkiss machine gun with a flexible 50 round strip.

The Mk. IV had a crew of eight. Four crew members were needed to controll the speed and direction of the tank: a driver/brakeman, a driver/gearbox operator, and two gearsman. The other four crew members consisted of gunners and loaders for the 6 pounders.

I chose to build tank number 2431 which was manufactured by Fosters of Lincoln and issued to F Battalion. It served as "Fly-Paper" under 2nd Lt. J. M. Oke, and then renamed Fan-Tan by the the battle of Cambrai.

Emhar did a nice job on this simple kit. Molding is crisp with little to no flash. There were no external separator marks to fill. No unditching beam or chain is included but a piece of balsa wood and a segment of necklace solved that problem.

The vinyl tracks come in four parts and fit very snug. They had no problems reacting with paint and adhesive.

This kit compares very well to photographs of the actual vehicle in both shape and size although I ended up modifying the unditching rails. The decals were nicely printed also.

I used pastels to create rust and dirt on the tracks, exhaust and chains. It's possible that the rust is overdone but without any color photographic proof it's difficult to prove.

This was my first WWI tank project and I really enjoyed it. It was veryy interesting to learn more about the origin of the tank and really appreciate how far technology has changed in the last 100 years.

I was a little nervous about the dried mud effect but I think it turned out nice. I might take it a bit further next time.

Here is the kit fully assembled without paint. I used the tip of a number 11 X-acto blade to drill out the barrel of the 6 pounder guns. Notice how nice the rivets are right out of the box.

After I had assembled the entire kit I decided to remove the anti-ditch rails and build new ones because I didn't like the way the rails sat over the rear of the roof.

I built new rails using Plastruct ABS Angle. The unditching beam was cut from balsa wood with bands made from drafting tape. I applied Mr. Surfacer to simulate mud.

The Mr. Surfacer worked fairly well although I probably will used something slightly thicker/heavier next time.

Kit: EMHAR #EM5001

Scale: 1/72

Value:

This kit can be found online for around $12.00 U.S. (at the time of writing) which is very reasonable.

Decals:

Decal options provided for 3 allied vehicles or 2 captured German vehicles. My sheet was printed in register and opaque.

Included in the Box :

Approximately 35 parts. 1 decal sheet and one 4-page instruction sheet. All plastic parts are molded in dark gray, the tracks are molded in black. One black and white instruction sheet.

After Market Parts Used: None

Assembly :

Assembly is straightforward and logical. All parts were free of flash and generally fit very well.

Detail is very good on the hull with nicely done raised rivets and shallow sunken panel lines.

Tracks are molded in a bendable material that reacted well to both glue and paint. Mine fit perfectly.

No open hatches or interior parts are included. No anti-ditch beam and no chains are included. The barrels of the Lewis machine guns have no detail at all. A box-shaped piece of framework that goes on the roof (Piece 4 in step 6) is molded so that it flares the wrong direction, careful sanding fixed this. I had trouble getting my anti-ditch rails to line up correctly so I built my own with Plastruct.

Customizations:

I used pieces of Plastruct to construct my own anti-ditch rails. A piece of balsa wood was used for the ditch beam. The beam's chain was cut from an old gold necklace my wife let me have (24k!).

Recommendation:

Due it's simplicity, overall good fit, low number of parts and reasonable price I recommend this kit for any modeler from beginner to expert.

Reference:

British Mark IV Tank By David Fletcher, Tony Bryan.

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