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Vickers Medium Tank Mk1. 1:35


Shar2

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Vickers Medium Tank Mk1
Trumpeter 1:35


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History
Despite being in general more conventional, in one aspect the Medium Mark I looked rather modern: instead of a high track run it possessed a low and flat suspension system with five bogies, each having a pair of small double wheels. The axles of these were too weakly constructed; as Major-General N.W. Duncan put it in his Medium Marks I-III: a perpetual nuisance. The axles were continually breaking and the path of the Mark I tanks was littered with discarded wheels". This was cured by switching to a "box bogie" in 1931. To ease repairs the suspension was not protected by an armoured covering. There were two vertical helical springs of unequal length in each of the five bogie casings attached to the hull. In front and behind the normal ten road wheel pairs, there was a tension wheel pair. Ground pressure was very high, even though at 11.7 tons the vehicle was not very heavy for its size.

The engine was an air-cooled 90 hp Armstrong Siddeley engine derived from an aircraft type. Surprisingly the engine and transmission was distributed throughout the hull - with the engine to the left of the driver, the gearbox underneath the commander and final drive at the rear, which Duncan describes as "an unbelievable retrograde step in view of war-time experience". The Medium Mark B and the Mark VIII had introduced compartmentalisation to reduce the debilitating effects of engine noise and fumes on the crew. However with the Medium Mark I considerations of ease of maintenance took precedence.

The engine drove, via a multiple dry-plate clutch, a four-speed gearbox. It had no synchromesh and switching between gears without excessive noise was a challenge to the driver. A propeller shaft connected the gearbox to a bevel box at the end of the tank which divided the power to a separate epicyclic gear for each track. These gears automatically provided extra emergency torsion to the normal first and second gear if the vehicle suddenly slowed down due to an obstacle or soft ground. The petrol tanks were at the very rear of the hull, so the fuel lines had to run along the whole length of the vehicle, pumping fuel to a secondary tank that fed the engine by gravity. The engine was lubricated and partially cooled by oil; leakage was common and the original four-gallon reservoir had to be replaced by a 13.5 gallon one. The tank could be electrically started, but only if the motor was already warm, so the first start had to be done by hand from the inside of the vehicle. Maximum speed was about 15 mph and the range about 120 miles.
There was a cylindrical bevelled turret on top of the hull that carried a "Quick Firing" (shell and cartridge in one complete round) three-pounder gun (47 mm calibre) and four ball mountings for Hotchkiss machine guns. A novel, unique feature was a three-man turret. This meant that commander was not distracted with performing either the loader's or gunner's tasks and could fully concentrate on maintaining situational awareness. This gave a huge potential combat advantage, but went largely unnoticed at the time. Except for the Lago prototype, a predecessor to the Stridsvagn m/42, produced by Landsverk in 1934 no other manufacturer constructed a tank with a three-man turret until the German Panzer III. The practical importance of this feature is signified by the fact that later into the World War II, most of both sides tanks' designs either quickly switched to the three-man turret, or were abandoned as obsolete.

There was no co-axial machine gun. There was only room to operate one machine gun from the turret; normally one gun was switched between the respective mountings as the guns were removable. The turret machine gunner doubled as main gun loader. In each side of the hull was a Vickers machine gun. There was one gunner to operate these weapons as well as being a mechanic.

The shape of the Mark I Medium hull was very distinctive. The back was a simple armoured box; the front plate was high and perfectly vertical. Between them, from the armoured hood of the driver at the right of the vehicle six armour plates fanned out to the left, making for a complex hull geometry at that side. In the entire tank made an ungainly squat impression. The crew of five was only poorly protected by 6.25 mm plating, riveted to the chassis, barely enough to counter the threat posed by light machine guns. With its many shot traps the vehicle was unable to withstand even anti-tank rifle fire and it had a high profile. The internal lay-out worsened this vulnerability as the petrol tanks were inside the main compartment

The Model
It’s great to see an British interwar tank being released at last, and hopefully it’ll be the first of many. The kit comes in the now standard style of top opening box, with a nice depiction of the tank trundling along a country track. Inside you get eight sprues and two separate parts in the beige styrene favoured by Hobbyboss, four sprues of brown styrene, a medium sized etched sheet and a decal sheet. All the parts are very well moulded, there is no sign of flash or other imperfections, but you do get quite a few moulding pips that’ll mean a bit more cleaning up of parts. The moulded detail is nicely done, including the fairly prominent rivets on the turret and slab sided hull. The individual track links look like they’ll cause the build to slow down quite a bit as each link has three sprue gates to clean up, as well as each of the separate track pads, which have two gates each. Care and patience will be the watchwords when assembling.




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Construction begins with the assembly of the multitude of wheels, fortunately each of the small wheels are moulded as a single piece. There are two pairs on single short struts, two on long struts and ten quad bogies, each made up of ten parts. Each wheel assembly is then fitted into the track sponsons with the suspension plates attached to the top of each strut. The idler wheel axles are then fitted to each sponson, to which the six piece idlers are attached, then sandwiched with an outer panel.

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The side mounted Vickers machine guns are now built up, and whilst they are quite well detailed, each being made up from six parts, it’s all a bit of a waste as you won’t see any of it once they are fitted. The guns are fitted into the two piece ball, which in turn sandwiched between the outer panel and in internal socket. The lower hull is fitted out with the bottom panel, two sprocket axle plates, rear mounted door and four side hatches, along with the machine gun assemblies. Each sprocket is built up from six parts before being glued into place, along with the rear door step, several grab handles, a top mounted panel and a panel above each machine gun. There are two intake vents, a large square one that fits to the front of the hull and a round one fitted just in front of the engine grille, there is also a oblong hatch fitted to the right side front hull. Two further panels are attached to the hull, one just aft of the engine deck, the other in front of the turret ring.

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The two track sponsons are now glued to each side of the hull, along with a flat plate that attaches to the front glacis plate. The modeller has the option of two different styles of return rollers to fit, some research will be required to work out which was fitted to the specific being modelled. Each roller is made up from two wheels and a separate axle, before being attached to the hull, four per side. The rear section of the drivers hatch is also fitted at this point. A tie rod is then attached across the return roller axles and the rounded sides of the drivers position are glued into position and topped off with the hatch. The tracks are now assembled, each side requiring sixty five links. The track guards are then attached to the hull, with the port side one being fitted with the two piece exhaust pipe.

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The hull is then fitted with a host of PE track guard brackets, whilst the two four piece headlights are assembled, again with the option of two different styles, and fitted to the fronts of each guard.

The upper turret comes as a single piece moulding and is fitted with two rear mounted hatches, five viewing ports, and the trunnion mount, to which the main gun barrel and underslung recouperator are fitted. The turret ring is fitted, along with the commanders and front mounted hatches. The model is finished off with the fitting of the turret and prominent headlight protectors to the hull. There is a slight disparity between the instructions and the painting guide, in that the guide shows the turret mounted Lewis gun fitted, and the gun is supplied in the kit, but there is no mention of how to fit it, even though there is a ball socket style lump on the rear of the turret roof showing its position.

Decals
Whilst the decal sheet isn’t the smallest I’ve come across, there are in fact very few decals on it. In fact one of the two options only has the front and rear number plates. The other option has these, as well as a unit and tanks codes for the turret, hull sides and rear hull, all in white, but no reference to which unit it belonged to in the notes. Both vehicles are painted in the camouflage colour of the day of Olive Drab.

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Conclusion
This will be a great addition to any AFV modellers collection, beginning to bridge the gap between the Rhomboid WW1 tanks and the more modern tanks leading up to WW11. Apart from the fiddly track links, the rest of the kit looks like it should go together without too many problems. Very highly recommended.




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Review sample courtesy of
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Great review of what looks like a very nice kit. I wonder if the vinyl tracks from Tamiya's Matilda would fit. Those indy links scare me! 😯

Regards

Steve

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Great review of what looks like a very nice kit. I wonder if the vinyl tracks from Tamiya's Matilda would fit. Those indy links scare me! 😯

I was saying that to Shar on the phone

Looking at it I think they would

D

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Great review! The tank has that 'Hayao Miyazaki design' look to it, similar to Akuyaku #1.

Great review of what looks like a very nice kit. I wonder if the vinyl tracks from Tamiya's Matilda would fit. Those indy links scare me!

I was saying that to Shar on the phone
Looking at it I think they would
D

Someone on another forum has build this tank using the vinyl tracks from Tamiya's Matilda II: http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=247366

Edited by Kuro Nezumi
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